Blog Post #1 Try everthing (revised)

Well, I am not a good cook, but I’m a good gourmet, or at least a brave connoisseur of everything. Every time I go to a restaurant, I like to order the new dishes that I have never ordered before. Trying new things actually is one principle of my life.

This principle originated from my family. Compared to other families, my family's cooking style could be considered as “free style”. My mother is a talented and “creative” cook. You will never ever find food that she cooked in any recipe book. Her creations, such as potato salad with peanuts sauce and beef soy milk soup, always force me to learn how to accept the new things even when I do not want to.

On the other hand, my father is the biggest fan of my mother’s dishes and is my mother’s incentive to create more new dishes. Moreover, the addiction to my mother’s unconventional cooking also encourages my father to seek new and strange cuisine from elsewhere. In fact he has tried so many different foods that he can even write an encyclopedia of bizarre dishes. He told me to try all the “extreme” types food, such as extremely spicy, extremely juicy, or extremely bitter, because they will let me know how various our world is. Among all of his “eating legends”, the most impressive was “monkey brain”. The name itself had already freaked me out. He used to smile and ask me if I was interested in eating monkey. (Only few old Chinese eat monkeys)

“Of course not” I shook my head.
“You should try everything, and don’t mind their taste, just try!”. That is my father’s opinions about food.
“Yes, I eat everything including my mother’s ‘alien’ food,” I protested

I have tried numerous Chinese food with various cooking styles. When I was in primary school, I rarely ate any meals at home. Working hard late into the night, my parents did not have much time to cook, resulting in me often rushing to my friends’ and relatives’ houses for dinner. The benefits of living in a city was that most of my friends and relatives lived within a fifteen minute bus drive. When I recall these memories, I feel embarrassed and guilty for eating dinner consistently at other people’s homes, but it was my best alternative. Looking back, these opportunities also allowed me to try different cooking styles. I never visited a person for more than twice a week. One reason is because I felt embarrassed, but more importantly I would feel tired of the same taste. My grandparents’ were always my “last resort” because I preferred trying new dishes from other chefs.

(My family and Huanhuan's family)

However, one exception to my principle is my friend Huanhuan’s home. Sometimes I would go there more than three times a week because Huanhuan’s grandma is an innovative chef, her cooking style changing all the time. For me, she was the best cook I had ever known in the world, I believing that she was an artist in cooking. Every time when I thought about Chinese food, the first dish that would pop into my head was her red-cooked pork. It attracted me not only with its delicious red-brown color, but also the symphony of the smell of the pork mixing with bean sauce. I always stuffed the whole chunk of meat into my mouth. After biting it, my mouth would be filled with full of juice and sauce. I could devour the whole plate of pork in ten seconds. Like many traditional Chinese chefs, Huanhuan’s grandma rarely used any modern cooking tools and did not think about how much spices needed to be put in; she just grabbed any amount of salt, sugar, and pepper by hand. For her, cooking was a habit, but at the same time it was an art of creation. In her view, a good dish did not depend on a recipe, but on imagination. Try different cooking styles will create tastier dishes.

Trying dishes from different families cultivated my talent as a gourmet. Finally, I could tell the different cooking styles from different families. I could guess what kind of food they liked, even which part of China they originally came from.

（I am trying to taste the scorpion)

Two years ago, I came to the US, which has a totally different culture, especially with food. When I went to the dining hall at school, I felt like I entered heaven. There were so many different food I had never see. The first time my father called me from China, he asked if I had adapted to the food in the US. It took me more than twenty minutes to describe cereal to him.

“You are lucky. You have eaten the food I have never tried before”, he said jealously.

Although I am not as brave as my father about eating monkey, his philosophy of trying new dishes did affect me. Although I miss authentic Chinese food, a double cheeseburger can also satisfy me. However, it is easy to find restaurants of different countries in this multicultural society. When I was in high school, my weekend was all about getting off campus and trying different restaurants. Yet, reading the letters in the menu was just a pain for me, even making me feel blind, especially in Mexican restaurants, which meant that I always decided to choose something to eat randomly. I picked new dishes every time. Certainly, food was sometimes different from my expectations, yet I was enjoying the process of trying something new. During the first month in the US, I felt like I was back in my childhood. I explored new dishes and fresh flavors everyday, as if I was rushing to different houses to eat foods I would have never expected. Tasting various and unknown dishes helped me experience and understand the American culture.

Now, “try everything” is my motto, not only for eating but for my life. I appreciate this motto because it makes me never “hungry”. Moreover, trying various food gives me a chance to glimpse into different cultures of the world.

Remember to keep trying, tasting, and experiencing something new! (Try everything does not mean to try something illegal.)