Taste of Hometown

Guangdong is a veritable land of food. Barbecued pork, dim sum, and old fire soup are all representative foods of Guangdong. I lived in Guangdong for twenty-two years which is in the south of China. My city holds a lot of good memories for me. Now that I am away from my hometown, I have finally realized how much I miss the taste of Guangdong. Since I moved to Chicago, I have lost my favorite food roast goose. This dish was my connection to my friends, community, and relatives. 

One of the most famous dishes I miss from my hometown is roast goose. Roast goose is the link between my friends and me. It originated in my hometown, which is famous for its crispy skin and juicy meat. I used to swap roast goose as a gift with my friends who are from another provinces. My friends were always attracted by the taste of roast goose. They would want to come to my city to eat roast goose and hang out with me. However, sometimes my friends were too busy to come to my city, so we would swap hometown food with each other by express delivery to reduce our longing. Since I moved to Chicago, most of my friends are now living in Chicago. I also hang out with them to have deep dish pizza, which is characteristic of Chicago, but I have no opportunity to swap food to my friends. 

Moreover, there are few places that sell roast goose in Chicago. It is hard to find a place that sells goose in the United States, because the most common food in China is roast duck. For me, roast duck is just a mediocre substitute of roast goose. Every time I miss roast goose, I will eat roast duck to relieve my nostalgia. Roast goose in Guangdong restaurants made me feel more moved. The roast goose has remained the same price for nearly twenty years. People who work in roast goose restaurants have been working for many years, and we got to know each other. As a customer, I got to know their family and friends. They were like friends to me. Every time I went to the restaurant to buy roast goose, they would share what was going on about them. We would all share some personal stories. Although everyone in Chicago’s restaurants is also warm and welcoming to say hello, these are only a few short words. Most of the time, people in Chicago’s restaurants just care about what people are eating at the moment, but they seldom share some personal stories and recent situations. 

Above all, what I miss most is the atmosphere of my family gathering in each holiday. Going out to a restaurant to buy roast goose was convenient, but I preferred to roast my own goose. On the holiday, it was a great time to get together. Older adults were responsible for preparing everything about the roast goose, and the younger family members just needed to cheer them on. Roast goose is made in a special way. It is baked in an earthen oven. Every time the older adults cooked the goose on the fire, they also burned some sweet potatoes and corn for the younger family members. In their mind, the younger family members would always be children. Now that I am in Chicago, most of my relatives are busy working and studying. We have no opportunity to get together in ordinary days, only on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. We eat turkey at every family gathering now, so the turkey had become the representative of my family gathering. 

Since I moved to Chicago, I lost my special taste of hometown. I miss the link which can connect my friends and me. I wish I had less nostalgia in my life. I long for the feeling of being taken care of by the old family members during family gathering time. Maybe I need to adapt to American tastes and add some Cantonese flavors to the turkey.