My life in five dishes

Thanks to new pathway system, I have a chance to introduce myself again.

Life is a mystery with many dimensions. This time I chose a delicious one. I'll show you five dishes which are deep in my memories.

The first dish, egg pancake( 煎饼果子）

Every time when I eat the egg pancake outside Tianjin，it's truly a miserable experience. You know what? For me, it's not a pancake, it's heresy.

For Tianjin人，egg pancake is not only a normal breakfast，it's the spirit of traditional lifestyle. It must be made of 绿豆粉 and 小米面，not just 白面. Only use 绿豆粉 and 小米面， you can get that crispy texture. And more important, we only put fried bread 油条 or 果篦（also called 薄脆）in it，no lettuce，thats for rabbits.

Believe it or not, we do bring our own eggs to pancake stall. I still remember I liked a girl in my class when I was about 10 years old. Her parents run an egg pancake stall for breakfast. I usually bring 2 eggs to the stall and buy a pancake, not only for breakfast but also for a chance to meet the girl. One morning, I found eggs in our fridge are so small that almost like pigeon's egg. I didn't want the pancake girl laugh at my eggs' size, so I brought 6 eggs to the stall. It was unexpected that the pancake girl didn't show that day, but her parents told my parents what I do, put 6 eggs in one pancake. My parents laugh at me for this stupid thing for years.

The second dish is tofu jelly(豆腐脑）

It’s also a traditional breakfast in Tianjin. It's made of soft tofu and salty flavor soup. For me, tofu jelly is salty is like there is only one God for Christians. I never doubt it until I came to Xi'an to go to college. At the moment when I saw the local tofu jelly, I cried out. In Xi'an, they put vinegar and chilly on top of tofu, so it's sour and spicy. I complained to my roommate, he was also out of control, "Why not put sugar? Tofu jelly should be sweet!" OK, really shocked me.

After I graduated from college, I came to Guangzhou. Here, I meet the third dish, steamed rice roll (肠粉）

One of my classmates in college took an intern job in Guangdong in the last year. He described to me a food called 肠粉，and he said he ate it every day when he was in Guangdong. Steamed rice noddle, how could it be delicious? I just wondered.

But when I got a job in Guangzhou，when I had the first bite of 肠粉，I fell in love with it. It had the multi aroma of rice and soya sauce. I prefer the filling egg and ground meat. It immediately became my everyday breakfast for more than 10 years. Even this days, I try to limit my carbon hydrate, I can't refuse it.

Actually, the fourth dish, I have only eaten once, fried bread(油条）with coffee，in Thailand.

You know, fried bread is always with soya milk(豆浆）in China. When I saw it with coffee in a morning market in Thailand, I was shocked again. But local people wanted me to taste it， why not have a try. I dipped the fried bread into the hot coffee. Wow, it opened another door for me.

The fifth dish is my own invention, it's a salad, honeydew melon with fried bread and shrimp. It's really a bizarre cuisine. After I went to Vietnam, I was inspired by the papaya salad and created this one. Even for my parents, they love it. It's hard to tell what's it belong to. Chinese cuisine? Probably not.  It's a fusion style.

My life in five dishes

So, I always wonder, is there any cooking rule we must follow?

Is there any lifestyle we must live in?

Is there any pathway we should limit our self?

The world is changing, to embrace diversities maybe is the unchanged pathway for me.