Author: jxy5364

Approaching the end of blogging (at least for the food one), I would love to appreciate everyone who really read and follow my blogs for the entire time. Although this is the assignment, I do value the time I spent in these blogs and they are truly amazing especially when I saw how many I wrote in the last seven months. For this last blog, I want to write about the bamboo and materials from China to end this journey.

What is the smell of bamboo shoots in the spring of South of China?

A fragrant sauce, full of oily bamboo shoots, crispy and sweet. Cooked with bacon and fresh meat, and can play the most delicious taste of itself. Or is it astringent, and it becomes the taste of bamboo shoots and ham? After eating these dishes, I feel that spring is really coming. Good spring bamboo shoots need to be selected. And the Southern part is the best place to find the bamboos.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, the bamboo shoots in Lin An were very famous. The climate here was humid and the geology was ancient. The most important, the loess coverage was quite high, which was very suitable for bamboo forest growth. According to Ai’Ge, The main features of the bamboo shoots here are: (1) It is thick and delicious, but it is delicate and scum-less. (2)Sap tender (3) The umami taste is obvious, you can give up the kind of meat.

Before and after the vernal equinox, the temperature in China rises, and the tender and thunder shoots will naturally emerge from the fertile soil. The locals call this bamboo shoot “natural bamboo shoots.” Natural bamboo shoots are wild and organic products that are crisper and tenderer. There is also a kind of bamboo shoots, which grows thickly in the bamboo forest when the climate is slightly cold.

The best natural bamboo shoots are only in the period from late March to mid-April. Because there are the most suitable temperature and humidity. The dug bamboo shooters enter the mountain in the morning, greet the first sunshine in the mountains, take the bamboo shoots and bath them in the spring breeze, then deliver them in the afternoon after a little processing. When they were fresh, they eat fresh.

Such good ingredients, of course, also need better recipes. Stew a pot of pickled fresh, spring bamboo shoots, bacon, and fresh meat aroma and essence, clear and fresh soup color, taste a spring is bright. Stir-fry a plate of oily bamboo shoots. You can smell a few bamboo shoots when you stir-fry, and finally, wrap the sauce with a bowl of white rice.

In the right time in the year, staying with the right place and people, cooking by the right method, share the right ingredients, I can’t tell what is happier than this.

At the Oscars ceremony that just ended last month, the film “Green Book” won the best supporting actor, the best original script and the best film three awards. However, on Chinese social platforms, fried chicken and Green Book are closely linked. Because “fried chicken” really deserves more attention.

Outside the film, the “fried chicken” meme was noticed by the real family of Donald Shirley’s archetypal characters. They publicly accused “this movie is full of lies, and Don must have eaten fried chicken before this, and definitely will not need a white man to marry him.”

In the movie, “Fried Chicken” is the first step for the black pianist Don and the white driver Tony to open the heart. The black pianist Don went south to tour KFC. Tony bought a barrel of KFC fried chicken and invited Don to enjoy it, but was rejected by Don. The proud Don said: “I have never eaten fried chicken in my life.”

Let’s put aside the controversy outside the movie, let’s talk about the history of fried chicken throughout the food history. In the movie, in addition to the two people eating fried chicken in the car, fried chicken also appeared in a quiet formal dinner. The host of the banquet invited Don to perform for them and was very proud to say that he respected Don very much. In order to let Don feel this indescribable “love”, the banquet master ordered a large dish of fried chicken for everyone to enjoy. It can be seen that Don’s expression is very unnatural, but he accepted it very politely. Eating fried chicken is a kind of quiet discrimination for black people.

The history of fried chicken and blacks began in the 17th century. The economic growth of the southern plantation in the United States has led to the development of the black slave trade. As a cheap labor force in the southern plantations of the United States, the life of black slaves was not treated as human. In order to demonstrate their class advantage of respecting “human rights,” white owners will be very “generous” to allow black slaves to grow fruits and vegetables from their own country (Africa), such as kale, watermelon, etc. Vegetables, as well as the only source of meat for African American people, was chickens.

This cheap meat has become an important source of income for black ransom. They can use chicken to exchange other supplies or make it into the fried chicken to sell money for redemption. Only at very special moments are they willing to eat a fried chicken. With the rise of the black slave liberation movement, fried chicken began to go to the table of black people’s daily life. For this reason, “black people eat fried chicken” became the stalk of white blacks. Even more amazing is that whites also love fried chicken, but when they eat fried chicken with hands, no one will say that they are brutal and rude.

In the movie, the contradiction between Don and Tony began to disintegrate from the fried chicken. The two people understood and supported each other. Although the race was different and the work was different, in front of the bucket of fried chicken, the two were the same; in the TV series, Fried chicken and beer on the first snowy night. In the worldwide, the fried chicken represents the different social classes or different meanings. Such as in Japan, it reprints the Christmas. In Korean, fried chicken represents the tradition and winters. In China, especially Beijing, it is the homesick of the Hutong culture. Therefore, In the face of this bucket of fried chicken, we are all the same.

Italy’s food culture is really hard to comment on. The good thing is that Italian really know how to appreciate and enjoy life, from the simple meals. They start drinking from the morning to the end of the day. Starting work in a late time with no one is on time for the schedule, and having hour works and having lunch until 2 in the afternoon. A working couple of hours then go to dinner for an enjoyable life. When they in the mood, they even head out for the club and bar at around the 12-1 at night. The bad thing is that these meals and leisure times took them so much in one day. Each of the meal could last more than two to three hours, the most insane was one day I headed back hotel around 0 am and everyone is still ordering for dinner at the outdoor tables right in front of the restaurant of Pantheon. 

The food is one of the most important in Italian culture. And wine, luxury stuff, and handmade tags, of course, are the others come later. Spaghetti can split into hundreds of types, where we call them pasta for all the time. We tasted different meats from medium rare T-bones to medium Fillet streaks. I would love to say that were the best steaks I ‘ve ever had in the lifetime and it was not that expensive at all. Of course, another thing is pizza. They would never have the pasta with a topping of Hawaii, instead of full of mozzarella and salami is the tradition of the Italian heritage. 

In the cooking class, we even made the “handmade spaghetti” which from the noodles to the meat. It was not a really appreciable process because the long time it took us two hours to make the meal. However, the results were not that bad since our cooking was not bad and everyone was starving of course. The materials were so fresh that we could not touch it in the U.S and I believe we appreciated the process of making the noodles from a roll the paste, cut it, wait for the fermentation, and roll them by hands to the shape of noodles. 

At the Spring Festival, people around China have their own ways of spending their most treasured time in a whole year. However, regretfully, I cannot make a return to China this year and get around with my whole family. So I decided to spend time visit some friends in Boston for a gathering and it was a really great time because we cooked together. 

The pictures showing below are part of the dishes I made for the home-cooking Spring Festival meal. And I would love to have a brief introduction to each of them. 

 

 

 

 

 

The first is the dumpling, of course, the symbol of Spring Festival. The interesting I want to stress here is that China has divided into two parts where are northern and southern. Actually, the traditions of eating dumplings are only for northerners because southerners eat different kinds of main dishes during this Festival. Since I was from the north, Beijing, we made dumplings for the festival.