Category: Interview Project

            Jean Lau is a 51 year-old native of Chengdu of Sichuan province in China. She moved to Huntsville, Alabama in 1991 to be with her husband, Daniel, a native of Hong Kong. Mrs. Lau had previously studied Chinese at the Sichuan University, but after her arrival in the United States, pursued a degree in accounting. In 1994, she moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where her husband, Daniel, had been offered a new job, and shortly after, in 1995 received her bachelor’s degree. She then went on to pursue her master’s degree in biostatistics, which she received in 2008. After a few years at home with her children, Jean took a position as a survey research analyst in the Medical Informatics division of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. She also taught Chinese part-time at the Chattanooga Chinese School for more than ten years and in the after-school program at The Bright School for two. Back in China, Jean’s mother taught Chinese to middle school students for 30 years; the combination of her mother’s example and Jean’s love for the Chinese language inspired Jean to quit her job as an analyst and instead pursue a career in teaching.

 My Interview with Jean Lau About Chinese Noodles

         Jean Lau has been the high school Chinese teacher at Baylor School, my alma mater, since 2010. I met Jean in 2012, when I entered my third year of Chinese at Baylor School. Some of my fondest high school memories involve Mrs. Lau. For four years, she acted as my Chinese teacher, advisor, and second mom. She brought in countless authentic Chinese meals and snacks, noodle dishes included. Some of the foods she introduced us to were fully prepared, while others she brought disassembled so we could prepare them ourselves. I distinctly remember the spice of dandan mian and mala xiaomian. She brought in both of the spicy noodle dishes on multiple occasions. Although dandan mian is more well known, mala xiaomian, with its deep red color and tangy fragrance, is an equally spicy Chinese dish that I could never forget. Mala xiaomian is prepared almost like a soupier version of dandan mian, decorated with fermented vegetables and hints of peanut. Another frequent dish that Mrs. Lau brought to our class was huoguo, or “hot pot”. Although huoguo is not necessarily a noodle based dish, it can be. There was nothing like the fun of cooking our own little buffet of foods when she brought the makings of huoguo. Mrs. Lau always came prepared with a number of vegetables, shrimp, pork, dry noodles, dumplings, and more. Each student could drop these ingredients into the portable hot pot, and cook in the heated broth to our liking. There were also multiple types of pillowy textured dumplings Jean so kindly brought for us to prepare with her in class. There was spicy zhong shui jiao, a dumpling variety bathed in a spicy chili sauce that she also prepared with us. We also made the simple and traditional jiaozi, meaning dumpling, that we used to sop up Jean’s homemade shoyu, as well as huntun or “wonton” which after they were boiled, we added to Mrs. Lau’s homemade veggie broth. All of these little packages, my classmates and I constructed and consumed together, as a little family. All eleven of us had seen each other and bonded over food for four (or more) years. We were a family, and Mrs. Lau, our mother, displayed her love for us in everything she did, but especially the way in which she fed us. And this is where my love for Chinese cuisine, and noodles especially, began.

         During my recent interview with Jean, I began by asking broad questions concerning the role noodles play in her family. She explained to me that although rice and noodles are equally important staple foods in Chinese culture, her family, for a number of reasons, eats noodles more often. First and foremost, her family enjoys noodle dishes more than rice. Second, she disclosed that she feels making noodles is much easier and less involved than cooking a “regular” Chinese meal. For rice based dishes, Jean states, one must prepare the rice as well as 3 or 4 other dishes to go with it. Noodles, however, leave more room for creativity; they can be as simple or complex as the creator desires. A quick noodle dish is as easy as adding premixed seasonings to plain noodles or stir frying noodles with gravy/brown sauce (da lu mian). She confessed that her go-to dish, however, is noodle soup. With from-scratch chicken or veggie broth at home, she can add noodles in a pinch. All in all, she claims that with noodles, there are so many ways to cook them so they are more fun and quite honestly, hard to ruin.

         When I inquired as to whether or not she makes her own noodles, she admitted that she rarely does. Even when she makes fresh wontons and jiaozi with her student or her family, the wrappers are typically store bought. For everyday cooking, she uses the store-bought dry noodles, as it is so time-consuming to make noodles from scratch. She only makes homemade noodles once or twice a year, and only for very special occasions. She disclosed that for her, noodles are no longer a “special food”, as she and her family eat them so often as an every-day staple. However, during holidays and special occasions, noodles do play an integral role. A prime example would be the long-life noodle, and its symbolic role when it comes to birthdays. The consumption of long life noodles, whether store-bought or homemade, is a tradition that almost every Chinese family shares. The long-life noodle symbolizes longevity, so everyone must eat noodles every year on his or her birthday, just for that symbolic meaning. 

         She also referenced jiaozi, with which I am well acquainted, as another type of noodle with symbolic meaning. When I asked her about the meaning of jiaozi, she said “offspring from noodle”. Making jiaozi means having everyone over to participate and come together over this food that you can eat together. She furthers this point by stating that she always enjoys making jiaozi at home or in the classroom with students because the activity symbolizes the importance of family and friends. People have the opportunity to chat and update each other on life. She even ends this portion of the interview by stating that making jiaozi is a fun activity and tradition that she hopes will be carried on forever and always.

         I then began to question her further in an attempt to discover the roots of her relationship with noodles. She told me that she grew up a region of southwestern China where spicy foods flourish. Furthermore, her family ate noodles, dumplings, and steamed buns more often than rice because her mother was from northern China, where noodles are more predominant. Regional effects on her mother’s upbringing, and therefore cooking, helped to shape Jean’s preference, and therefore her own cooking. Her mother worked full time as an English teacher, and yet she still had time to make dinner every day. But when she was young, she remembers that they always ate at home, for families very rarely went out and had a whole meal in a restaurant. Whether it was a daily meal or a big gathering, people always cooked and entertained their friends and family at home. In these days, however, people’s lifestyles are very different from the times when she grew up. Jean claims that even in China, you will find this less often. But despite such cultural change on a global scale, she tries her best to maintain this tradition of cooking at home.

         As she had disclosed her opinions on the fast pace of life, and its effect on meal time, I found it most fitting to inquire about her opinions on the “instant noodles”, or instant ramen. She surprisingly admitted that she does in fact eat instant noodles but knows “its chemicals are not good,” and therefore must limit herself to one instant noodle meal per week. When I asked her about her opinion concerning the health impacts of regular noodles that she uses in her cooking, she responded with a message about balance. Her general principle is no matter how healthy one food is, you have to balance the portions about that food. For example, when she makes the soup noodle, she adds plenty of vegetables and broth for balance. Little modifications, like the addition of vegetables, and an occasional swap from beef or pork to chicken or turkey, help her to keep her staple meal to the health standards she maintains for herself and her family.

         When I asked Jean whether or not she has experienced a change in her preferences or habits concerning the noodle, she said that she has, but not due to American cultural influences. Instead she cited that her hometown in Sichuan province is famous for its spicy food, so that is what she had grown to know and love. However, her husband is originally from Hong Kong, and therefore has very different preferences. Hong Kong cuisine is based on Cantonese style food that based in soup and lighter flavors. In order to accommodate both of their needs, she makes more soup noodles, to which she can add chili oil in order to make herself happy, and satisfy her own cravings of home.

         She cited dan dan mian as the food that best embodies her place of origin in southwest China. When I inquired as to why the noodle is so well liked, she stated that the most distinguished part of dandan noodles is that it is spicy and has lots of flavor, which she believes to be the reason people, even her American students, generally like it so much. She also cited dandan noodles as her favorite recipe, which she kindly offered to me.

         When I asked Mrs. Lau how important the noodle is to Chinese culture, she stated that it is not even possible to separate the two. Like rice, noodles play a very important role in the steady meals of Chinese people, herself included, now as much as ever. Noodles have clearly influenced Mrs. Lau culturally despite her relocation to the United States. The noodle is present in her daily meals, as well as her celebratory meals. Pasta, even here in the United States, is the food that serves to satify her family, as well as her cravings for home. Her culture remains embodied in the dishes she prepares, even in a pinch after a long day of working in the fast-paced American society.

         Although she is not so much influenced by changes in the Chinese society, her diet has clearly been influenced by changes that have affected cuisine on a global scale. Mrs. Lau made clear that she still values home cooking, and the noodle’s role in daily meals, but a faster pace that affects so many across the globe is evident in her descriptions of noodles as “quick” and “easy”. She has not welcomed instant noodles as a replacement to traditional cooking, but clearly the lack of time effects the ways in which she prepares meals. She also mentioned “carbs”, and avoiding red meat when discussing the noodle and its health implications. Societal changes in pace, and changes in health outlooks have affected her views on noodles from a nutritional and convenience standpoint, but not a cultural one. From this, it appears the cultural DNA of the noodle seemingly remains unchanged. She still cites that dandan mian, which she makes with turkey meat rather than the traditional ground pork, takes her back to her roots in southwest China. The noodles may be dried, and her secret indulgence may be instant ramen, but the traditional noodle still remains an integral part of her family, her culture, and her very being. All in all, the noodle, despite time or place, has not lost its place in Chinese culture for my interviewee, Jean Lau.

 

 

 

Interview Narrative

The person I chose to interview for this project was my father, Tao Xu. He was the most suitable interviewee for this project because he had lived in both China and the United States for extended periods of time, and had experience in the food cultures of both countries. He also enjoyed eating noodle dishes, and had some insights in the food cultures of China and the United States.

I first began the interview with a statement of my purpose for interviewing Tao, and asked him to give a brief self-introduction, including his name, hometown, age range and occupation. According to Tao, his hometown was in Wuhan, and he was forty-eight years old. His occupation was a physician in Wuhan. The first two questions that I asked relating to the main theme was whether if he liked noodles, and what were his favorite kinds of noodles. According to Tao, he had enjoyed eating noodle dishes ever since he was a child, and his favorite kinds of noodle dishes were hot and dry noodles, braised beef noodles and eel noodles. He also showed me a bowl of hot and dry noodles that he had just bought from the convenience store downstairs. The bowl of noodles was still warm with steam coming out of it, and it looked delicious. Interested in the bowl of hot and dry noodles, I asked him to give the audience some information about hot and dry noodles. Tao claimed that hot and dry noodles was a popular breakfast food in Wuhan. It was made by boiled noodles stirred with ingredients, such as soy sauce, sesame paste, garlic water and radish. Moreover, he claimed that every breakfast restaurant or store in Wuhan sold hot and dry noodles. Therefore, hot and dry noodles could be viewed as a representation of the food culture of Wuhan.

Besides hot and dry noodles, Tao mentioned that braised beef noodles and eel noodles were also some of his favorite noodle dishes. Therefore, I asked him if he had enjoyed eating these kinds of noodles ever since he was a child. Surprisingly, Tao said that he rarely had the opportunity to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles when he was a child. According to Tao, his family was quite poor when he was a child, similar to many other families in China at the time. His family often ate boiled noodles with vegetables or soy sauce, because beef and eel were quite expensive for them to buy. However, Tao said that even though he did not eat beef or eel noodles often when he was a child, he still enjoyed eating vegetable soup noodles. Realizing that this topic had the potential to lead to the theme of the reflection of changes in the Chinese society in his diet and in noodles, I continued this topic and asked him when he began to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles more frequently. His answer was that he began to eat these kinds of noodles more frequently in his thirties.

Naturally leading to one of the themes of this interview, I asked Tao of his thoughts on the relationship between changes in the Chinese society and noodles as well as his diet. After thinking for a brief moment, he told me his thoughts and opinions on this topic. According to Tao, when he was a child, which was in the 1970s, China was a rather poor country, and many families did not even have enough money to buy enough food to eat. In the 1990s, when he was in his twenties and started working, he often ate instant noodles, because they were cheap and convenient. At the time, instant noodles was considered to be a high-quality food, and he thought instant noodles was very delicious. However, he claimed that he didn’t like to eat instant noodles anymore now, because it was now being considered as an unhealthy food. As China’s economy grew rapidly, people were also becoming wealthier, and had more money to spend on food. As a result, noodles were also becoming more delicate and more expensive now. This answer provided me a lot of information for my theme. Tao first mentioned two changes in the noodles, which were that instant noodles were once regarded as a high-quality food, and that noodle dishes today were becoming more delicate and more expensive. He also mentioned two changes in his diet, which were that he could not afford to eat braised beef noodles and eel noodles when he was a child but he often eats them now, and that he liked to eat instant noodles when he was young, but now he doesn’t like to eat them anymore. These changes that he mentioned all provided evidence for that fact that China’s economy had grown rapidly over the last several decades, and the Chinese people are becoming wealthier and have more money to spend on food.

Moving on to the next theme of the influence of the American culture on noodle’s cultural DNA, I transitioned the topic by asking Tao if he also ate noodles regularly when he was living in the United States. Tao nodded and said that when he was living in the United States, he often bought noodles from Chinese supermarkets and cooked them at home. He also went to restaurants sometimes to eat noodle dishes. Continuing this topic, I asked him if he noticed any differences between the noodle dishes he had in China and those he had in the United States. According to Tao, the noodle dishes he ate in the United States were very different from the noodles he had in China. Tao mentioned that the noodles he had in China usually had many different ingredients, and were often quite time consuming to make. However, the noodles that he usually ate in the United States were much easier to make, like instant ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. His answer to my question provided me some information about how the American culture has manifested itself in the noodle’s cultural DNA. Fast food is an important aspect of the food culture in the United States, and this cultural had led to the prevalence of noodle dishes such as instant ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. These kinds of noodles usually use only a few ingredients, and are easy to make. However, comparing to the traditional Chinese and Italian noodles, these kinds of “American noodles” are lacking in nutrition contents, and not as beneficial to the human health as traditional Chinese or Italian noodles.

Transitioning to the third theme of how noodles have influenced Tao culturally, I asked him about his thoughts on the noodles he ate in the United States. Tao said that he did not like to eat instant noodles or macaroni and cheese, but he enjoyed some Western noodle dishes such as pasta and spaghetti. Since he grew up eating the traditional Chinese style noodles, he preferred Chinese noodles and noodles with soup base, and he would often make traditional Chinese style noodles by himself at home when he was living in the United States. Following this topic, I asked him directly how noodles had influenced him culturally. According to Tao, he thought that noodles had became one of the necessary foods for him, because he had eaten noodles for over forty years, ever since he was a child. Even when he was in the United States, he would find Chinese restaurants and order some noodle dishes to eat, and he would also buy noodles from Chinese supermarkets and cook noodle dishes by himself at home. Tao even claimed that if he did not eat noodles for a long period of time, he would feel like something was missing from his life. Whenever he ate noodles now, especially soup-based noodles, it would remind him of his childhood memories and his hometown. Therefore, from the thoughts and examples Tao gave in this answer, I came to the conclusion that noodles was becoming a culturally inseparable part of Tao, and for him, noodles would represent his childhood as well as his hometown.

Thus, I gained various insights on noodles and culture from this interview. I was impressed by the large influence that noodles had on my father culturally. I also learned that changes in the Chinese society could be reflected by the changes in noodle dishes as well as people’s diet, and that the American’s food culture has manifested itself in the noodle’s cultural DNA.

