Train K578, CHINA — On a train to Changsha in Hunan region eating a peanut butter-orange marmalade sandwich on wheat, hand crafted by my husband, Peikwen, just before we parted ways this morning. I asked for something to give my stomach a break before indulging in more spiciness; apparently Hunan’s peppers are renown to be hotter than those in Sichuan. He happened to be in Chengdu these past two days for work and had a chance to join me one morning for a family visit of extraordinary recipes. Peikwen sympathized as I transferred files frantically from my laptop to his, using a 16 gigabyte disc and card reader. I shoot in RAW format and collect videos so after one year I have managed to use up all but three gigs of my hard drive. Okay, perhaps I should unload my TED Talks subscription in my iTunes folder. Unable to part with those, I hope freeing up 50 gigs on my drive will get me through the four families I have yet to visit in Hunan.
Geek speak set aside. (I wonder how Adeline will manage translating this last sentence and how I will explain it.)
I left Chengdu in a state of beautifying itself with a sense of aesthetic I prefer to Beijing’s urban landscape design.
New Lan Kwai Fong development in Chengdu
Two years after China’s Olympics, some cranes remain in Beijing but others have flocked to build other parts of China.
Scenes from my window change from mud-brick homes and golden blossoming fields to construction sites of bridges, roads, and high-rises.
My husband and I moved to Beijing to witness China’s development with our own eyes. That initial scope combined with my appetite for food and travel hit me, just now, with a warm memory.
When I was little, my dad sometimes forgot I was not yet a teenager and encouraged me to read books like Jack London‘s Martin Eden and The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck. I read them along with other adventure inspiring stories. While I may not have understood some details until later in life, like time capsuled epiphanies, I still took from those books dreams that shape my life today.
China is a new world for me as it was once for Columbus and multiple empires that followed. Unconquerable by many, I wish only to overcome any of my own misunderstandings or curiosities of this culture I have much to learn about. Presently, I am reading the accounts of one of my favorite explorers, Fuchsia Dunlop. When we first moved to Beijing, my husband bought me her cookbook, Sichuan Cookery . I didn’t know where to start. I flipped curiously through the book and made one of her noodle recipes. I remember making it with as much understanding as I had for my new home — I believe I omitted the Cǎo guǒ (草果, Chinese Cardamom) not knowing how accessible it was in a nearby market.
A year later, I knew my markets and could chat with the vendors. I made hong shao rou (紅燒肉) for my father in-law and found myself cooking more often for friends and a few cousins living in Beijing. My husband, a great supporter of my dreams and passions, bought me more cookbooks, one of which was Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. Ms Dunlop’s cookbooks have helped me improve my Chinese through food.
The next year I realized my project to learn home-style recipes from families throughout China. On one of my trips back to the states, I spotted her book Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China in the airport and bought it. Here is a western woman who immersed herself into the Chinese culture wholeheartedly, experiencing many similar challenges I’ve faced, while reflecting and speaking so eloquently about them. Her understandings and experiences give me someone to relate to; she feels the challenges yet doesn’t rage with complaints. Rather, Ms Dunlop perseveres and comes to a level of enlightened acceptance. Ms Dunlop doesn’t know it, but I’ve made her one of my mentors.
My project focus is completely different from Fuchsia Dunlop and has a dash of Julia Child finding her passion in Paris with cups of courage from my mother who left the Philippines for the states. After moving to China, I often miss my friends and I have met some great new friends here. However it is also comforting to think of explorers, authors, and mentors who inspire us from afar, as a set of [imaginary] friends who encourage us to enjoy the journey.
I felt the call of the wild from a young age and be it the stories I read or the ones from my family, I’m thankful my parents read to me and added their own chapters. I look to live a few good tales to inspire more for my own family, friends, and any curious traveler I meet along the way.
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I’m following your journey with you… just from many miles away Shanti. Your stories and blog continue to always inspire me and makes me wish I was traveling right there with you each time and enjoying those o’so delicious food you create and many interesting people you meet. Thank you for reminding me that reading to my kids and how important that is for us as we look back to our childhood.
Delighted to have found your blog now that I am spending a more time in Beijing I look forward to more exciting discoveries on the food trail with your help. I have spent much of the last few years in Nelson, New Zealand with indigenous flavours from market gardens, sun-kissed fruit, farm-fresh vegetables home made produce, great wines I went from city gal to country lass, started my veggie patch and herb garden, made jams, chutneys, pickles, picked, salted and pickled my own olives, smoked my own fish ( freshly caught by husband Tim) bought our first wild boar and with our Larousse Gastronomique in hand divvied up the boar to share with friends and even smoked my own bacon. However there was a serious lack of good Asian food so the only way to get it was to do it myself … and encouraged by Julia Child’s attempt I started working my way through ‘Singapore Food: A Treasury of More Than 200 Time-Tested Recipes by Wendy Hutton’ I did not get too far through the book as I am now in Beijing but every recipie tried was a huge success it may be a lot work to start everything from scratch but the results were well worth it!!