Bian Rou Ban Mian（扁肉拌面） 

The long corridor restaurant is packed with customers at rush hour. I with my mother are seated across from one another, both of us eating a popular dish from our province. Ban Mian being the mixture of smooth, broad noodles coated in liquid gold peanut butter. Bian Rou is the soup that accompanies it as silky thin wontons swimming gracefully in a transparent sea. FuJian, the province both my parent’s and this meal originated from, is located in southeast China across TaiWan. 

While Bian Rou dates back to the Han dynasty, there’s less documentation of Ban Mian, though I’d say it was created during the 1970s when China transformed to a socialistic economic system and XiaMen(a port city in FuJian) attracted foreign investments, thus attaining a grasp on foreign ingredients(like peanut butter). My knowledge of how this dish arrived at America was when a mass of Fujianese immigrants in the 1990s sought out economic prosperity which led to China experiencing an ‘emigration craze’ resulting in millions of people living abroad. 

From early childhood to my adult life, I’ve continuously eaten this dish. I as a Fujianese American who embodies physical Chinese and foreign ways gravitate to this meal. When I went to XiaMen for the first time in over a decade, I realized the authenticity this meal possessed, whether it’s China or New York. For me, both these locations are connected by this meal; and in turn connected to me. 

– mengrui

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant