{"id":424,"date":"2013-11-17T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T08:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/?p=424"},"modified":"2013-11-14T22:09:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T06:09:34","slug":"chinese-food-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/chinese-food-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Food Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo<\/a>

photo courtesy of Wootang01<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHow do you say \u2018hi\u2019 in Chinese?\u201d I asked my husband one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cNi hao,\u201d <\/i>he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo no. Isn\u2019t there something else?\u201d I was trying to learn Chinese, and as far as I could tell, Ni hao,<\/i>\u00a0was closer to How are you? <\/i>What I was looking for was a plain simple hello<\/i>. \u201cI mean,\u201d I persisted, \u201cwhat\u2019s the common ordinary way to greet people?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHave you eaten rice?\u201d he said without missing a beat. \u201cThat\u2019s about as close to hi<\/i> as I can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

What could I say? Nothing could be more Chinese.<\/p>\n

To quote Lin Yutang<\/a>, a famous writer from my husband\u2019s home province of Fujian: \u201cIf there\u2019s anything we (Chinese) are serious about, it is neither religion nor learning, but food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Food. Eating and cooking it, shopping for the best ingredients, choosing the best restaurants and stalls. Talking about it. The Chinese absolutely love to talk about food.<\/p>\n

\"lobster<\/a>

lobster photo courtesy of Garry Knight<\/p><\/div>\n

At dinner parties and banquets, food is often the main topic of conversation. It goes something like this: The lobster is served. The diners turn the lazy Susan, choose a few choice bites for each other, pick up their chopsticks and taste the sweet white meat. \u201cMm,\u201d someone says. \u201cFresh,\u201d his neighbor adds.<\/p>\n

And then the conversation picks up steam. Everyone seems to have an opinion about a market somewhere in the world that sells the best lobsters or a restaurant across town or in Bangkok or Hong Kong that serves a particularly good lobster dish. Even as they raise bites of lobster to their lips, they smile and savor pleasant memories of lobsters past.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a Chinese foodie\u2014not even Chinese. But there are many things about the Chinese attitude toward food that I like.<\/p>\n

* Appreciation<\/b><\/p>\n

When I leave a 12-course Chinese banquet, I may be full, but I\u2019m not stuffed. A banquet is about appreciation of good food and cooking, not about gluttony. Each dish is meant to be attractive and delicious. You only need a few bites to enjoy it. Besides, any minute another dish will be coming.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Family Style\"dinner<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Everyone eats the same thing when the food is served family style. They eat jellyfish and bok choy, lotus root and bean curd.\u00a0 And they like it all. The Chinese have a widely varied diet. A good thing, I think.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Round Tables and Lazy Susans<\/b><\/p>\n

Big round tables give you a chance to talk to 10 or 12 people at once. And lazy Susans spin the food to everyone without the necessity of passing hot heavy serving dishes. The friendly round seating arrangement encourages the Chinese courtesy of serving your neighbor first\u2014picking out a choice morsel to place on his plate before dishing up your own.<\/p>\n

* Fruit for Dessert<\/b><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0651\"<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need pie or cake after a Chinese meal. Just slice up an orange or an apple and share it. The rest of the meal was so good, you\u2019re already satisfied. Even though baked goods are a weak point in the Chinese cuisine, that\u2019s probably for the best. We eat way too much sugar.<\/p>\n

* Non-allergenic<\/b><\/p>\n

In the past few years, I\u2019ve developed some food sensitivities: to eggs, dairy and wheat. In some restaurants, most items on the menu are off-limits for me, especially for breakfast. In a Chinese restaurant, from early morning to late at night. I can eat almost everything on the menu.<\/p>\n

Do you like Chinese food? What’s your favorite dish?<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n

