Being Chinese | My food obsession has deep Chinese roots
The rationing era imprinted something on me – not just a craving for food, but a reverence. In Chinese culture, food is never just food
I think about food constantly, not in a passive way, but obsessively. I plan my next meal while still chewing the last bite of a repast. I always carry snacks: dried fruit or roasted nuts, just in case. When I travel abroad, I eagerly sample local cuisines and take cooking classes whenever I can. At home, I scout for new restaurants and often host dinner parties featuring my experimental dishes.
Sometimes I wonder how I came to have this fixation.
Breakfast in our household consisted of boiled leftover rice, slurped down with tangy pickled vegetables. It filled the stomach briefly, until hunger crept back midmorning. That hollow, gnawing sensation is one I’ve never forgotten. To this day, I dread hunger the way some people fear the dark.
That early deprivation imprinted something deep on me – not just a craving for food, but a reverence for it. In this, I am not alone. In Chinese culture, food is never just food. It is nourishment, yes, but also language, emotion and identity. As the saying goes, “To the people, food is heaven.” Instead of “How are you?”, we traditionally greet each other with “Have you eaten?”