EATING IN AMERICA

Cai Nengying

American restaurants are all the same. They prepare food in only three ways: boiled in water, grilled, and deep-fried; apart from these there is no other variety. Then, on the table a lot of "condiments" are served so that customers can make things as sweet, salty, sour, or peppery as they like. All over the whole country food stands on the street sell the same hot dogs, hamburgers, sandwiches, french fries, and so on; wherever you go the taste is the same. Especially for someone who has just arrived in America, the sight of a hot dog drip­ping with red tomato sauce and yellow mustard is enough to take your appetite away. But when you are hungry, there is nothing to do but close your eyes and swallow it. Hamburg­ers are even worse: semiraw beef with a slice of raw onion and a slice of raw tomato, and then some hamburger sauce—one dares not try it. Sandwiches sound good, but are in fact bland and tasteless. So eating is the most troublesome aspect [of living in America].

Being invited to dinner is a big treat for Americans, but I find it a painful assignment. First, I cannot get used to eating sweet and salty things together. Second, terrible-tasting food must be praised to the skies. Third, it is not filling, and you have to make yourself another meal after going home.

One time a colleague said to my husband, Fan Guangling, "My father is a good cook and invites you two to have a taste of his culinary skill this weekend." It would have been embarrassing to refuse, so we had to accept. The meal turned out to be canned chicken with vegetables and rice, which tasted funny. Following this dish was a dessert of cored apples stuffed with plum jam and coated in sugar. Eating it made me feel like vomiting, but I had to say, "Delicious! Delicious!" It was unspeakably painful.

Often when we were invited to dinner by Americans I felt that they were not inviting us to eat but to look at the tableware. They do not use rice bowls. At the beginning of the meal the table is set with three plates for each person, three glasses, knife, fork, big spoon, and little spoon. The big spoon is seldom used, however, for they do not drink soup but lots of cold water, so the glasses see much service. The first course is usually raw salad or fruit salad, followed by bread and butter. After that some strange-looking and odd-tasting little dishes are served while people eat and talk. Then comes the main course, usually a piece of chicken or steak or a slice of ham, with a few fried potatoes, and some peas, or whatever, boiled to a pulp. When this is finished dessert is served, fruit pie or ice cream and cake, which is murder to eat for it is tasteless. Moreover, it is not a lot of food in the end, but just a lot of dishes and silverware on the table. Last comes coffee or tea. American tea is a bag of tea leaves in a cup of hot water, at which point the dinner is considered over. Then you are invited into the living room to talk for two or three hours. The foreigners talk and laugh, and we Chinese do not understand what is being said. It is really unbearably painful. That is why I find eating American meals most troublesome.

Cai Nengying, who was from Taiwan, was the wife of a graduate student. This excerpt is from her article "A Housewife Staying in America Talks about Household Matters."