Thank you for visiting my blog. And if you’d like notice of future posts, just click on the orange subscribe button at the top of the page.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Next week’s post: Live-in Maids<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHow do you say \u2018hi\u2019 in Chinese?\u201d I asked my husband one day. \u201cNi hao,\u201d he said. \u201cNo no. Isn\u2019t there something else?\u201d I was trying to learn Chinese, and as far as I could tell, Ni hao,\u00a0was closer to How are you? What I was looking for was a plain simple hello. \u201cI mean,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[98,927,100,103,104,102,99,101],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","tag-have-you-eaten","tag-chinese-food","tag-family-style-eating","tag-food-sensitivities","tag-fruit-for-dessert","tag-lazy-susans","tag-lin-yutang","tag-round-tablels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-6Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":947,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/china\/chinese-poetry-comes-to-dinner\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":0},"title":"Chinese Poetry Comes to Dinner","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"January 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"When we were dating, my husband cooked an eight-course meal for our friends and gave every dish a poetic name. The famous southern Chinese dish, Buddha jumps over the wall, has a story behind it.","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dating 001","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dating-001-e1385172621683.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dating-001-e1385172621683.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dating-001-e1385172621683.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/dating-001-e1385172621683.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1961,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/chinese-food\/the-bulging-fridge-of-a-famine-survivor\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":1},"title":"The Bulging Fridge of a Famine Survivor","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"July 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"China has a long history of famines, an average of almost one per year for the past two thousand years. One of the worst was the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961. It was caused by a combination of drought, poor weather conditions and the policies the government ironically called the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chinese food"","block_context":{"text":"Chinese food","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/chinese-food\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rice distribution during a Chinese family, photo courtesy of Arthur Rothstein via Wikimedia Commons","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Arthur_Rothstein_-_Rice_distribution_during_Chinese_famine_ppmsca.07586-from-wikimedia-commons.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2388,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/tiger-tail-soup\/2388\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":2},"title":"They Don’t Eat Fortune Cookies in China.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"August 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Favors for parties and weddings. At our wedding in 1967, we gave our guests fortune cookies personalized for the day. Everyone was charmed. It was a new idea back then. To place my order, I had to drive seventy-three miles to Seattle to the fortune cookie bakery and then later\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "China"","block_context":{"text":"China","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/china\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fancy Fortune Cookies, wikimedia, Howcheng","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Wedding-Fortune-Cookies.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Wedding-Fortune-Cookies.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Wedding-Fortune-Cookies.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/culture\/my-interracial-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":3},"title":"My Interracial Marriage","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"November 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Every marriage is an\u00a0intercultural marriage. Think about it: the person you marry is bound to be from a different culture than the one you grew up in. His family likes barbecues and hydroplane races; yours goes to museums and book signings. Her mother cooks dinner every night; your mom always\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Culture","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"001 (2)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/001-2-e1376429352897-987x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/001-2-e1376429352897-987x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/001-2-e1376429352897-987x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6365,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/identity-digging-deep-expanding-horizons\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":4},"title":"Identity: Digging Deep & Expanding Horizons.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"August 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Deep diving into the identity I inherited. It was a sunny afternoon. I was sitting on the grass at the University of Washington after a writing class and feeling insecure about my ability to write. What, I wondered, ever made me think I was cut out to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blogging"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/UW_Cherry_Blossoms-photo-courtesy-of-D.-Guillaime-e1501627189589.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/UW_Cherry_Blossoms-photo-courtesy-of-D.-Guillaime-e1501627189589.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/UW_Cherry_Blossoms-photo-courtesy-of-D.-Guillaime-e1501627189589.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9543,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/vanuatu\/vanuatu-vanuatu\/what-they-ate\/","url_meta":{"origin":424,"position":5},"title":"What They Ate","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"June 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"lunch at the beach When I started getting reviews and comments back from early readers of When in Vanuatu, there was one thing that surprised me--the interest some of them had in the food my characters ate. Here are some of what they said: A comment by She Just Loves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "book reviews"","block_context":{"text":"book reviews","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/scan0012-e1622064911883.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":942,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424\/revisions\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}