When I was young, my mother cooked almost every meal for me. In my impression, the traditional family structure was no longer the same, which is only men go to work. My family was different than others, which both of parents had jobs, so my father was the only person who participated in job. As a result, my mother became a house wife and she took care my personal life until I came to America for studying. As I arrived United States, the first thing I must countered is the foods. Unlike to the composition of American foods, Chinese foods rarely have cold meal for the main dish. Usually they are the appetizers which is just part of the meal.        Most of Chinese family use peanut oil to cook the foods which is different than butter or olive oil. Peanut oil doesn’t have a lot of flavor itself by eating cold peanut oil alone, but butter and olive oil have many flavors. Some manufactures would add more flavors into these oil. For example, we can find truffle oil in the market. Peanut oil manufacture might not focus on this aspect. The peanut oils taste very simple for all different kind of it. There were countless time I ate stir fry foods that were made with peanut oil when I was in China. Peanut oil is one of my important memory about my past. 

– Zheming Li

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant