Expressing with Food

Food is all around us and we use them for many different things like traditions, culture, celebrations, and communication. Food can provide us a way to express ourselves in ways we cannot say in words, that’s how the Chinese community believe in friendship and paying respects using food. But not only do we pay respects using food, we also use them in worshiping; presenting food in front of your god and praying at the same time. Food is something we use because it is the best gift; it’s true in our community and true for every other community. For my group we use them mostly for ways of expressing friendship and respect.

One of the great traditions we share in our community or with friends is the moon cake. The moon cake is the celebration of the moon, we celebrate it on the day of the full moon, where we give little baked cakes to relatives or friends and we also get them in return. There are many types of moon cakes with different shapes and sizes, but mostly it’s the same every year sticking to traditional standards. Although moon cakes are great cakes there is also the Chinese New Year fried dumplings which we call them “Gok Jai” in Cantonese. With this type of food, it is made mostly in the household and so they are more diverse in what type of ingredient is put in and the quality. This food is given out to relatives, friends, and can even be given to strangers to show appreciation, and to celebrate together. These are one of the proud food celebrations we cherish in our community.

Even though this type of tradition could die out for a Chinese to be born in America, there are other ways to celebrate with friends which is to go to Chinese restaurants. Chinese restaurants are one of my favorite places to eat because it keeps some of the traditions behind for example eating “Dim Sum”. It’s where waitresses walk around each table holding certain types of meals and ask which ones the customer prefers to eat. This type of way of eating is fun, because every waitress holds different types of meals and there are abundant amounts of them, but this style of eating is served in only some restaurants and serving times are only breakfast and lunch. It’s a relaxing way of eating with friends and or family so most weekends if we have time, we would go and eat Dim Sum.

What is great about the food is that our community share food a lot to show our appreciation and friendship. One type of food that is easy to make is “drunken chicken,” which is chicken dunked in Chinese alcohol. It is a good dish to share, because I have made it before and shared it with my friends and their family, because it gives you a great feeling of warmth and enthusiasm to share food