Link to the video of my interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJNA1ODHjI&feature=youtu.be

Noodle Narrative

Alex Shen

My interviewee is my neighbor’s mother, and I went to her house to conduct the interview. She is now 45 years old and is a mother of two sons. She is an accountant and cooks dinner for her family every day after she comes back from work. Because it was pretty late that night, she couldn’t show me her way of making noodles, which was a shame. 

My second question(the one after introduction) was to ask her how frequent did she eat noodles, and had that frequency changed over time. She said she used to have noodles for breakfast every morning, which is quite common among people of Suzhou. And because there are so many famous and authentic noodle restaurants in Suzhou, she used to go out for noodles every morning before work. And when I asked her did she still do that now, she said she rarely have noodles for breakfast now, and instead, she would have juice, cereal, yogurt, and fruit. She explained that it was due to the shift of her concept for healthy eating, and noodles contain too much starch which is unhealthy when exceeded a certain amount. 

I found this question interesting particularly because it shows how the concepts of eating among Chinese people are shifting from merely seeking good taste to maintaining good health, especially as the standards of living are boosting along with the growth of economy in China. It is a great example of people’s eating habit changing with the development of a country’s economy. Humans always think about fulling their stomachs before considering the quality of the food they eat. China used to be in such poverty after the Qing dynasty until recent decades, and it is no doubt that more people would join this rank and start to eat healthily than just seeking delicious food. 

I also asked her about her awareness of the difference of noodles in different regions of China, especially between the north and the south. She was well aware of the fact that noodles are much thicker and wider in the north, while southern people enjoy thinner and longer noodles immersed in good soup. She concluded that this difference was the effect of difference in characteristics between northern and southern people, which results from difference in economy, climate, history and so on. In class we talked about the southern and northern pasta of Italy, and China is just bigger, broader than Italy, with greater difference in humanities, climate, environment and so on. Even a nuance would cause great difference in eating habit, and it’s not surprise that there are so many different kinds of noodles in China.

Her younger son just had his 13th birthday last month, and when I asked her what she did for him(outside the interview), the first thing that came out was making him birthday noodles. This was also mentioned in the interview, that birthday noodles is a sign of longevity, with the noddles that’s thin and long. These noddle-related cultural aspects show that noddles is such an important part of Chinese culture that it has become an indispensable item both in material and cultural life of Chinese people. 

 There are all different kinds of noodles in different places in China, and they each represent a city: Zhajiang noodle for Beijing, Dandan noodle for Sichuan, and Hot and Dry noodle for Wuhan. Noodles become an intermediary in China, one that people use to communicate, to make friends with, and to reveal social identity with. Noddles can represent one’s hometown in China, and the most famous Chinese noodles can represent China globally. 

To conclude, noodles is an important dish to my interviewee, and she has her own opinions regarding noodles and Chinese society. I think noodles Chinese noodles, just like Italian pasta, will become more better known to the world and become an ID card for China. 

https://youtu.be/fUf2vy0X6UU

            The questions I ask Silvana are meant to be more open-ended rather than simple “yes/no” questions, so as to encourage deeper discussion. The questions go as follows—

1) Name, age, where you live, occupation?

2)  What role does the noodle play in your family? (How often do you eat noodles? In what setting? Family traditions?  Do you make your own noodles or do you buy them?)

3)  Do you have any stories or myths you recall associated with noodles? 

4)  What does the noodle mean to you?

5)  What is your favorite local noodle?  What makes it unique? How do you cook them? 

6)  Do you have a favorite noodle restaurant?  Tell me about that restaurant.

7)  Are there any cultural rituals and symbolism associated with noodles? 

8)  How do noodles and eating noodles affect your health and wellness?  Your thoughts on instant noodles?

9)  Has your habit of eating noodles changed over time? 

10)  Do you associate noodles with any kind of emotion? 

11)  Do you associate different kinds of noodles with different levels of education and class structures? 

12)  How important do you think the noodle is in defining Italian or Chinese culture? Is it possible to separate your culture from the noodle?

13)  Could you share a favorite recipe and the stories around that recipe?

 

            Recently, I have been given the opportunity to interview Signora Silvana Sulejmani, a fifty-four year old Italian immigrant. Between an ethnographic study of a restaurant and an interview, I ultimately chose to do an interview because I wanted a more personalized and in-depth look at the influence of noodles in one person’s life, this one person being Silvana Sulejmani. 

                                   Video interview can be seen here– https://youtu.be/9w0ryAZ3RIE

            Similar to the transportation of crops and foods from different countries, as is quite common with globalization, Silvana was raised in Italy and found her way over to North America. Her Italian authenticity is captured when she instinctively starts speaking in Italian at the start of the interview and accidentally mixing italian with english throughout. She was born and raised in Emilia-Romagna, home of her favorite noodle restaurant Alla Doro and what she calls “the country of field pasta,” painting a picture of farm-to-table dining with the phrase. She explained to me that Alla Doro means the Golden Wing, perhaps named this because it takes customers onto its golden wing and flies their taste buds up to heaven. Emilia-Romagna lies in the northern region of Italy and is known to be “one of the most fertile and productive regions of Italy” due to its close proximity to the Adriatic Sea (Discover-Italy). Silvana’s eyes light up as she recalls the fame of Emilia-Romagna being “the country of field pasta,” as if it is a source of pride for her to say that this, the country of field pasta, is her home. As well as this should be a source of pride for her—her homeland has been producing the same agriculture it does now since antiquity, feeding generations and generations of people and keeping people happy on full stomachs. Pasta has been an affordable food that comes in mass quantities for a long time and this affordability and quantity was part of the reason Emilia-Romagna was such a wealthy and productive hub of Italy throughout history. 

 

            Though my interview only allows an estimated eight minutes with the company of Silvana, her warm nature is still captured in this short period of time. Silvana is a talkative and very warm-natured person, making me wonder if her personality could at all be explained with Thomas Talhem’s Rice Theory, within which he finds that agriculture affects regional cultures and thus the personalities of those living in the regions. Rice farming is primarily done in northern Italy where Emilia-Romana is and, according to Talhelm, fosters a cooperative personality and Silvana was more than cooperative in our interview, answering questions I did not even ask yet, such as her belief in where noodles come from. She said that noodles come from the Middle East, but that Italians give pasta their name, being why she believes pasta cannot be separate from Italian culture as it is an essential part of the Italian culture. 

 

            The questions may be varied, but two themes appear that remain constant throughout the interview—happiness and home. As evident from the interview, only one word can capture the emotion Silvana feels when she thinks of pasta—happiness. The answer to this question of which emotion she associated with pasta required little to no thought and she even looks at peace when sounding out her answer to this, in a temporary state of bliss as if caused by memory of pasta alone.  Though preceding the interview, Silvana only mentions four things that she claims to be Italians’ favorite things, being “pasta, motorcycles, pizza, and soccer,” something else captured her and her husband’s eyes when making the monumental decision to move to America—hope and happiness. Silvana was thirty-two when she and her husband moved to America to start a family, her husband all the while carrying the idea of the American Dream in his mind. They wanted the children they brought into this world to have a good education and many opportunities available to them and felt like America possessed a very strong multicultural presence that would serve to make their children more open-minded and comfortable with people belonging to different cultures than their own, and thus more ready for the world. Though, one can only hope that this embracement of other cultures does not lead to them losing their own culture along the way. As a safeguard against losing their own culture, Silvana utilizes noodles, bringing a piece of home with her to America, similar to Ponzio Bastone declaring a chest full of maccheroni when he arrived in Genova in 1297. Perhaps if her children eat their culture in the form of pasta, as pasta is an edible cultural artifact, it will become part of them and will never leave them. 

