The Cure for Homesickness

Unless I am in college, I am usually at home. My home is approximately twenty miles away from school, a good distance that is not too far and not too close. Despite these twenty short miles away, homesickness, nevertheless, always finds its way into my feelings, especially during times of stress, sadness—and hunger.

People say any chocolate and sweets are great at curing such feelings, but I disagree. It is kind of like saying, “Which reminds you more of your mom—a store bought Abercrombie and Fitch cardigan or the one-size-too-large sweater knit by your personal designer (your mom)?” Excuse me for using such bad analogy, but of course the latter! What is a better way to cheer a person up than to see something that reminds you of the people you love? This works the same way in food as well. Eating the foods made by the people you love is the best way to cure homesickness! So that’s how I overcome my homesickness—I eat my dad’s cooking.

It is all thanks to my laziness and minimal talent in cooking that I have the honor of eating my dad’s cooking every day. Like a large portion of college students today, I bring back my dad’s cooking from home, store it in the fridge, and microwave every time I want to eat it. In addition to the delicious taste, the different dishes that my dad cooks remind me of the stories and origins behind each dish. Some remind me of times in elementary school when I bring rice and various Chinese dishes for lunch while others are reminiscent of foods we ate in Hong Kong. This particular dish has an enlightening origin:

Beef Short Ribs

 














Ingredients

Beef Short Ribs
Garlic
Scallion
Soy sauce


Directions

1. Chop up the garlic and scallion and mix it in the soy sauce.

2. Start stir frying the short ribs until they start turning color.

3. Add in the mixture and fry until ribs turn golden brown 


This wonderful recipe came to us during a Christmas gathering at my aunt’s house. The one dish that stood out to our whole family that night was the beef short ribs. The spiciness from the garlic and the hint of sweetness and saltiness from the soy sauce made the taste heavenly. Because the dish was so great, we asked my aunt for the recipe. Funny thing was my aunt did not create this. The recipe actually came from my cousin, who obtained it from the chef at his middle school!

Every since then, we would cook this dish from time to time. And each time, my dad alters the recipe little by little to better suit our family’s taste buds. And each time I eat this, I am reminded of the origins of this recipe and the times when we sat around our long rectangular table in our small dining room fighting for the parts with more meat and sauce. Whenever these stories enter my mind, my homesickness slowly goes away and gives me more courage to venture through the rest of the week. As you can see, home-cooked food is a great cure for homesickness!

The Mouth Never Stops Eating

When I still lived in Hong Kong, I always looked forward to every minute of the day because food awaited and crossed every path I took. I remembered that before school every morning, our family would take a one hour walk in the mountains before we headed off to breakfast. Sometimes we would eat in the Cantonese fast food chain restaurant called Café de Coral, or go have congee and fried bread sticks called youtiao from the street market or grab some sticky rice and soymilk from street vendors, or order dim sum from a restaurant nearby.

After school, I was usually confronted with more food-related decisions that I needed to make. In Hong Kong, school ends earlier. We usually got off of school by lunchtime. I could still recall smelling the roasted duck and barbeque pork on my way back from school. Sometimes I would grab a lunchbox from these street vendors. The lunchbox included a choice of the roasted goods, rice, and a drink, usually soda or milk tea. This famous lunchbox is packaged in the classic white Styrofoam box and the yellow and orange floral paper cup.  

In a few hours, around 3 in the afternoon or so, it is the time for high tea, a tradition Cantonese people inherited from the English when Hong Kong was still under British rule. High tea is the meal between lunch and dinner time where people could obtain appetizer-sized lunch food items and various other snack munchies. Prices are usually lower and more specials occur during high tea so sometimes people will wait till this time to get lunch in order to save some money. Almost every restaurant has high tea. Typical high tea foods include fried chicken wings, French toast, Pineapple bun with butter sandwiched between (called this not because it is pineapple-flavored, but because the bun looks like a pineapple), Ramen with different toppings, different flavors of shaved ice, and many more. But the distinction of high tea foods is less apparent. In the past, there were only a few high tea foods, but now, with more cultural influences, everything is becoming less traditional and more foods are eaten during this time.

For dinner, my mom usually went down to the street markets and shopped for ingredients for that night’s dinner. Shopping for food in Hong Kong is very different from shopping for food in America. In America, our family always had to buy in bulk since it is not as convenient to drive to the supermarket each time we needed something. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, supermarkets and markets are usually right below the apartments or down the street, making shopping much more convenient. Ingredients sold are also fresh and not frozen.

In addition to eating at home, we sometimes would walk to restaurants nearby, which catered from Chinese foods to a wide variety of foods from a wide variety of cultures. Some are very traditional while many are more fusion cuisines. Then after dinner, sometimes people go out to places especially for desserts. In Hong Kong, there are places to eat desserts called sweet soup.

If you think that’s all the meals eaten on a typical day, then think again! The last meal of the day… or the early meal in the morning is the midnight snack meal, which can basically be everything--only that it is eaten at midnight or later!

As you can see, a typical day in Hong Kong consists of non-stop eating!