Growing up in a Chinese family, I had a lot of exposure to different ingredients and food products. You might call chicken feet, tripe, and wood ear exotic, but to me it's just everyday stuff. My first revelation of just how "unusual" it may be to other people was when we had a recent company outing in Chinatown.
The 21 year old intern was experiencing Chinatown dim sum for the first time, that poor thing who has never eaten a hot dog his whole life (or had a glass of wine until two weeks ago!). Did you NOT grow up in Naperville? As the designated "tour guide", I first introduced my colleagues to a small but bustling Chinese market complete with live fish, eel, and black chickens. Kevin says to me, about the tofu: "Wowww, how do you know what all this stuff is?" Hm.
I can't even imagine what it's like to not have an inkling about diversity in foods or ethnic cultures, but there exists these types! It makes me curious to try put myself in someone else's shoes to relate better, so I'm especially looking forward to Russia. I'm excited to feel entirely out of my element – partially because it's so far and away – but also because its current political culture and social structure still shares continuity with its tsarist and Soviet past, affecting everything from the Russian cuisine to the people and lifestyle. I enjoy tasting local, authentic cuisines in each country I visit, trying to constantly push my limits about what I can learn about a culture through food.
Needless to say, back in Chinatown, Kevin nearly fainted when the Peking duck – head, neck, beak and all – was presented in front of him.
There was no disguising this as chicken!
Peking Duck in The Phoenix Restaurant in Chinatown.
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