 

            The interview reflects a gradual shift away from tradition in Italian culture. Though Silvana does not take the easy way out by buying her pasta precooked and rolls out the dough herself, she also does not let tradition keep her from making a hard job easy when it comes to making various shapes of pasta. She claims that she does not use machines for shaping tortellini, probably due to this being her favorite pasta and wanting it to taste it’s absolute best, but says she does use machines for pasta that are not similar in shape to tortellini or lasagna. The use of machines turns away from the tradition of shaping pasta by hand, without machines, as illustrated with the anger of the two nonne, Elide and Graziella, towards Franca for proposing the use of machines to help make the pasta because it is faster in “How to Make Handmade Pasta Like a Badass Italian Nonna.”    As travel becomes easier, this may parallel the shift away from tradition as Silvana did confide that she felt her eating of pasta has been affected by moving to America from Italy. 

 

            Comfort foods typically bring the image of fattening food to mind, many associating any carbs with the dietary devil. Comfort foods do not have to be unhealthy, though, and many people automatically associate pasta as a tried and true comfort food being deleterious towards one’s health. Despite popular beliefs to the contrary, Silvana believes that pasta is a healthy food–as long as it is cooked al dente, she says. This belief in pasta as a healthy and core part of one’s diet is reflected in her own diet where pasta is a staple at her kitchen table as it is at many an Italian’s kitchen table. She has pasta for every meal along with something else. 

 

                                      Works Cited 

Emilia Romagna. 2017. Italian Tourism Official Website. http://www.italia.it/en/discover-italy/emilia-romagna.html, accessed August 4, 2019.

Heath, Elizabeth. 2018. How to Make Handmade Pasta Like a Badass Italian Nonna. HuffPost. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/make-pasta-like-italian-nonnas_n_5b9bf0f8e4b013b0977a7d01, accessed August 4, 2019.

 

 

 

Final Project: Noodle Narrative

[What Noodle means to Whi Jung]

Noodle is defined as “food in the form of long, thin strips made from flour or rice, water, and often egg, cooked in boiling liquid” by Cambridge dictionary. Yet in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, it is defined as “a food paste made usually with egg and shaped typically in ribbon form”. Like so, noodle has different meanings to different people.

To Whi Jung, a 22 years old college student at University of Washington who is originally Korean but has lived in China for 8 years, noodle means “a long string of flour dough or other ingredients like rice that is usually boiled to be mixed with other ingredients to be served as a one-time meal.” When she thinks about noodle it brings her joy and happiness. It even sounded like it brings her a sense of nostalgia. She says noodles reminds her about her family and the times they used to eat noodles altogether.

Noodle to Whi isn’t just one of her favorite food, but it also something that shows her identity. More specifically, her background and her cultural identity. Her parents are Korean and so is she. Yet, because she lived in China for many parts of her life, she believes she encompasses a sense of Chinese culture within her too. She mentioned two stories that she remembers most specifically that explained how noodle revealed her culture – both Chinese and Korea.

As for the Chinese culture, she claimed that she learned most during the two years she spent with a Chinese host family. Her mother’s friend was married to a Chinese man, and she had the opportunity to live a life with them for two years. During the two years, she mentioned that “Yi mian” that is also known as the “E-fu mian” was one food that had a strong sense of Chinese culture. She said for two birthdays she “spent in China with them, [her] host mother prepared that long life noodle on my birthdays. They said in festive days they eat that “Long-life noodle.”” She claimed that it was a simple fried noodle with onion chives, but it was her favorite food. Upon further research on Yi-mian, I figured out that Yi mein “symbolize longevity and can always be found on the banquet table at Chinese celebrations.” (The Worksoflife) Here I believe Chinese societal and cultural belief of their hopes of longevity is well represented by Yi-mian noodle.

Along with her Yi-mian story, she also talked about her story related to “Janchi-gooksu” a Korean traditional noodle directly translated into the “Festive noodle.” She talked about her grandmother who always forced her to finish a bowl of Janchi Jooksu – as that would bring her luck. In fact, it is actually a Korean myth that because noodles are physically long, eating them helps people live long lives. I thought it was interesting as the Chinese Yi-mian and Korean “Janchi gooksu” both are culturally significant as they emphasize the idea of longevity and the well-lived life for people. Whi also agreed as mentioned that both noodles have cultural symbols. She believes both noodles often symbolize “long life and are thought of as lucky food that helps people be healthy and live a longer life.”

I then questioned her about how Chinese society affects noodles or the diet. I wondered if there were specific noodles designated for different class structures and I believe the class structures are divided rather clearly in China. Whi claimed that Chinese noodles aren’t divided by class structure but more by region. She mentioned the Sichuan hot noodle or Lanzhou beef noodle. This was interesting as in class we also learned that there are different types of noodles in different regions and such originated from the difference in the ingredients they can get from the region or the climate. Yet, she claimed that there are different levels of noodles – not necessarily the type of noodle, but the general kind. For example, she believes relatively lower-class people enjoy street food noodles like chow-mian. She further claimed that classy and more expensive noodles served in restaurants are usually soup-based while street food she saw was mostly fried.  I then questioned her about how societal changes in China affect noodles or if they do make changes in the first place. She claimed that she “recently visited Beijing, China again, and thought there were much less street food.” She mentioned her reminisces as her family and herself enjoyed eating street food noodles. Yet, she noticed that today, even those getting the street food mostly do take out.

When I brought the story of noodles down to a more personal level, she mentioned her very own favorite soul food noodle – Jiajiang mian. It is also known as “noodles with soybean paste”. It is originally from China but there is also a Korea styled Jia-jiang mian. When I asked her about the difference between the Korean-style and Chinese style Jiajiangmian, she claimed that the Korean style is sweet and has more sauce. While Chinese style only put a little bit of oily sauce on it and it is less sweet and saltier comparatively. Yet, she mentioned that when she visited China again last summer, she found many of the Chinese noodles had the Korean-Chinese fusion styled and so was the Jiajiangmian. She could see Korea styled Jiajiangmian in many parts of Beijing too. This she and I believe is also one societal change that happened in China as Korean culture manifested itself in the Chinese noodle’s cultural DNA.

Overall she claimed that culture and noodles are tightly related. I also agree that food isn’t just a method to gain energy and nutrition but encompasses much more. Whi mentioned that her stories regarding “Janchi-gooksu” or “yimian” also is interesting as both noodles hold Korea and Chinese, respectively, cultural identity. Whi further mentioned that her preferences for food are also highly based on her tradition and culture.

It was genuinely interesting to see what noodles mean to my friend who experienced various cultures and believes has multiple countries’ identity. Through my interview with Whi Jung, I felt that noodle isn’t just one type of food but reveals one’s sense of national tradition, family culture, or individual characteristics. Different types of noodles hold different meanings, whether it is a family story or a traditional myth. And different noodles further give different feelings to different people.

 

Reference

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/noodle)

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/noodle)

(https://thewoksoflife.com/long-life-noodles-yi-mein/)

 

Interview Video Link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3AaSmwCNgw&feature=youtu.be

 

+ Interview Questions+

1) Can you introduce yourself? Your name, age, where you live now, occupation?

2) Could you describe a little bit about your background? How long how you lived in China? How was your experience there?

3) What does noodle mean to you?

++ Definition or just personal meaning noodle has for you.

4)  Do you associate noodles with any kind of emotion?

5)  Do you have any stories or myths you recall associated with noodles?

6)  Would you say that cultural rituals or symbolism are associated with noodles?

7) In China, did you associate different kinds of noodles with different levels of education and class structures?

++ How about comparatively lower-class people?

++So there are no specific menus designated for different class people?

8) Do you maybe see any changes in noodles as the Chinese society changes?

9) What is your favorite noodle?

