adoptee-cooks

[adoptee-cooks]

Adoptee plays mahjong 麻将 (májiàng)

It’s not exactly cooking, but I needed to record my thoughts on this game because I just learned how to play today and I love it!

Not just because it is a fun, mentally engaging game that I learned for the first time with my closest friends. Or because we spent hours playing and time flew by!

But, also because I feel like I finally “unlocked” a new stage in regaining my cultural identity. It feels crass to describe it like a checklist or leveling up in a game (and there’s probably a better term), but that’s how I feel sometimes about being a Chinese adoptee raised without any connection to my birth culture.

Learning how to play mahjong today was another step towards feeling like a valid Chinese American. I brushed up on Chinese numbers and learned a challenging game that I’ve wanted to learn for years.

I wish I could write more about the history and significance of the game; why you yell “pong!” or start with East, but I honestly don’t know. My Chinese American friend who taught me just got right into teaching us how to win, or “eat” and it didn’t feel right to ask her to educate me when I have google, especially when this is just a fun family pastime for her.

Maybe I’ll return to this post and add in some history. In the meantime, here’s a picture of my only winning hand of 8 games today:

Now I’m looking up where I can buy my own mahjong set 🀄️from Asian-owned businesses!

Here are a few I found with the help of @welcome.to.chinatown  and @blockedby.themahjongline on Instagram:

K.K. Discount Store

Pings Gifts

Pearl River Mart

[adoptee-cooks]

Chicken congee 鸡肉粥 (jī ròu zhōu)

This dish dive is slightly longer, because I had a lot more thoughts while righting this!

Dish dive

In 2017, my mom donated her kidney to a friend in need of one. While she recovered at home, my friend’s mom made her chicken congee. She explained congee is very gentle on the stomach and good to eat when you’re sick.

I’d heard about congee or jook before, but always as an easy breakfast or porridge-type dish that would be eaten during a famine because it would stretch the amount of rice.

Maybe my memory is biased by the surprise and appreciation we felt when my friend’s mom brought over the congee. But, I remember the dish being simple and rich all at the same time. It was so delicious, like a comforting bowl of chicken noodle soup combined with the gratifying thickness of porridge or oatmeal.

Three years later, eating seafood congee prepared by my boyfriend’s mom is what sparked this memory. After eating it for breakfast, I knew I had to try my hand at making this staple dish. I also knew I wanted to recreate the version I first had with chicken and ginger so I could relive that glorious first bite. 

Unfortunately, my favorite Chinese food blog, Woks of Life, only had a 20 minute recipe. It’s good for making congee in a quick pinch, but I wanted to make it the long way for my first time. 

So I googled chicken congee and came across another cool Chinese family blog that even included a step-by-step video called Made with Lau! I’m glad I have another blog (this one is Cantonese) to rely on for ~authentic~ Chinese recipes.

Cooking it up

The actual cooking was easy, even if it did take an hour or so of passive boiling. While I’m aware the entire purpose of congee is to be easy on the stomach, I recalled my first bite of congee and wanted to make sure this one would be equally flavorful. In case you weren’t aware, the secret is the ginger! It pairs so nicely with the dash of salt and meatiness of the chicken. 

The end result was the perfect texture... but I may have gone slightly overboard with the ginger.

Final thoughts

While cooking this, I couldn’t help but imagine my own birth mother cooking congee to feed infant me. I’m content with cooking basic Chinese dishes for now because it might be the closest thing to everyday meals I would’ve eaten in China. 

I’m also grateful for these family food blogs because by sharing their treasured family recipes, I get to learn one more dish I can practice and cook for my own children someday.

[adoptee-cooks]

Scallion pancake 葱油饼 (cōng yòu bïng)

The first, but definitely not last, sighting of the character for oil (油). Yòu as in 加油！

Dish dive

Along with tomato and egg, scallion pancakes have a very special place in this adoptee’s heart. My close friend used to bring it to lunch at least once a week during high school and I couldn’t help but ask for a piece. Eventually, she started bringing two - one for her and one for me :’) Apparently she told her mom I was fond of scallion pancakes and she made sure to pack a serving for me.

葱油饼 can be simply scallions (葱) in a fried (with 油) pancake (饼) or it can be used to wrap around rice, egg, and pork floss - a common breakfast we ate once while in Taiwan!

Cooking it up

I’ve made scallion pancakes once before using Inga Lam’s recipe, but another friend encouraged me to try out a different recipe from The Plant-Based Wok. It seems everyone has a different technique for folding the dough and creating those desired flaky layers.

My April 2021 pancakes, compared to the first version I made in summer 2020 (the first one was a lot thinner and had more oil)!

I took these two pictures in Taiwan (January 2020). The first full day, we ate a Taiwanese breakfast with soy milk and later I saw a nightmarket vendor cooking the iconic scallion pancakes on a large griddle.

[adoptee-cooks]

Tomato Egg

Also called “stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs,” it’s classic dish, probably the first one I learned how to cook thanks to my friend making it for breakfast after a high school sleepover.

I use The Woks of Life recipe now but always sub their sugar for my friend’s preferred sweetener: ketchup!

No scallion topping pictured here, but I do love to add it right before eating, mostly for color.