Homesick

    I was born in a country with plenty of outdoor eating and food stall culture. I came to Chicago five years ago, and my tongue is still Chinese. When I first arrived in the United States, I was at the airport in Indiana. My brother-in-law and my younger sister picked me up, and on the way back to Chicago, we stopped at Mcdonald’s. That was the first hint that told me I had come to the United States. There was no more Chinese food. Since I came to Chicago, I have lived in Chinatown. I was expecting Chinese food here because the chefs at the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown are all Chinese. When I tried the food, the second hint told me that this was The United States. The Chinese food all became “American Chinese” food. Thus, now that I am here and have had to blend in with the culture and the lifestyle, I just miss the food in China.  

    The one thing I miss is that food carts in my hometown are everywhere. When I was in middle school, my mother always gave me some pocket money to help her to do chores, and I always used to buy snacks from the food carts. There were many food carts in front of my school in Guangzhou. I have only seen a few food carts in Chicago, which usually appeared at parks, museums, and sometimes near the downstairs of the downtown building. They only sell hot dogs, sandwiches, tacos, and ice cream. However, the foods were simple and were only found in popular places. In my hometown, food carts were everywhere, and they appeared in front of the school, mall, or even downstairs of my house. They sold specific food at different times. In the morning, they sold Baozi, 包子, soymilk, or Zhou, 粥. From noon until night, they sold chow main, fire rice, or soup noodles. At midnight, when many stores closed, they started setting up stalls at the roadside, and the atmosphere was as busy as the day.  

    In addition to stalls on the roadside, I also miss when my friends and I used to sit at the roadside, order some food, and chat in the late-night. In my hometown, midnight could be as lively as the day. In fact, a lot of food carts were only open at night. In Chicago, I haven’t seen food carts around midnight, but there are restaurants open until midnight in Chinatown. It was a barbeque restaurant called Laogaobbq, 老高烧烤. It was a fine restaurant, but it was expensive. Laogaobbq used charcoal to grill, so the barbeque had a woody aroma. It was a bit like the barbeque at my hometown roadside stall, but it was expensive. Even though I lived in Chinatown, I saw Chinese people and Chinese restaurants everywhere, I still miss the roadside stalls and late-night life in my hometown. 

    

    Finally, in my hometown of Guangzhou, the variety of breakfasts is also very famous. I miss my mother and my younger sister, and I went to the roadside or a restaurant for breakfast variety. The breakfast variety is also called dim sum. Dim sum is famous for thirty or forty kinds of small finger food. When I came to Chicago, my older sister took me to a restaurant that sold dim sum. I was new to the city, and I was not used to it, so I thought the dim sum there was not very fresh, nor did it have the same taste. In my hometown, dim sum was all made fresh. Even though I thought the food was not the same as in my hometown, I was surprised that the restaurant here was very busy. In short, I could find the food the same as in my hometown, but it tasted different. 

    In conclusion, at the very beginning, when I just came to Chicago, I didn’t enjoy going out to eat. This inspired me to learn how to cook, but it tasted bad. However, roadside stalls, late-night life, and breakfast variety can be found in Chicago, but it just can’t replace the food in Guangzhou. Even though I still miss the food and roadside stalls in my hometown, I am getting used to the “Chinese food” here.