It wouldn’t be October without my homemade apple pie tradition, baked with apples from our local farm. I have a soft spot in my heart for this autumn dessert, as my first memory of “apple pie” was on my 3rd day in the US, introduced to me by my late Uncle Tony.

It was August of 1997 and my parents, brother, and I had been through a long and exhausting few days of traveling by air to migrate from Vietnam to the US. Once we landed in Dallas, TX to reunite with my Dad’s side of the family (a reunion that was more than 2 decades in the making), to my dismay, I learned that we were still not done with traveling. After resting for a couple of days, we would have to take another 4-hour road trip to our final destination: Tulsa, Oklahoma.

My 10-year-old self was already tired and cranky from the motion sickness and was not in the mood for a 4-hour car ride. But half way through the journey, Uncle Tony, who was driving us, made a pit stop at this iconic American restaurant with bright yellow arches towering over its roof.

After a few minutes, Uncle Tony walked out of the restaurant and pulled out from a paper bag what might have been treasured gold, from the way he was so excitedly presenting the small box to me.

“I know what will make you feel better!” - he grinned with childlike glee. “This is my favorite American dessert. It’s apple. Try it!”

It was the McDonald’s Apple Pie Bake. And the way he hyped it up, you might have thought he had purchased it from a 5-star bakery in Paris.

And he was right. I took a bite of the warm, gooey pastry and immediately fell in love. The rest of the trip was tolerable because of that little sweet apple-filled golden puff. I haven’t set foot in a McDonald’s in years, but I still remember how my tummy felt like it was given a warm embrace by that cinnamon spiced treat.

It was the most charming characteristic that I will always remember about Uncle Tony. Even though he was already a successful aerospace engineer at the Federal Aviation Administration (from his humble start as a boat refugee), he still enjoyed the small things in life with childlike wonder.

So today, as I baked my grownup version of the McDonald’s Apple Pie Bake, I still make sure to add - along with fragrant cinnamon and cardamom - a dash of childlike wonder, in memory of Uncle Tony.