Blog Post#1

Food requires teamwork. If the plate was a huge white playing field, the different ingredients need to cooperate and balance themselves to create a near-to perfect taste. This kind of collaboration is especially essential in the Malaysian Chinese dish of “chicken rice” . However, it’s not just the chicken and rice that completes the dish. The rice must be cooked with the “essentials” of the chicken (the leftover soup in which the chicken is cooked) and butter in order to bring out a sweet taste. As a complement to the rice, the chicken has to be plunged into the delightful brown “kicap” sauce. I first ate this dish during the most important stage of my high school life, and it has helped me develop into an open minded individual.

Chicken rice assisted me in making friends, during my first day of high school in Malaysia. As a new student from another country, I was nervous when it came to meeting new people. At this point, I began to understand how Nemo, a clown fish who got lost in the vast ocean, felt in the movie Finding Nemo. I was about to sit down to have lunch by myself when an Asian classmate with short spiky hair asked me whether if I wanted to join him to get some “chicken rice”. Without knowing what chicken rice was, I hesitantly agreed to get some of this unfamiliar dish. In the cramped, roadside stall, we each ordered our own plate of chicken rice. My first impression towards the dish was that it was

not appetizing. I was frightened by the unhygienic surroundings and was too disturbed that my food might have been contaminated. But, as I slowly savored the succulent flavor of the steamed chicken, my mouth started to water. I had to have more. The unclean environment did not concern me any further. I was able to focus on my scrumptious plate of chicken rice. Even though it was my first day of school and I did not know these people I was sharing the chicken rice with, it seemed they were long lost friends. Our visit to the chicken rice stall after school became a daily habit. Each trip made the bonds of our friendship stronger and as different people joined the visit, my network of friends continued to grow. Though there were some limitations to the bonds we had made through eating chicken rice, the common love of chicken rice made the fabrication of friendship a lot smoother. Even in the novel Like Water for Chocolate, Tita’s rose-petal sauce, consisting the roses given my Pedro, acts as a love potion that tightens the relationship between Tita and Pedro. Chicken rice taught me the importance of food in connecting people even those from vastly different origins. Now, when it comes to meeting up with people of different cultures, I try to connect with them through the comprehension of food.

Motivated by the exquisite taste of chicken rice, I challenged myself to delve deeper into the source of this wonderful dish: Chinese cuisine. My love for food has always been centered around Korean cuisine, but I figured that there would be more dishes as tasty as chicken rice to be discovered. It taught me that one should try before succumbing to preconceived negative impressions about unfamiliar food. Chicken rice had initiated my adventure to understand Chinese cuisine a bit better. With the abundance of Chinese restaurants in my area, my search for Chinese food was relatively easy. However, acclimatizing to the taste of Chinese food was harder. The second dish after chicken rice I have tried was shark’s fin soup. The traditional dish was served in a different environment compared to the chicken rice stall; it was in a fancy hotel restaurant. But, my high expectation of shark’s fin soup turned out to be a disappointment. The stickiness and the thickness of the soup had strayed my tasting sensory away from enjoying the consumption of this exotic dish. These characteristics, which prevented me from enjoying my

bowl of soup, were unusual qualities to a Korean’s palate. Although my first attempt to appreciate shark’s fin soup was a failure, my confrontation with the soup was inevitable as it was one of the most popular Chinese dishes. The continuous engagement with shark’s fins soup had made me realize the sticky, thick consistency of the soup made the it more special, almost unique. Gradually, my initial affection towards Chinese cuisine grew. However, my adventure did not end here, as chicken rice is a fusion of Malaysian and Chinese cuisine. I had the desire and hunger to experience more Malaysian dishes which turned out to be surprisingly appetizing. I had no problems in trying and enjoying traditional dishes such as nasi lemak, roti cainai, and mee goreng. Chicken rice had ignited my constant longing for new, different and even strange foods.

Chicken rice had an extraordinary balance of ingredients to create a taste significant enough to influence my path in life. It had smoothened the rough road which I would have taken a tough time in adjusting and fitting into the new surroundings. Through this dish, I was able to establish strong friendship bonds, which still lasts, and experience the importance of food in linking different people around the world. I have been to several places in which I saw there were a lot of people from different countries eating the same food and sharing their thoughts and feelings toward the food. Some of them do not even know each other and this shows how food acts as an effective medium of communication amongst people. In addition, I was motivated by this remarkable dish that I was willing to try new dishes from different origins. It was not just appreciation for different cultural dishes, but I was also able to enlarge my scope of cultural understanding. There is a saying, “Always try something new, and you will find surprises awaiting you.”

Explanation for Images:

Image1: Steamed chicken rice

Image2: Some close friends with me at the chicken rice stall

Image3: Shark's fin soup

Citation

Image1: ZiJun, photographer. “Hainanese Chicken Rice.” Photograph. 2007. From SingaporeFoodRecipes. http://www.singaporefoodrecipes.com/ (accessed September 1, 2009)

Image2: Own photograph of “Us waiting for Chicken Rice”

Image3: Camemberu, photographer “Shark’s Fin Soup.” Photograph. 2009. From Camemberu.com http://www.camemberu.com/2009/01/sharks-fin-soup-to-eat-or-not-to-eat.html (accessed September 3, 2009 )