My Favorite Lunch

If you have been following My Chinese Home Kitchen, you know that I am a culinary student chasing my dreams. I study Chinese cuisine at the New Oriental Cooking School in Hefei, Anhui Province, because I love Chinese food and it has always been my dream to be a Chinese chef. During my studies, I will share my experiences and learned recipes with you on the website, I am glad that you are willing to witness my growth, it is my honor. Thank you for your attention. I look forward to learning and sharing more knowledge of Chinese cuisine and cooking techniques with you in the days to come. Today I want to talk about my favorite lunch, and what makes it special.

Unplanned school holiday

Recently, due to some force majeure reasons from the ongoing COVID pandemic in China, the school has given students a long vacation. The students returned to their homes. My hometown is in Guangxi, which is far away, so I came to visit my friend’s family, 100km away from Hefei. I am very close to her family and this is not the first time I have been here. I stayed at her home for a month in 2021 before enrolling in school. Her family is friendly to me, and I sometimes cook food and have lunch with the family. They provided me with shelter and food, and I am grateful for them.

This time I came here again. There are two elderly people in this family: my friend’s grandparents. They live 1 km away from my friend’s apartment. They rented a room in an old residential building by themselves. Most of the time, my friend’s immediate family eats lunch at the grandparents’ apartment, because they have to go to work and don’t have enough time to go back to their own apartment to make lunch. My friend’s grandparents are over 70 years old, which means they probably have 50 years of cooking experience.

My favorite lunch: “There is someone’s taste in this dish”

Today, I walked to my friend’s grandparents’ apartment for lunch as before. The weather today is not bad, no sun and moderate temperature. When I arrived at my destination, her grandparents were cooking lunch, and they were cooking my favorite fish. I suddenly wanted to record this scene, so I took out my phone and took some pictures.

Although they don’t have a real kitchen, just a table in this shabby, cluttered environment with kitchenware and seasonings, the lunches they cook are very distinctive and delicious. The Chinese often say: “there is someone’s taste in the dish.” That is to say the taste of a dish that only a certain person can make. Like “this dish has the taste of mother,” or, “this dish has the taste of hometown.”

Americans have a similar expression: “Like mother used to make,” for food that reminds them of family gatherings or childhood and home.

The warmth of a family meal

As professional chefs, when we cook food for our customers, we want to be absolutely hygienic and clean. But in a family setting, the requirements are not so strict and the conditions not so ideal. Yet everyone will still thank the “chef” who cooks for the family.

When I cook in school, or when I do an internship in a restaurant kitchen later, I will cook in ideal conditions with strict hygiene standards. No matter what achievements I have in the future, or how many high-end dishes I can cook, or how many high-end restaurants I work in, when I come back here, to this ordinary, small county town and this small but warm family, I still like the dishes cooked by my friend’s grandparents. I will enjoy every lunch and tell them it was delicious!

I am so grateful for all the warmth and love this family has brought me. My favorite lunch remains a warm memory. On the path of chasing my dreams, they gave me a place to stop and rest.

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