Beef Noodle

This summer I was able to work on my own project, Dish, with my parents when our family met together in California at my sister’s house.

My parents were born in China but grew up in Taiwan. Therefore, their cultural background is a mix of both Taiwanese and Mainlander (this is what we’re called by Taiwanese). I grew up with the street foods of Taipei city, which due to the war, includes not only Taiwanese dishes, but also food from various regions ofChina - mantoe (a plain steamed bun) from Shangtung sold on a bicycle, tongue numbing dishes from Sichuan, subtle dishes from Shanghai, the list goes on. My sister and I asked my parents to each make two dishes. My mom made zha jiang mian and pearl meatballs, and my dad made beef noodle soup and revolution bread. 

Zhajiang mien is the dish that I mentioned in the inspiration of this project, a dish my grandma (my mom’s mom) made that my cousin misses. My mom remembers grandma making this dish, and she talks about the differences between how each region makes it differently. The other dish, pearl meatballs, was a request from my sister. It’s been awhile since my mom made it, but we always remember from when we were little, mom would bring the bamboo steamers out from the cabinets once in a blue moon and fill them with these meat balls. They’re called “pearl” meatballs because they’re covered in sweet sticky rice so that when steam, a coat of translucent rice covers the meatballs. She would only make them when they had guests over, because it was a time consuming dish.

I asked my dad to make beef soup noodle. This is a Taiwanese dish, and the way my dad makes it, the beef was always melt in your mouth. There’s a secret to it, which he reveals in the video. The other dish my sister suggested my dad to make, which I also thought about, was “revolution” bread, which I titled as flat pan bread below. My sister actually doesn’t like to eat it at all - it’s barely sweetened, super dense, with an extremely hard and thick crust. I actually really like it, it’s great to munch on. Baking doesn’t really exist inChinese cuisine, and this “bread” was no exception. This dish was “baked” in a pan on the stove top. The video also tells the origin of its curious name. 

My background is complex. My parents were born in China, but I learned about my Chinese culture and heritage while I spent ten years of my youth inTaiwan. I've spent over thirty years of my life so far in the states, yetI am clearly a foreigner. There is a saying in Chinese, "a fallen leaf will aways return to its roots", describing the idea of when someone leaves his/her home, he/she will eventually return to his/her home. Throughout my life I always felt like a leaf blowing through places, but never having a home to return to. Because of this, to me my home is who I am, including my heritage, my family history, and how my background has shaped me.Perhaps I'm more of a snail than a leaf.