10) You mentioned “Korean style” Jiajiangmian. Are Korean style and Chinese styled Jiajiangmiang different? Which do you like better? Is there fusion styled Jiajiangmian in China?

11) How do you think one’s culture and noodles are associated? How are they associated specifically for you?

 

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.

For this project, we decided to interview Weijing(Vicky) Zhu, a friend of Haopeng from high school. Vicky had just finished her first year at the University of Paris as an exchange student. She is originally from Chong Qing, China and grew up in Beijing. Then she attended High school in Minnesota for four years and continued her study at New York University. During her first year in college, she joined an exchange program in Paris. While we have many friends who are very familiar with Chinese noodles, we still decided to interview her because she is not only familiar with Chinese noodles of the south and the north, but also have experienced American Chinese food in the United States for four years. Besides, she is also a great chef with extensive knowledge about different ingredients that were used to make noodles. When Vicky was in high school, she had described many times about her craving for Chong Qing spicy noodles, and Haopeng was very interested in what made this specific type of noodle so special for her. Since Keyi is currently in Chang Zhou, we decided to use Zoom to record this interview.

 

Vicky started by reflecting on her background, explaining that she was born in Chong Qing and grew up in Beijing. She was a big fan for noodles and she has tasted both northern and southern style noodles from street vendor ‘s. Her life in China, French and United States gave her a lot of experiences with food from different regions and different countries, which made her observations and comments more convincing based on the first-hand information that she gained from her living environment. I started the interview with the question, “what is your favorite type of noodle and why?” Vicky’s answered with the Chong Qing spicy noodle right away, and the reason is connected with her mom. From her answer, we can see how people tend to be attracted to food that they are familiar with at a young age, and family members are usually involved in this special connection that begins from one’s childhood. Because her mother often made spicy noodles for her when she was a kid, that exact taste left a strong impression in her mind. According to Vicky, the idea of spiciness cannot be comprehended easily if you never experienced that with your taste buds. Many residents from Chong Qing like to bring a bottle of chili peppers with them since there are no other places that are selling these types of pepper. The reason why Vicky said the red pepper tasted special is also caused by the various types of red peppers that grew in Sichuan province. There are long stem peppers that were used to make soybean sauce; short and dried red peppers were used to make stir fry dishes; wild green peppers were fermented and added a sour flavor to the dish. Different characteristics contribute greatly to the taste and smell of Sichuan cuisine (Guide to Peppers).

 

Next, we asked about what type of noodles were usually served in Beijing, where she grew up. She briefly talked about Beijing fried bean sauce noodles which are served with 7 kinds of vegetables. By eating all the vegetables with the noodles, people can maintain the balance between Yin and Yang within their body to keep them healthy, which is a reflection of Chinese culture in regards to the importance of food diversity. Later, when Vicky mentioned that she is not able to find similar noodles when she came back to the United States, but she can still go to restaurants that are run by Chinese families. It is fascinating to see how the hand-pulled noodle-making process can be recreated in Atlanta and how American culture can affect the combination of noodles. Vicky told us that there are different combinations of noodles with meat. However, traditional Lan Zhou Ramen is only paired with beef and beef-based soup boiled with a variety of herbs. Based on our personal experiences, many people from different countries have their own preferences or dietary restrictions. Indians do not eat beef, and Muslims do not eat pork. Therefore, with a mixture of different meat with noodles, it best accompanies the local residents’ needs.

 

When talking about her most memorable memory about noodles, Vicky told the story of her grandmother’s Chicken Soup Noodle. As she mentioned, there is an old saying that “When you leave, you eat dumplings; when you come back, you have noodles”(上车饺子下车面); therefore, her grandma always makes a bowl of chicken soup noodle when she returns to home. Stewing the black-bone chicken with some types of medicines, such as ginseng and medlars, makes the dish more nutritious and shows Chinese people’s belief of “food as medicine”. The homemade noodle soup actually shows the caring and love between family members. Additionally, Vicky described the scene she saw in the noodle restaurants filled with people when she was in middle school. She said the noodle itself was cheap and simple, but it provides a chance for people to feel the simple happiness by chatting with their friends or just relaxing after work. Besides, Vicky explained the changing of noodles from her grandparents’ generation to nowadays. Instead of doing each process by hands and mixing seeds or herbs to add fragrances, people tend to produce simple noodles in large quantities by machines in factories nowadays. The technological and economical changes have made the process of making and cooking noodles much more convenient to adapt to the fast pace of contemporary life, but they have made it hard to trace the most authentic Chinese noodles in our generation. However, like the story of Vicky and her grandma, the belief of old sayings, the habit of using food as medicine, and using noodles as an expression of caring and love have never changed. The social changes may change the cooking methods and tastes of noodles; nevertheless, these cultural DNAs embedded in Chinese people’s hearts would be passed on through generations.

 

To wrap up the interview, we asked about Vicky’s thoughts about the meaning of noodles to Chinese people now and throughout history. From her point of view, noodles are always a type of staple food in Chinese people’s daily life and can reflect some cultural differences in different regions. Boiled water, fresh noodles, fresh or preserved vegetables, minced or sliced meat, and seasonings, such as peppers, soy sauce or vinegar, contribute to a bowl of delicious noodle; it is quite easy to make a meal without spending much. Noodles are truly affordable to everyone, so they become one of the most common staple foods from thousands of years ago when living standards of normal civilians were not high enough. Then, Vicky used examples of Beijing fried bean noodles and Chong Qing spicy noodles, which she’s familiar with, to discuss the different dietary habits between northern and southern China. According to Vicky, the main difference is the tastes. Chong Qing spicy noodle is really spicy while Beijing fried bean noodle focuses more on the salty taste. Also, the Chong Qing spicy noodle can be eaten with or without soup, but the Beijing fried bean noodle is always made without a soup base. The different ways of cooking obviously reflect people’s long-formed food preference throughout history. Moreover, as Vicky talked about, noodles in the north are usually made with many ingredients, for example, Beijing fried bean noodle is served with 7 different kinds of vegetables; however, noodles in the south are more simply made as Chong Qing spicy noodle which is served with few vegetables but mainly peppers. Northern people tend to eat noodles with various ingredients and side dishes for lunch and dinner so as to fulfill the needs of energy for a whole day. On the contrary, southern people are more likely to consider noodles as quickly made breakfasts. We believe the reason behind this phenomenon is related to the different staple crops in the north and south. The dry climate and longer sunshine time make wheat the staple crop in the north; as a result of which, northern people obtain their main energy intake from noodles and other flour-made products. In the south, the abundant rain and humidity make rice the staple crop; therefore, southern people tend to eat noodles less and consider them as subsidies for rice. 

 

Our interview with Vicky helped us understand the noodle as an indicator of various aspects. From Vicky’s answers, we can see that noodles have changed under different cultures and social development, but the cultural meanings expressed by who make and eat noodles always remain the same. More importantly, no matter how the tastes and cooking methods change, noodles and food work together as an indispensable connector between family members and friends, different generations, and various cultures.

Interview Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i_hnxZYJHw

*The question below was lost because of the technical problem when we paused the recording during the interview:

Q: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear noodles?

A: Except for my grandma’s chicken soup noodles, I always think of the scene that the small noodle restaurants near my middle school were filled with customers during mealtimes.  I could saw people either chatting with their family or enjoying a moment of relaxing after work. The prices were not expensive and the noodle itself was quite simple, but everyone seemed fulfilled with this kind of simple happiness.

 

Work Cited:

“An Easy Guide to the Types of Peppers + How to Cook with Each.” Wide Open Eats, 10 Nov. 2017, www.wideopeneats.com/the-different-types-of-pepper-and-how-to-use-them/.

