Category: Food

I could not remember if we had ever tried salted popcorn before. Maybe we just picked the wrong flavor; everyone was just eager to see Avatar. On Valentine’s Day, we went back to the same theater and found that the only alternative was to add more salt. But this time it did not taste so strange.

Some foods are associated with special occasions, and some are associated with each other. The other day I bought some frozen fried dough sticks, which are a popular street food in China. Neighbors bring their utensils and line up for this freshly fried breakfast. The oven-cooked version was not bad, but it reminded me of the soy milk that goes best with it.

To keep those connections alive, you have to look for an array of ingredients. Not surprisingly, the most talked-about topic among Chinese students during class breaks is the food they recently received from home. There is even a chat group started by the owner of a Chinese grocery store in Linköping, who delivers a wide range of Chinese ingredients and spices every week.

Leung Man-tao once wrote that, to the surprise of many people, seafood is very carbon-intensive because the ocean and the dinner table are at least two airports away. Therefore, while it is a pleasure to receive chili powder from home, exploring new chili specialties in local markets is a more sustainable option and also a new pleasure. After all, it is impossible to copy what you have eaten in the past.

Swedes like to pick blueberries in the wild in the summer, and timing is also very important.

“Don’t they have blueberries all year round?” a classmate asked me.

“Sure, but the ones sold in supermarkets in winter are imported from Chile.”

On our last night before leaving for Sweden, we had a hot pot at the maze-like shopping mall in Tianjin, where the pork brains, tripe, and noodle show was served as usual.

Three days have passed, and I haven’t really missed the hot pot and other Chinese food. Of course, what we ate after our arrival (the hotel breakfast buffet, Vietnamese rice noodles, and IKEA meatballs) did not deviate from the eating habits we had developed over the years. But the “Japanese food” we had today made someone homesick.

We tried the bibimbap, but it’s really a salad of heated rice and salmon (or beef, if you prefer). Watching the Japanese-looking chef carefully prepare the dish, it was hard to see how it had anything to do with East Asia. On the contrary, the complimentary hot miso soup was comforting.

In fact, I think the taste of this airport fast food is quite okay, better than most so-called “light food” back home, at least is a combination of hot and cold, and not all grass or brown rice. Moderate amounts of rice, with less salty meat and vegetables, may be the inevitable trend toward balanced nutrition in Chinese food. After all, I came out with a mission to lose weight, so I was satisfied as long as the food was real, not too greasy to eat, and not all cold.