Cooking Their Heritage

Although Daniel and Nathan have both gone home to their apartment in Logan, they are still on Christmas break. Nathan has culinary endeavors on his want to do list that he doesn’t have time for during school, so he and Daniel set aside today to make Chinese pretzels. Now for those of you who don’t know, this is a long, involved process. These little pieces of Chinese heaven are time consuming to create. They are also a little tricky to make if you don’t know all the best tips and tricks, so the boys have spent the past few weeks asking questions aplenty. Nathan also had a few last-minute queries, so he Facetimed me this morning as they were getting things set up. My mom provided them with a pretzel iron and my cousin Shirlene loaned them an electric skillet so armed with the appropriate tools and knowledge, they were ready to jump right in this morning. 

All their questions and prep work worked to their advantage, as they did a great job and ended up with what they thought was loads of pretzels. And technically, it really was a lot since a single batch makes about 12 dozen pretzels. But these crispy little treats are so addictive that honestly, I don’t think they will last long. Especially since they are feeding them to their friends and neighbors. I suspect they will just end up creating more Chinese pretzel junkies. 😂

I am so glad that my kids are embracing their heritage and are working to learn how to create the foods that we all love. I have realized in the past few months that my mom and I have a lot of information in our heads that will be lost if we don’t pass it on to the next generation. To that end, I’ve really been trying to add all those little tidbits to my recipes so that when my kids cook, they have the benefit of my years of experience. And I’ve been picking my mom’s brain and adding her tidbits to the knowledge base as well. Because honestly, she has a ton of information in her head that she doesn’t think about sharing unless specifically asked.

I’m just pleased as punch that my kids value their heritage and are working to preserve it. At only ¼ Chinese their blood is getting a little thin, but that doesn’t matter. Although it is funny to see people’s initial reactions when Nathan tells them he is part Chinese. 😜 

His Chinese is Showing

Nathan has been in desperate need of a vacation, so he has taken a few days off work this week for a mini “staycation.” He has been wanting to make bao for months now and since cooking is a happy thing for him, he scheduled his maiden voyage into steamed buns for today. He has been peppering me with questions for about a week, everything from ingredients to methods to measurements to equipment. He called twice today and did a FaceTime call once to check on additional details. End result? His bao turned out perfectly! They are beautiful and he assures me that they are also delicious.  He says, “Perks to knowing how to make bao: I don’t have to share with ANYONE.” 😂

I’m incredibly pleased that his heritage matters to him and that he’s taking the time to learn how to cook the food of his people. 😊 Plus, he’s right. When he makes it, he is the boss of the bao!

PAW: Chinese Cong You Bing

Although I’m half Chinese, I’m a Utah girl. My mom was born and raised in Hawaii. And there are a lot of regional foods in any country. So coming across Chinese food I’ve never eaten is not terribly difficult to do. I happened across a great Chinese food blog earlier this year and have enjoyed a number of their recipes. Today’s pancakes were one of them. Cong you bing are scallion pancakes. They are similar to a flatbread filled with green onions and cooked until crisp. They are served with a nice shoyu (soy sauce) based dipping sauce. My entire crew loved them. Nathan and Daniel grilled me about ingredients and the difficulty of creating the pancakes and decided they are an economical college/mission food option. Ingredient wise they are quite simple and while assembling them took a bit of time, it wasn’t extensive. I suspect my boys could have eaten two or three times as many as I made. I also suspect they are going to be requested again fairly soon. They were simple and delicious, a yummy addition to our dinner rotation. And I felt like I was exploring my heritage, so two birds, one stone.

Cong You Bing Rating: Six thumbs up, some double jointed, some not

 

Bao…Wow?

Nathan’s best friend likes trying new foods, which is good since he will be going to the Philippines (the home of balut-google it and gag if you don’t know what it is) on his mission this fall. Since Nathan has taken to bragging about his Chinese heritage (mostly because people look at him and don’t believe him unless he is with Daniel, me or one of his more Asian looking cousins), he wanted to give Tate (the best friend) a sample of the goodness that is Chinese home cooking. So he convinced me (and he didn’t even have to talk very hard) to make char siu bao for lunch today. We thought we’d get all fancy and try to make them the traditional pleated way. I looked up a YouTube video (it was all in Chinese but since I just needed the visual it all worked out) to figure out how it is done. The lady in the video made it look super easy, but it was not quite as simple as it appeared. We gave it our best shot and some of them turned out ok…

…some, not so much.

But they all tasted good! As far as looks go, please remember that we are all watered down Chinese born in Utah and give us a break. 😉

Insight

Kevin’s grandmother passed away last month. As his mom and her siblings begin the process of cleaning out her house, there has been talk about her grandkids wanting something to remember her by. All of this has gotten me thinking about those things I have from my paternal grandmother, the only one of my grandparents I ever knew. She passed away when I was eleven and although my siblings and I were not aware of this until we were adults (my parents were always careful to make sure we saw her at her best rather than exposing us to her less pleasant personality traits), she was definitely not happy with the fact that my dad married a Chinese women. She was born and raised in rural Utah and due to her upbringing and the general mores of the generation in which she belonged, her tendency toward racism was not a surprise (although it heartily ticked off my dad).

My grandma passed away in November and when her children were cleaning out her room at the nursing home, they discovered that she had already purchased and wrapped Christmas presents for my siblings and I. I remember opening them on Christmas and thinking about the fact that she had thought of us quite far in advance and thinking it was pretty neat. My gift was a copy of a book called “The Good Earth” by Pearl S. Buck. At the time, the book didn’t really mean anything to me other than the fact that it was the last gift my grandmother had given me. I didn’t even read the book until I was older, which was probably good because it is a pretty heavy read for an eleven-year-old. For those who don’t know, the book tells the story of a Chinese villager in the late 1800’s-early 1900’s. It won a Pulitzer Prize. And it most definitely is all about a Chinese man and his Chinese family and their Chinese culture living in China.

It wasn’t until now, nearly 35 years later, that I have had a realization. My Caucasian grandmother, who pitched a fit when my dad married my mom and proceeded to treat my mom in pretty rough ways until the end of her life, gave me a book all about China. I don’t know if she ever read the book herself, but the fact that she gave it to me seems like a sign that she had come to accept the whole interracial marriage thing. I can’t know for sure, but it seems to me that the giving of that book was a sign that she had made her peace with it all, that she was ok with us, mixed blood and all.

Funny how time, experience and perspective can teach us things when we are least expecting it. I feel like I’ve been given a little gift, a little glimpse into the mind of a woman I barely knew.