Simón A. Crespo Pérez

August 4^th, 2019

Final Project: Noodle Narrative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmZrZFGEjIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmZrZFGEjIw

In Guayaquil, Ecuador, there is a tight Italian community where everyone knows each other. When I was asking around who can I interview regarding Italian culture and cuisine as immigrants, the name of Rosa Perasso-Miraglia was repeatedly mentioned. She is the great-granddaughter of Giovanni Perasso and husband to Mario Miraglia, both Italian immigrants. She received me in the apartment she shares with her husband, we talked for a little while, and then I proceed with the interview. It was a blast!

Mrs. Perasso-Miraglia, who is now 58 years old and a real estate agent, is an excellent cook that learned the art of cooking Italian food when in college at Syracuse University she went abroad for a full year to Florence, Italy in the early 1980’s. She described how her father Carlos Perasso encouraged her to take that opportunity because they were feeling that the Italian traditions that Giovanni Perasso brought from Italy were being forgotten. She strongly believes that the reason the traditions were lost was because her great-grandfather married an Ecuadorian, not an Italian. Consequently, through the years, the Hispanic side had more force. During her time in Florence, she not only learned to master the language of her ancestors, but also all the secrets and techniques of Italian cuisine, particularly of antipasto, pasta, and dolce, from a professional cook.

In 1988, she married the love of her life Mario Miraglia. They call each other l’amore della mia vita. When she married her husband, she also married his family. Especially, her mother-in-law and the nonna of her children, Teresa Orabona, widow of Vittorio Miraglia. Teresa was her second school in Italian cuisine and a more important one since she not only taught her the secrets and techniques of it, but also the personal side of it that were the traditions around the food. The two more important traditions she recalls are the family recipes of the Miraglia-Orabona ancestors and the tavola.

Until this day, Rosa keeps the hand-written recipes in a locked drawer. Her favorite recipe is how to make the fresh pasta of gnocchi that Teresa taught her. It is special because her father-in-law, Vittorio, was allergic to potato, and gnocchi is made of potato, flour, egg, and water; consequently, Teresa had to find a way to alter the recipe without losing the flavor. So, Rosa makes gnocchi without potato, which is a family secret that she has the responsibility to protect. The next tradition was the importance of the tavola, which is the table where everything revolves around. She misses when her children were kids and the nonna would yell: “bambini a la tavola!”. In that table, they ate, laughed, argued, and even cried. Everything that families do together.

Rosa and Mario cook pasta, specifically noodles, in their own household at least once a week. They obtain the noodles from an Italian brand they buy in the grocery store, but the sauce is always made by Rosa. Her favorite sauce is pesto, which is from the Italian city of Genoa where Giovanni Perasso was born. She doesn’t associate different kinds of noodles with different socioeconomic levels, but she remarks that stuffed pasta can be more expensive than non-stuffed pasta due to ingredients, like ricotta and spinach. But, still very accessible.

Noodles, and food in general, have influenced Rosa culturally in a very particular way. Food was the means and the end in feeling like home for her. Pasta was a medium to arrive home, but also the final destination. Pasta, which includes noodles, was a mean because it was a tool to connect back with her origins. Rosa’s family was losing their touch with their Italian origins since decades had passed since Giovanni Perasso migrated, so Rosa used cooking, both in Florence and with her mother-in-law, to connect back with her origins. Through food she learned the customs of this social group that she wanted to reincorporate. In addition, food acted as an end in feeling like home. Once she learned the culture through food, she used it constantly to feel a part of it. She doesn’t have to go to Genoa to eat pesto, now she can make it to by her own. Food is a home that you can take everywhere. She says, “the noodle is a pillar of our culture”.

According to Rosa, the changes in Italian society are reflected in the noodle dishes and diets. For her, the major factor of change reflected in food creation and consumption is communication. The logic of this is that thanks to communication more and more people can be a part of something. In ancient history, each region of Italy was associated with a particular food. In the present, you can eat it anywhere. For example, the Genoa pesto sauce that she loves, can be found in Napoli too. Similarly, the brand of pasta she likes, can be found in Ecuador, Italy, and the United States. Another example of modern communication is social media, like Instagram and YouTube. Via her phone, she can be aware of new recipes and trends. In modern times, she probably would not have traveled to Italy for cooking lessons since she could do it from the comfort of her own home. She says that the Mediterranean diet can be found everywhere now. Communication is highly important in letting culture evolve and attract more people.

Rosa strongly believes that American culture has manifested itself in the noodle’s cultural DNA because for her just like China and Italy have their own versions of noodles, the United States has it too. She gives the examples of macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, and fast food pizza. Just like China started the noodle (most likely), then Italy embraced them and give noodles their own identity, now it is the turn of the United States. She believes that the American noodle identity is heavily influenced by its capitalistic culture of living fast and not wasting time cooking.

Interviewing Mrs. Rosa Perasso-Miraglia was truly an enriching experience.  This is the story of an Italian immigrant that fought to preserve her culture, and the most wonderful aspect is how food was a pillar of it. After the interview, she proceeded to cook for me the most delicious spaghetti with pesto sauce I have ever tried. To sum up, if we take time to ask questions and listen, we can find wonderful food narratives in everyone, in this case a noddle narrative of an Italian immigrant.

 

Zoe Walker

From the very beginning, this ethnographic interview has opened my eyes and deepened my understanding of the cultural and historical influence food plays in people’s lives. Starting from the first moment I entered Dr. Li’s house I began learning and witnessing her culture and customs even outside of noodles. When I first walked in, I noticed right by the door there was a row of shoes neatly lined up and it was clear I was supposed to remove my shoes as well. Dr. Li then provided me with a pair of comfortable slippers for me to put on and wear throughout the interview. This showed me that not only are Chinese traditions in connection to noodles important in her daily life but other Chinese customs as well. By participating in this act of removing my shoes I felt like I was paying respect to her culture while also getting to experience it. From then on, I was able to learn a lot about China’s history with noodles but more specifically Dr. Li’s history with noodles and how it’s similar and different to traditional Chinese practices.

Dr. Li was born in a city next to Beijing, China where she lived all throughout her school years. Since there is no undergraduate school in China, after graduating high school Dr. Li went straight into graduate school. Dr. Li attended Beijing Medical University for 5 years where she got a degree in pediatrics. She then graduated and began working in Beijing in pediatrics and research for six years. Following this, she worked in two other countries, Japan and Finland, before moving to the United States in 2005. Dr. Li now works at Emory University where she is a Physician Researcher and works in the Genetics Department as a Geneticist. Throughout all the years of living in different countries, Chinese noodles have constantly influenced Dr. Li culturally in many different ways. As a result of spending so many of her younger years in China, Dr. Li has a strong connection and nostalgia associated with Chinese dishes. During the interview, Dr. Li mentions how when she was younger certain dishes reminded her of different memories and how today she tries to bring back those memories by recreating the same dishes that she made when she was young. These specific noodle dishes have provided her with a connection to her culture and allowed her to maintain these traditions that she might have lost over time. Another way Chinese noodles have influenced Dr. Li’s culture is that she has begun a tradition of making Chinese dishes with her daughter who was raised in the United States. The Chinese noodle dishes they make together allow her daughter to experience China’s culture even though she wasn’t born and raised there. She mentioned a Chinese dish called Zha Jiang Mian that she describes as a sesame sauce. The sesame seeds are ground up to retain the oil and a sesame paste deposit which is mixed with water to create the sauce. You can then add in garlic and oil and then it is put on over the noodles. This is her daughter’s favorite dish and she mentions that whenever she makes it her daughter will join in and help create the sauce, and it is a dish that they enjoy making together. This dish is a vessel that allows Dr. Li and her daughter to connect while also providing an experience for her daughter to cook an authentic Chinese dish that is a part of both of their history and culture. During the interview, Dr. Li talked about how her culture is also influenced by the region that the noodle dishes are made in. In China, the popular dishes you consume are dependent on the province you are in, so the influences that affect your dish making can change from place to place. Dishes from other provinces such as Sichuan Dan Dan Mian noodles and Shanxi Dao Xiao Mian noodles, which are more commonly known as knife-cut noodles, have both been incorporated in the list of noodle dishes that Dr. Li enjoys. As a result of Dr. Li traveling from region to region and immersing in the culture of that specific region, the variety of dishes she encounters adds another layer to her culture and history.

