Simple Dishes

Food not only possess soul, but also can arouse soul.

At the age of fifteen, I left my home country, travelled across the Pacific Ocean to the United States as an international student. At that time, the young, curious, and excited me was looking forward to experiencing the exotic culture and everything there. My transition to the new environment was quite smooth. I gradually adapted to, and felt comfortable in the new school, the English-speaking environment, and the people around me. However, there was one thing I could never adapt to, even to these days, and that is the food.

When in China, I, as well as many of my peers, always became so fevered when the bell marking the end of morning classes ring. We would rush to the canteen, queue up at the food counters which we like, and then, sit together to enjoy the food and brief recess between classes. To me, that was a highlight of my day. Eating what I like made me feel satisfied and pleasant. Nevertheless, while in American high school, my perception of having meals changed. Meals became much less important to me. Walk to the cafeteria, choose whatever I like, then sit with friends to have lunch and dinner seem to be a daily routine rather than something exciting as before. I ruminated, but couldn’t find the reason for my loss of passion. Certainly, it was not about the quality of the food served in the cafeteria as I genuinely liked the cheeseburger supplied every day and the lamp chop provided occasionally, and there were also some other foods that I preferred. However, a sense of incompleteness always emerges when I was eating the American food, and what exactly was lacking did not appear to be obvious.

Later, I found out the answer to the question at the night of mid-autumn festival, a traditional Chinese holiday. Since my school was located in a rural area and within walkable distance there was no Chinese restaurant, my friend Tingwei and I decided to cook ourselves a home-style dinner for celebrating the festival. To decide on what to cook was not an easy task. Neither Tingwei and I had much culinary experience. Therefore, after a round of brainstorming and process of elimination, we made a safe choice on food to be cooked, lo mein and fried egg with luncheon meat. Both are fairly easy to be prepared. The first one requires us to boil the noodles thoroughly and then mix it with moderate amount of sesame oil, soy sauce, and oyster sauce. The second dish requires us to simply cook the luncheon meat on a pan and pour egg mixture on top of it. I took responsibility for preparing the lo mein as that is a typical Cantonese breakfast dish and I had abundant experience on controlling the amount of each sauce. Tingwei, simultaneously, carefully mixed the luncheon meat with the egg on the pan.

The dinner was ready after thirty minutes of endeavor. The two dishes were extremely simple, too simple that most families in China even refuse to regard them as decorous components of a regular family meal. However, to us, eating these simplest but most authentic self-made Chinese food make us satisfied. It was indeed an unforgettable meal for Tingwei and I. The food was not complicated at all, and the quality was not superior, but it was the taste of home, which aroused our sense of belonging.