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omjyee-blog · 7 years ago

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"What is that SMELL?!”

For the first time, my 8-year-old self had gotten approval from my parents to invite my friend’s family over for dinner. Me and my friend were both psyched that my parents actually agreed to let my friend come over. As I got the house and the tables ready for dinner, I took in that sweet, sweet smell of authentic Chinese food. It’s the stuff my parents have been cooking for dinner for as long as I could remember. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and I dashed to open it for my friend in excitement. My friend’s face lights up as I welcomed him and his parents in. As soon as they walk in, their faces turned from eager to looking like they wanted to leave as soon as possible. His parents looked at each other but didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to. My friend already blurted out what was going through their heads. “What is that SMELL!?”, he said as he pinched his nose in disgust. I was confused, as I didn’t have a clue to what he was referring to. My parents walked over to greet them, but I could see the hidden disgust in their faces as the breeze they created only made the aroma of the food stronger. This was the moment that I realized, “it must be the cooking”. Maybe it was the tofu dish, or the steamed fish, or maybe the soup. Whatever it was, our guests did not like it.

This was an eye-opening experience for me that I would never forget. It really showed me how different and disgusting our culture could really be to people who have never been exposed to it before. My family, being completely Chinese (at least to my knowledge), had no problem with the smells and tastes from Chinese cuisine mainly because we have been with it for so long, but other people might find it abnormal or even disgusting. It triggered a set of realizations similar to that of Eddie Huang from Fresh Off the Boat, a show on ABC that comedically shows the experience of a Chinese family struggling with their new lives in America.

At 8:22 in FOTB pilot episode, Eddie’s new friends are suddenly disinterested in him because of his homemade Chinese lunch. They used phrases like “gross” and “what is that?!”, immediately telling him to “get it out of here”. On top of that, one of the kids said, “Ying Ming’s eating worms”, after he already told them his name was Eddie and his lunch was clearly noodles. Another kids said “Dude, that smells nasty” and laughed while Eddie walked away in shame. After getting home, he told his mom “I had to eat it behind the gym where the janitor flies his kite”. A later scene showed a conversation between Eddie and his mom, where Eddie realized his “smelly Chinese food” wasn’t going to do him any good in his pathway to success. The situation produced conflicting thoughts between his love for his mother’s cooking and him trying to fit in with “everyone else” at school. Like Eddie, I was faced with the problem of food from my culture alienating my friends. My culture and family isn’t something I can change even if I wanted to, but my choice in friends can. If people didn’t want to be friends over the smell or taste of Chinese dishes, they didn’t have to be my friends.

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