While we mentioned many delicious dishes that have all influenced Dr. Li’s history, her favorite dish and the one we made together is Zha Jiang Mian. This name has different connotations such as “noodles with soybean paste” or “fried sauce”. These meanings come from the incorporation of soybean paste in the sauce which is then stir-fried with pork, eggs and other ingredients. Dr. Li mentions that this dish originated in the Shandong province and there is an ancient fable of how it migrated to Beijing. When an empress tried this dish after a long days travel and loved it, she decided to take this dish with her to the forbidden city in Beijing where it was tried and loved by all the emperors and empresses. It was then incorporated in the Beijing region and has become a popular dish ever since. There is also a cultural tradition associated with this noodle that Dr. Li partakes in. This dish is eaten for three reasons: three days after a person is born, three days after they pass and every year in between on their birthday to increase the longevity of their life. Since it was my sister’s birthday on the day of this interview, it was perfectly fitting for us to create this dish. Regarding the ingredients, wheat production is very common in northern China and as a result of this regional influence, Zha Jiang Mian noodles are made with wheat flour. While this component has been kept consistent, Over time the changes in China’s society has influenced other factors in the making of this noodle dish. Dr. Li mentioned while we were cooking that even though it was originally common to make the dough with just flour and water, over time there has been an incorporation of adding in a milk and egg mixture to incorporate more nutrition into the noodles. In the earlier centuries of China when there were more poor and rural communities it was common to use water to make the flour as it was cheaper. As China has grown and prospered over time, the incorporation of ingredients that are considered more expensive such as milk and eggs can be added to the dish to obtain a higher nutritional value. Another change that Dr. Li has incorporated into this dish and her diet is the use of lean pork when cooking the Zha Jiang Mian. In China, it is traditional to use fatty pork but as information has come out on the importance of a healthy diet, Chinese societies have adapted to incorporate healthier options.

During the interview, Dr. Li also talks about how American culture has influenced the dishes she eats and makes today.  Dr. Li mentions that when she came to America many of the Chinese dishes she encountered were Chow Mein or Lo Mein which, while they are common here in America, they are not as common in China. She mentions that when you do see it in China it is usually not homemade because it is not a traditional Chinese dish. As a result, this was a cultural change that she had to adapt to especially if she would go to a Chinese restaurant instead of cooking at home. Another way that American culture has manifested itself in the noodle dishes Dr. Li makes is in the vegetables she uses in her dishes. During the interview, Dr. Li mentions that her daughter grew up eating the vegetables common in American and when she found vegetables at the Chinese market that you wouldn’t normally find in a regular grocery store, her daughter never fully adapted to the taste. As a result, Dr. Li has incorporated various American vegetables into her Chinese dishes instead of Chinese vegetables. One example is in the Zha Jiang Mien noodles. While she still included beansprouts, cucumbers and carrots, Dr. Li incorporated asparagus which is not a common vegetable used in Zha Jiang Mian. She also did not incorporate Chinese cabbage and radishes which is common in a traditional Chinese rendition of this dish. American influence has also become a part of the cultural DNA of the noodles Dr. Li consumes by the incorporation of instant noodles in some of her dishes. In Chinese culture, it is a tradition to make homemade noodles due to its authenticity and freshness, two key factors when making traditional Chinese noodles. This is also the form of noodles that Dr. Li prefers, but over time, living in the United States, Dr. Li has incorporated American adaptations of noodles such as dry and instant noodles. While not as often eat at home, these forms of noodles have become another part of Dr. Li’s cultural history with noodles.

Overall, through both anthropological methods of interview and participant-observation, I was able to learn and increase my knowledge on the cultural impacts noodles have had on Dr. Li’s life. Through this experience, I have gained insight into parts of the Chinese culture that I could not have obtained otherwise. I have also been able to experience making a traditional Chinese dish and see how both Chinese societal changes and American influences have impacted the noodle dishes that are considered a part of Dr. Li’s history. By not only getting to interview Dr. Li but also be a part of making Zha Jiang Mian I was able to immerse myself in the Chinese culture while making a dish to celebrate another year of long life for a family member I care for. This I believe is a model illustration of how Chinese noodles can have a personal influence on history and culture.

link to the video: https://youtu.be/qwk0t2c4By4

For my final project, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Young Chu, the son of the restaurant founder and current restaurant owner of Tae Hwa Jang, located in the city of Daejeon in South Korea. Tae Hwa Jang is a Chinese restaurant and its main dishes are Jja-jiang mian, Jjamppong, and Tangsooyook, and a plethora of traditional Chinese dishes shown in the menu below. Mr. Chu, who came from a family from the Northern regions of China, sells familiar noodle dishes made of wheat, the main crop grown in that area. During the interview, Mr. Chu shared his views on his restaurant’s cultural DNA and how that DNA is expressed in the Chinese noodle dishes; he also did not hesitate to share his personal life story as a Chinese immigrant in Korea back in the 1950’s. I was grateful that he talked about his experiences, as I was able to gain valuable knowledge about the historical survival story of a Chinese restaurant in Korea, and how that influenced Mr. Chu’s life.

Pictures of Tae Hwa Jang Menu (All pictures are self-taken)

Life as a Hwa Gyo in Korea

Mr. Chu is a Hwa Gyo(華僑), meaning he is 100% Chinese who has permanently migrated overseas; in Mr. Chu’s case, Korea. Mr. Chu shared a fair bit about his life as a Hwa Gyo in Korea. He started off with the cultural clashes his family faced when starting a restaurant in a foreign country. Back in the 1950’s, Hwa Gyos couldn’t buy houses or land in Korea. When they went to a broker, they would have had to use a Korean’s name. Mr. Chu talked about how Koreans took advantage of Hwa Gyos easily, since many Hwa Gyos are very isolated and they didn’t have a firm foundational association that could help them. They were mocked often; Hwa gyos were called gullible and stupid, and people had an immense amount of prejudice against them. Although most of it is gone now, still, old people or hobos sometimes come to the restaurant and try to fight with the workers. Mr. Chu said that they tell him to go back to “our land”. “We just normally don’t reciprocate, we’re used to it,” he said with a smile. It only harms them if they go to the police or fight back.

It was very painful to hear this story from someone who must have gone through these horrible experiences for over 50 years. Mr. Chu’s attitude, however, was very understanding. This style of living, Mr. Chu added, was the biggest engine that powered and motivated many Hwa Gyos to succeed in Korea. 

How Noodles Influenced Mr. Chu Culturally

The backstory of Mr. Chu was very interesting and valuable because they are real life historical experiences. He elaborated on why the way Hwa Gyos lived in the past had an impact on how noodles influenced himself culturally.

He mentioned that in his life, although being very close in distance to noodle dishes and people who enjoy eating noodle dishes, noodles for him had a different meaning culturally. When the family first started the restaurant, it was very small, with the size of barely 50 cubic meters, and it was very poor. In a state of poverty, noodles were a form of sustenance for Mr. Chu’s family, but in a different way than consumption. It was a source of revenue. As Mr. Chu mentioned before, it was very difficult for the Hwa Gyos to succeed in Korea back in the days. In order to compensate, they worked very diligently night and day to earn money so that they could provide for their family.

