Taste from My Hometown

Yafen Chen

October 8, 2019

ESL 100

Taste from My Hometown

      There is a famous saying in China that goes something like this “I raised my head and looked out on the mountain moon, I bowed my head and though of my far-off home.” In the South of China, there is a small city call Taishan. I was born there and had lived in China for nineteen years. I was used to this way of life, and suddenly moved to the United States is little strange. Moreover, I need to adapt to a new environment of the United States, and I miss the days when I lived my hometown. My hometown special food was a big part has been lost in translation since I arrived in the United States. Hand cakes, homemade pickles and moon cakes are the of my hometown. I am nostalgia for the hometown special food in China.

       When I was high school, hand cakes were my favorite food. Although there was similar hand cake in the United States, their taste and flavor are different. On the one hand, the hand cake is a wonderful thing in my high school. When I did not want to eat in the school canteen, I bought a hand cake. On the other hand, the hand cake affordable and has good taste. Moreover, its taste is very unique and delicious. It is very cheap, but it is a little expensive in the United States. The hand cake is the food I can choose for myself. There are a variety including lunch meat, egg or chicken, etc. The hand cake is a wonderful memory of my high school. But now I am living in Chicago, I miss the hand cake in my hometown.

       The second food is homemade pickles. Homemade pickles are the most distinctive thing in my hometown. Pickles are my food from childhood to adulthood. When I was in China, my mother often cooked pickles for me to eat. Every time I ate, I felt very happy and satisfied. In China, my mother and grandmother used to make their own pickles at home, and everyone make pickles at home. But now it is hand to make pickles without ingredients in the United States. Although pickles are available in the United States, they are not fresh pickles. In addition, pickles have the taste of home and mother. Pickles can be made with a variety of vegetables. The taste is delicious, and the smell is nice.

      Finally, moon cakes are essential food for our Mid-Autumn Festival is hold every year in China. Although Chinese people celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival in the United States, the atmosphere is different. Every Mid-Autumn Festival is must eat moon cakes, but the American moon cakes do not taste like Chinese. Moon cakes are a feature of my hometown, and we will have holidays on Mid-Autumn Festival. Most of the families get together to watch the moon and eat moon cakes. In addition, moon cakes are expensive in the United States. I really want to go back to China for the Mid-Autumn Festival and eat Chinese moon cakes. I miss my hometown’s moon cakes.

       There are many special and unique food about my hometown, but I really miss my hometown special foods. Hand cakes, pickles and moon cakes are the food I miss in my hometown. These foods are the best and happiest things in my memory, and I hope I can adapt to the strange environment here slowly. Everyone who leaves their original place of life and goes to another strange place will miss the past. In addition, people all must lose something they had when they move to another place. Although there are many similar Chinese foods in the United States, they taste, and feel are different. In short, I am nostalgia for the special food of my hometown.