Our favourite family meal

We are very busy during the school term and there is often two or three sittings for dinner at our house. The family meal is a rare occasion, usually managed only once a week, and now seems to be lunch out on the weekend when the 5 of us are together - though even that is hard to manage as the teen is often out with their crew.

It is something I'm mindful of, and something I try to lock in at least once a week. I think it's one reason I love travelling - we get huge blocks of time together, without other friends or extended family stealing our attention away from each other. Even breakfast is a shared and lingered event. These moments are important to sibling dynamics as well as parent-child conversation.

So the current family favourite meal is not something I've made at home, which with a vegetarian and a particularly fussy eater would be hard to find a common dish marked as favourite. A meal at Din Tai Fung is the current fav, as all 5 of us like it, and there's something for everyone beyond chips...For those that don't know, it's a lauded Michelin starred (in Hong Kong, not here) Taiwanese dumpling and noodle joint, famous for it's super tasty Xiao Long Bao.

Meals are a very social event for us, and if we have a blank space in the diary, we'll organise lunch or dinner with friends. There's something so easy and satisfying about relaxing over food. However, I need to try and make sure the five of us get a few more times a tavola each week.

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.” – Epicurus

Linking with Denyse for #LifeThisWeek - as no one eats the same food, I don't have a go to meal. It has to be at least 3 go to meals....argh!