During this point in the interview, I asked an additional spontaneous question about the meaning of noodles for Mr. Chu. Usually noodles means a source of joy or that family can get together happily in Chinese culture. I wondered if noodles had ever been as such for him. Mr. Chu answered that when his mindset and goal purpose changed from his youth to adulthood, so did the meaning of noodles. Once a special treat and a joyful meaning, noodles did not mean the same anymore. Now he says he is satisfied by providing that meaning to others because he couldn’t afford to have that experience himself in the past because he was busy working and selling noodles. Mr. Chu said another reason why Hwa Gyos were so motivated to work hard to even neglect the meaning of eating noodles was to go back home. Hwa Gyos believed that once they became prosperous enough in the foreign country, they would have enough money to go back to their homeland indefinitely.

Funnily enough, all that time spent working super hard to go back home rendered Mr. Chu to become very well accommodated to Korea, and now he feels that he can’t go back to his original roots because he is too different. He said that this strongest feeling came from the noodles themselves. The noodles that have been modified to Korean taste buds have become suited to him and he couldn’t eat the Chinese noodles because they are too savory for him.

How Changes in Chinese Society Reflect in Noodle Dishes & Mr. Chu’s Diet

The changing Chinese society, Mr. Chu says, has also influenced his diet and the noodle dishes that he sells. One of the biggest changes is definitely how China had become increasingly prosperous over the years.  Back when Mr. Chu’s father came to work in Korea, he did so to earn money and be successful, something he couldn’t imagine doing back where he was from. He took refuge not only from the invasions and colonization of other countries in China, but also China itself: its poverty and stilted business. Hence, Mr. Chu’s father had chosen to sell Jja-jang myun and other expensive Chinese noodle dishes in a big restaurant, in hopes of making lots of money. Although that notion was not the same in Korea, he nonetheless prospered in the growing Korean society by accommodating to it very closely. 

Mr. Chu also mentioned his former diet as a kid: potato starch. His family couldn’t afford rice or wheat; instead, they made porridge out of potato starch and ate it as a meal. If they had enough, Mr. Chu and his siblings would attempt to make noodles out of the starch in desire of eating the noodles they couldn’t afford in reality. He says that those days in poverty are probably over for many children in China, due to the continuous prosperity China has had throughout several decades. Noodles that are served in China have been upgraded with the extravagant side dishes that come with them. The society has moved away from eating noodles for sustenance and eating food for health and enjoyment of dining even for low socioeconomic individuals. Mr. Chu said that in his restaurant, there are many individual rooms in which many families reserve for private parties and celebration. Also, accompanied with the noodles are dishes such as shark-fin soup or fried-pork (tang soo yook), indicating a higher standard of living. Additionally, as we learned in class, in many Chinese restaurants can people observe the round tables suited for large families that can eat together while facing every member. 

Picture of Round table at Tae Hwa Jang, with side dish Tang Soo Yook

Korean Culture Manifested in Noodle’s DNA

There has been a fair mix of Chinese and Korean cultures in food since the days of countless wars and trades that started thousands of years ago. Through the exchange, culinary parallelism is very much evident in the two nations’ dishes. More recently, around the 1920’s and 50’s, there were a lot of Chinese people who immigrated to Korea like Mr. Chu. Historically, those were the times of the Japense colonization in Eastern Asia and the Korean war, respectively. Many took refuge more and more south, which inevitably introduced a colorful array of foods to Korea. One of the representatives is the Jja-jang mian. Mr. Chu explained that Jja-jang mian in China is yellow. The sauce is not liquidy or sweet and doesn’t use the blackbean sauce but rather a specific fried veggie sauce. After coming to Korea, over the years the noodle dish has been modified to accommodate to the Korean taste buds. It is definitely less savory than the Northern style. It also has a lot more color, the blackness of the Chunjang (blackbean sauce), which is Korea-specific ingredient. More significantly, the cultural DNA of Jja-jang mian has been heavily influenced by the Korean culture. Korea is known for its phrase “Bbali bbali!” which is the same as “kuai dian!”, meaning “quickly quickly!” Koreans have the tendency to want things quickly, get things done quickly, and go places quickly. The dish Jja jiang mian has been molded into the same culture, and since then has been commercialized into a fast food. The development of delivery service is especially prevalent in Korea, and is what greatly materialized the “Bbali bbali” culture. Nowadays, Jja-jang mian is easily ordered over the phone and can be eaten at a piping hot temperature, all within thirty minutes. Most jja-jang myun restaurants can prepare their dishes in less than ten minutes. Thus, instead of being eaten at an elegant round table in at posh restaurant after a twenty minute wait, the dish has now become a convenient alternative that can be gulfed down in front of the TV. It has manifested itself as the go-to delivery food in Korea. Mr Chu mentioned that even Korean restaurants in China that serve jja jang mian offer delivery. The Korean culture has established itself in the noodles even overseas, in the heart of the origin. Jja-jang mian in Korea also has the reputation of its cheap, affordable price. Nonetheless, despite the quickness and the inexpensive price of Jja-jang mian, the noodles still taste very good and do more than justice to its fast delivery and cheapness; and many Koreans never say no to a nice bowl of Jja-jang myun on exhausted days. The traditional Chinese food has accommodated well and made its way to becoming a popular staple in Korea. 

Mr. Chu explained that this is very different from the Chinese culture of Jja jiang mian. He couldn’t recall very much, but he always had considered the noodles as a special treat that he only had a few times in his early life; he also remembered eating them at posher restaurants. He also had an opinion that jja-jang mian in China is definitely not as much of a staple food as it is here in Korea. As an owner of a Chinese restaurant in Korea, Mr. Chu has also accommodated his place to the Korean culture. Tae-Hwa Jang, in addition to its grand 2000 cubic meter restaurant full of round tables and individual rooms, also has a delivery service ready for any quick local calls. Mr. Chu explained that in the very beginning when his father founded the restaurant, the delivery service was very poor. He hadn’t known much about it; he was focused more on incorporating the Chinese culture and tastes into the restaurant. However, soon that business grew with the changing Korean society. One can say that the restaurant, founded by Mr. Chu’s father who has experienced first-hand both the noodles of China and Korea, is living history of the noodle exchange that incorporates both the Korean and Chinese cultural DNA. 

Picture of Jja jang myun sold in Tae Hwa Jang

The restaurant Tae Hwa Jang together express a very interesting identity for Mr. Chu that arises from his multicultural upbringing in a foriegn country that became home for him. Noodles were a sustenance for Mr. Chu in various ways and its ever-evolving and accommodating nature shaped and molded Mr. Chu to who he is today. 

Interview Video Link:

https://youtu.be/CII37UGOs24

Interview Questions:

1. What is your name and how would you identify yourself ethnically?
2. Where is your hometown? How long have you lived in Korea?
3. What made you start a Chinese restaurant in Korea?
4. How was it like when you first started the restaurant in Korea? Was there any cultural clashing? 
5. What kind of noodle dishes do you serve in your restaurant? 
6. Do you normally make your own dishes(Chinese or Korean) when you eat at home?
7. What is the biggest difference between noodles you had as a child and the noodles you are selling in your restaurant?
8. What aspects of Chinese culture can you see from your noodles?
9. What do you think is the traditional Chinese noodle and what is the cultural significance of noodles in China? 
10. How have changes in the Chinese society over the years reflected in your noodle dishes?
11. How has Korean culture manifested itself in your noodle’s cultural DNA?
12. Do you think you can say your noodles are completely Chinese? Why or why not?
13. Last Fun Question: What is your favorite Chinese dish?