Audio link: http://www.nonotesvoice.com/play.asp?i=1018415-82ff533a81d305f0c73e0d5d9c7fb5a0
I met Kathy Kriendler two years ago while working for her husband. Together, they own and operate a baseball goods manufacturing company. The company is ultimately her husband Marks brainchild as it is his designs and ideas that launched the business. Kathy met Mark while he was visiting China for business. Mark fell in love and soon they were married, Kathy for the first time, Mark the second. They moved to the United States where they began their life together. When I met the two, they had been married twelve years. I would help in their shop and assist in sales, seven days a week for ten weeks. Our targeted market was summer travel baseball. For kids of all ages, summer baseball is a time of travelling for tournaments to showcase your skills and hopefully be recruited to play collegiately or even professionally. The summer season is a sprint and in order to maximize profits, it is all hands-on deck. Mark typically worked from open to close while Kathy usually came for the middle portion of the day. When she was not there however, she was responsible for maintaining a lot of the accounting and entry required with running a small business. When she did come though she often brought lunch for her and Mark. Sometimes they were leftover, and sometimes they were fresh, but they were always made by her. Mark would occasionally remark that Kathy was the best cook in the world slyly to me trying not to let Kathy hear, but the twitch on her mouth deceived her. I was very interested in how noodles played into her background and if she could give me any insights into her perception of cuisine.
Kathy was born and raised in Qingdao on the eastern coast of China. Qingdao is a massive port city with the second largest harbor in China and the seventh largest in the world.[1] Due to its prime location, it became the hub for a lot of industrial and territorial expansion through the colonial ages and through World War II. Due to German occupation that lasted into the 1900s, many European influences can be seen in Qinqdao.[2] The most notable of which is the Tsingdao Brewery which creates beer reminiscent of a German lager. Qingdao is an important aspect of China’s economy and has seen lots of growth. Kathy’s father was a professor at Qingdao University and her mother was an accountant. With successful parents, Kathy was also pushed to succeed. She moved Beijing in her twenties to attend university. Afterwards, she moved to Shenzhen for work. Through hardwork, she was able to become one of the first female heads of an automotive factory.
When it comes to food, Kathy is not picky. She loves all food, but told me that she finds herself eating seafood often. Growing up in Qingdao and living in major port cities, seafood was very accessible and fresh which is how she developed her taste for seafood. When she moved to the United States, she moved to San Francisco which is another great city for seafood. Noodles were a staple in her diet. She told me that she eats noodles in at least five of the meals she eats each week. However, when I probed her about any significance that noodles may hold to her or any cultural traditions she maintains, Kathy disagreed with me. She told me that noodles cannot hold any more significance to her than bread might for an American. This was fascinating to me as this essentially went against the major principles of this class. Her perception of food was influenced by the academic environment in which she grew up in.
However, she still holds noodles and Chinese cuisine close to her. When I asked her about Chinese street food, she reminisced about Shenzhen in particular. She compared it to New York City in that lots of people from throughout China move to Shenzhen for work. Therefore, Shenzhen is an eclectic collection of cuisines from all across China. Also due to its proximity to Hong Kong, it also receives lots of international influence as well. [3] Kathy developed a wide-ranging pallet while living there. She was always accepting of American influences and did not shy away from experimenting. When Kathy cooks, she likes to change things frequently in order to avoid monotony. She finds herself cooking Chinese though because it is Mark’s favorite food. So to Kathy and Mark, noodles have brought them together. Even though they are from different cultural backgrounds, they share many commonalities. One of these is their love of Chinese food and especially noodles as they can both be seen eating noodles on their lunchbreaks at least five times a week.
The dish Kathy told me about was her own stir fry recipe. Start by heating oil in a pan then add some hot pepper. When all the juice has been removed from pepper, remove the pepper from the pan. Add ginger and garlic into the pan. Then add your meat, sliced thinly, to the pan. Once the meat is in, add soy sauce, a little sugar, cooking wine, and cooking paste. Proceed to stir fry the meat. In the meantime, bring another pot of water to boil for noodles. Once boiled, add the noodles to the stir fry pan and then add scallions. This is one of Kathy’s simpler, yet delicious meals.
[1] “Qingdao – China’s Sailing City.” That’s Qingdao. Accessed August 06, 2019. https://www.thatsqingdao.com/.
[2] “Qingdao – China’s Sailing City.” That’s Qingdao. Accessed August 06, 2019. https://www.thatsqingdao.com/.
[3] Lonely Planet. “Shenzhen Travel: Guangdong, China.” Lonely Planet. Accessed August 06, 2019. https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/guangdong/shenzhen.