Blog Post #1 Cultural Feast(revised)

(3 exchange students in the front, my Chinese friends in the back with my American host family:)

Nothing brings cultures together like food. There is usually food served at International fairs, Mission fairs, or any other activity where a culture is presented. Before coming to America, I heard things such as “All Americans wear jeans”, and “They live in big houses that are far away from downtown”. But none
of them seemed as appealing as “They eat hamburgers or pizza for every meal and they never eat rice”. What better way to introduce a person to another culture? After all, everyone needs to eat!

Leaning about another civilization is surely an enjoyable experience and no one would know that better than me, who was an exchange student in IN a year before; and my friends, Yuanqing and Jia, who are now exchange students in Indiana relishing the corn there.

This summer, I came back to my old host family which had been like a real family for me. I had some of my Chinese friends over to visit as we decided to cook a “real” Chinese meal for my family and the two new exchange students who were missing their native cuisines.

It was difficult to find the exact raw victual material for our dreamily "determined Chinese dinner". The climate, planting, and eating habits here are much different than in China, and even shopping is different here. There are many markets with very fresh comstibles in China while in America you can find everything you need in just one very large store. (And while you shop for your food, you can get your oil changed in your car!) Therefore, my friends and I went to the Asian Market and Walmart to search for the perfect ingredients.

(Going shopping with my host parents is definately fun as you can see!)

The most important item to purchase for any Asian meal is the rice which may be a little tasteless, but imperative. We could have gone for the nutritional (but gross) brown rice – we didn’t. We could have bought the rice that is white but not sticky—we didn’t. What we did get was the rice looked perfectly like white jade and is fatter than other types and much more sticky and tasty—what we were hungered for.

I decided to make a mushroom and meat as the main dish. The selection of mushrooms was very slim, so we snagged the freshest looking mushrooms that were on the shelf. We also obtained a violet eggplant, long beans, and Chinese broccoli as those healthy side dishes. I totally forgot to shop for fortune cookies. What’s a Chinese meal without ending with a fortune cookie? Actually it would be more authentic. The first fortune cookie I had ever seen was in America. We don’t have them in China!

After arriving home, my friends and I cleaned the food, cooked the rice with the rice cooker, prepared the vegetables and meat by cutting them into appropriate size of pieces. The only thing left was cooking then. Since my friend Jimmy had read many cook books while I had cooked a lot at home for my Dad and myself when my mom was at work, we were the designated chefs.

The meat was marinated in corn starch, salt and water while we fried the mushrooms. When the mushrooms were almost done, we added the meat, some salt and sugar, and fried them until they turned into the perfect color which was the secret to perfection. We made a similar dish and cooked it in the similar way with different meat and the eggplant. The long beans were my mom’s favorite. I simply put the pieces into a small amount of boiled oil in a hot pan and flipped them several times, then added garlic sauce, salt and sugar to get the perfect flavor. Chinese broccoli looks very different than American broccoli. It doesn’t have the tiny little green dots on the top, and is much more leafy. We dropped our broccoli into boiling water until the stems turned a beautiful shade of green as we immediately placed it into the refrigerator to cool and served it with Chinese soy sauce afterwards. It tasted very refreshing and a bit sweet too.

(The dish)
After all the cooking, laughing, and teasing, the dishes was on the table, we prayed as a family as everyone helped themselves to what they wanted to try. The exchange students were so glad to have a little taste of home since they were a little homesick. And my host family love most of any kind of food, so they were very pleased too.

I found it diverting that the Americans ate in such a different way than us Chinese do. They ate little rice with salt and pepper or maybe even sugar which was very strange to any Asian who eats a lot of rice with every meal with no seasoning. It was also amusing to see how “foreigners” adapt their food to their liking as I’ve noticed that food cooked in Chinese restaurants in America tastes much sweeter than any food in China. Well, I guess Americans really do have a sweet tooth.

I found it very satisfying to mix cultures using edibles as the vehicle to bring people together. Thanks to me, my host family had several sets of chop sticks which made us the Chinese people felt even more like home. Also, some of my American friends and family tried to use the chop sticks too which was really entertaining as some actually got the hang of it while some of the food actually reaches their mouths before they gave up and reached for the forks. Also, we all had a lot of fun learning to find something in the food we like: Chinese cooking, American eating, and mixed flavors. Cooking and eating any kind of food is a way people can enjoy themselves and each other.

I found it so joyful that night. Seeing their smiles, hearing their laughter and feeling the happiness in the air gave me a sense of warmth and satisfaction. Moreover, inside this house, it never felt more like a big, mixed-culture and sweet family.

That night was a feast of culture and love. (me eating Chicken hand(like HAND) in China)