Chinese food is traditionally cooked with round bottomed cooking vessel, a wok. As a small child, I always enjoyed watching my mother cook with a silver long handed spatula with a wooden handle. The spatula against the wok made the most glorious sound, a sound that meant food was cooking and the aroma was only a few steps away. I'd look over a wooden fence-like barrier to only hear my mother say cautiously in Cantonese, "Don't come near the kitchen. You don't want a burn." By then, I had known this saying as a song but, it didn't stop me from taking tiny soundless steps towards the kitchen because everything about food seemed magical and secret. My mother once had a song, passed down from her mother, that she recited impulsively in her mind as she cooked, "Soy Sauce, corn starch, cooking oil, salt, and sugar." My mother, still till this day, cooks everything with these simple ingredients. She smiled a nostalgic smile as she said it was what gave food the flavor she came to know so well. In my continuous years of watching, I realize the way my mother approaches food derives from the wise years of cooking from her own mother. The food culture of Hong Kong is in her blood from the food utensils to the mere ingredients.
Not only has the food culture of Hong Kong sunk into my mothers bloodstream but, American food culture has taken its place in her heart and through the hands she cooks with. My mother immigrated to America in 1984 as foreign student and resided in the famous city of New York where she tasted indian , malaysian, mexican, halal food, and several other foods of unfamiliar cultures. Having settled in America for 27 years, my mother was inevitably influenced by american culture and its food ways. She incorporates american culture into the many traditional chinese dishes which in turn become chinese-american dishes. My mother has said to me or rather still says to me with a serious tone, "Eating a little bit of everything is good. Variation is good." Though she says this, she is binded to her culture and cooks, with second-nature, the way she was taught originally. Two different food cultures have overlapped in my mother life. Through time, different kinds of food become fond and develop one's approach to food. Time and place have a huge influence on ones approach to food on several terms.
Though I can stare mesmerizingly at my mothers food with a certain drool slipping out the side of of my mouth, I don't have much motivation to learn how to cook the meals she cooks routinely. However, I'm quite aware of chinese culture and its food ways. My mother buys her food at Chinatown ultimately because everything is fresh for the day. Buckets and styrofoam bins of fish and crabs mounted over ice never scared me as they probably would to tourists. "Freshness is the key to good food," my mother says. My fridge is almost always empty with a certain cooling chill because everything that is fresh, is cooked the day it is bought but, living in New York, I can't resist the temptation of convenient fast food. Though I sometimes eat unhealthily, I am health conscious and understand the importance of health. Dinner, always made by my mom, is cooked always using ginger, scallions, and garlic. I was reluctant to ask why these three ingredients were so important but my mother just simply answered, "Because they're are all healthy in foods. Garlic lowers cholesterol."
Health is a factor that will always be important to me. As much as I love greasy, crunchy, and crispy foods, I eat a balance of both unhealthy and healthy foods. My mother almost never fries anything but instead, boils or steams food until everything is cooked well. Because she was not as financially fortunate as I am now, her food choices were limited. The foods we eat are based on what we have access to and what we believe to fit our standards. These concepts change as our surroundings and the cultures we are exposed to. My concept of food is different from that of my mother because she grew up in a different time and place.
Todays Dinner: (9/27/2010)
Not only has the food culture of Hong Kong sunk into my mothers bloodstream but, American food culture has taken its place in her heart and through the hands she cooks with. My mother immigrated to America in 1984 as foreign student and resided in the famous city of New York where she tasted indian , malaysian, mexican, halal food, and several other foods of unfamiliar cultures. Having settled in America for 27 years, my mother was inevitably influenced by american culture and its food ways. She incorporates american culture into the many traditional chinese dishes which in turn become chinese-american dishes. My mother has said to me or rather still says to me with a serious tone, "Eating a little bit of everything is good. Variation is good." Though she says this, she is binded to her culture and cooks, with second-nature, the way she was taught originally. Two different food cultures have overlapped in my mother life. Through time, different kinds of food become fond and develop one's approach to food. Time and place have a huge influence on ones approach to food on several terms.
Though I can stare mesmerizingly at my mothers food with a certain drool slipping out the side of of my mouth, I don't have much motivation to learn how to cook the meals she cooks routinely. However, I'm quite aware of chinese culture and its food ways. My mother buys her food at Chinatown ultimately because everything is fresh for the day. Buckets and styrofoam bins of fish and crabs mounted over ice never scared me as they probably would to tourists. "Freshness is the key to good food," my mother says. My fridge is almost always empty with a certain cooling chill because everything that is fresh, is cooked the day it is bought but, living in New York, I can't resist the temptation of convenient fast food. Though I sometimes eat unhealthily, I am health conscious and understand the importance of health. Dinner, always made by my mom, is cooked always using ginger, scallions, and garlic. I was reluctant to ask why these three ingredients were so important but my mother just simply answered, "Because they're are all healthy in foods. Garlic lowers cholesterol."
Health is a factor that will always be important to me. As much as I love greasy, crunchy, and crispy foods, I eat a balance of both unhealthy and healthy foods. My mother almost never fries anything but instead, boils or steams food until everything is cooked well. Because she was not as financially fortunate as I am now, her food choices were limited. The foods we eat are based on what we have access to and what we believe to fit our standards. These concepts change as our surroundings and the cultures we are exposed to. My concept of food is different from that of my mother because she grew up in a different time and place.
Todays Dinner: (9/27/2010)
Almost everything below is cooked with a wok.
In this bowl, there are sticky-rice balls, sausage, asparagus, mushrooms, ginger, sliced pork, scallions, and garlic. My mother mixes chinese tradition with today's american culture of variations.
The dish above is also cooked traditionally with soy sauce, oil, ginger, and scallions.
My mother always steams the fish.
The food above was not made by my mother but instead bought, already put together, for my mother to steam. My family only eats this once in a while.
Above are boiled veggies. There's no added sauce but a mixture of oil and water.
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