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Cultural Diversity & American Assimilation
Our families came to America for a better life. Many came with only what they can hold, in their hands, unable to speak the new language of English. In their own special way they found interesting ways to start speaking English. One instance was with my grandmother on my father's side. She had aspirations of being a doctor. Her way of learning English was going to the movies. At that time "Gone With The Wind" was the top movie of the day. My grandfather told me that grandma tried her best to mimic Scarlett O' Hara lines. She understood how important it was to learn her adoptive country's English language. Unfortunately, grandmother's life was taken too soon and her dream of being a doctor vanished. My mom & Dad were born in the states, my dad was born in Springfield, Massachussetts and mom was born in Manhattan, NY. They eventually settle on Long Island suburbia witnessing racism when purchasing their dream home in Massapequa, NY. Dad was a veteran of Korea and studied Engineering. There was a tremendous need for engineers since most of the defense contractors at the time were located on Long Island. So, started the assimilation process, being practically the only Asian kid in elementary school through high school, made friends in the neighborhood and enjoying suburbia life, going to McDonalds trying the Big Mac, Burger King's Whopper, Nathan hot dogs, pizza, hamburgers, steaks, corn on the cob, salad, birthday cake celebrations, fried chicken with KFC, you get the jist. Hanging out with the guys playing football in the street or baseball, riding bicycles etc... etc... eating watermelon, apples peaches, cherries, going fishing at Captree State park fishing for blowfish, crabbing. and most of all watching my favorite TV shows. T.V Dinners was a big thing with Swanson, Banquet fried chicken and Ellios pizza were #1 in my book. Add in Chinese food that dear mom tried to make, really loved grandma's version. Because I was the oldest male, in the Chinese culture, we are truly spoiled so I would complain to grandma that dear mom didn't make a certain dish her way, she would scold dear mom and after trying on numerous attempts, she finally got it right. Now my daughter, yes, totally 100% assimilated in Suburban Maryland, similar circumstances that daddy went through x10. As I am know a dad to my daughter, eating healthy is very important. My expertise is of course Chinese and every night of every day I make sure she eats a good meal. Doesn't matter to me the effort required to make a meal from scratch, but she's worth it. Mom, has her special diet and tries to resist the temptation. Well, once upon a day, my daughter was less than enthusiastic when I was cooking a Chinese dish. She said, "Daddy, can't we have something other than Chinese? I was flawed!!!!. I said what did you have in mind? "Daddy, how about Papa John's Pizza Hawaiian Pizza". She added, can we take a break from Chinese food for awhile! I said, sure, and made spaghetti with meatballs, frozen Gordon's fish fillet , hamburgers, hot dogs and everything American. So as any of you can understand having a 13 year old daughter, they change in the wind, then one day she said, "Daddy, can you cook some Chinese food", I'm tired of hot dogs and pizza. And life goes on! Your children will get the best of both worlds from a food standpoint!!!! Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com
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Good Times Memories With Food
After being Mr. Mom which involved cleaning the house, cooking, doing you tube videos, being a chauffeur to my darling daughter, mowing the lawn, looking after the garden, weeding, doing the laundry, vacuuming, dusting and everything else that comes with the territory. These responsibilities were there while my wife is out making a living, so someone had to do it. Do I realize what she went through when I was working and she was taking care of our daughter . You betcha. Needless to say I enjoyed my sleep when all is said and done. One night I had a dream of being invited by a good friend to share dinner with him. My wife and daughter travelled to visit her mom, so my buddy offered to cook a dinner one night. Now, to setup the scenario, I'm Asian and love to cook Asian. You say what's the point. Well, the point is that how I prepare food is to slice morsels of beef or chicken or seafood into bite size pieces and then stir fry with various vegetables. Whether I use a fork or a pair of chopsticks, that has always been my way of eating going way back to when I was a kid. It was only back in the heyday that on the weekend my Dad would buy steak and barbeque it on the charcoal grill. Prices for steak back then was really cheap. Each of us and I have 4 sibling received a steak, It was that cheap! But as prices increased, the demand in our household focused on chicken and pork products. Everything was still cut into small pieces. That's just the way it was. When I did have a steak I felt bloated and too stuffed. My desire for steak faded slowly. If I did have a steak it was a small sirloin steak. I just felt intimidated seeing a big cut of beef presented to me is a little scary. Well, years later and getting back to the dream, I arrive at my buddy's place. His wife and 2 boys are at the table. I have no idea what he's cooking until I get there. I do appreciate the aroma of fresh beef grilling. but never did I imagine the huge steaks he was making. My buddy is a beef lover. He loves steak. So, the steaks are cooking and I'm conversing with his wife and playing with the kids. Dinner is ready. We're all sitting down and I anxiously awaiting my meal. Well! He plop a huge gigantic steak on my plate . It looked delicious but it was huge!. How the hell was I going to eat this monster. I took my steak knife and started to cut thin slices and it was cooked perfectly, medium rare, it was delicious juicy and perfect but after a couple of sliced pieces, I was full! I looked at my buddy and he took his steak and created with his steak knife a crisscross board with chunks of beef ready to devour. He grabbed the steak cubes which was medium rare , jabbed it and ate that huge cube of beef. I was stunned to watch as he took another huge cube of beef and ate it with delight!. I started to laugh as he asked me if there was anything wrong with the steak since I barely made a dent. I said it was delicious but what I found so amazing was that he ate that whole steak in 15-20 minutes. He laughed as he saw me struggling eating the steak but we've been friends for a very long time, we had great conversation and shared some laughs with past memories we shared together as my daughter and her son were born at the same hospital and we went for training as our wives with shoulder massage. That dream of eating steak brought a smile and a laugh. I called him the next day and we both remember that experience. From then on when we go to his place, I always volunteer making dinner and everyone loves it! Just wanted to share a funny story. Chef Woo Can www.chefwoocan.com |
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February 2024
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