Chasing Flavor – Part I. Memory

When I was working at 3M, Minneapolis Star Tribune once interviewed me on cooking. Of course, the interview had nothing to do with my work at 3M, but I happily discussed how I learned (or observed) cooking from my mom at a tender age, and to me, cooking was kind of like chemistry – experimentation, creativity, and voila, mouthwatering results! After Star Tribune published the interview article, I received a very unexpected note from Dr. Bill Coyne, then Senior VP of R&D of the whole 3M. Dr. Coyne said he really enjoyed reading the article and how I made the analogy between cooking and chemistry... Of course, I was very touched and flattered to receive a personal note from the then #2 (or #3?) top executive at a $100 billion company!

I was also asked to share a special recipe for the interview article, which presented a small problem. In Chinese cooking, you do seasoning by that 6th sense, and usually, you don’t use a cookbook/recipe or try to measure things out precisely. You add a pinch of this and a dash of that, taste and adjust until you say "voila, c'est parfait" (OK, maybe not in French). Anyway, I decided to write up a recipe for that sweet, tangy, and gingery dipping sauce for those special Chinese hairy crabs my mom and I loved. It is a lot of work to get all the meat and morsels from those prickly crabs, but the meat is more delicately sweet and tender than any other types of crabs I have had. So, just like in the lab, I carefully experimented with measuring cups (and teaspoons, tablespoons) and worked out a precise recipe for the article.

When I was a young kid, I was sent to live with my grandma as my parents were both working full time, and I was a kid who was hyperactive with the energy and readiness to get into all kinds of troubles. But every weekend, my mom would come to get me after school to spend the weekend at home. On the way home, my mom would often take me somewhere for some special snacks or treats. My favorite was Shanghai Xiandelai (鲜得来, i.e., “So Umami!”), a small shack that only made one dish, fried pork chop with rice cake. The fried pork chops were tender and juicy, and the special rice cakes were lightly fried until the surface was just slightly blistered, and together they were topped with that special, gooey, finger-licking umami sauce. Mom loved to see me wolfing down everything, but she usually would only have a taste and insisted that she was not hungry and that I should eat the umami to my heart’s content.

At that time, there wasn’t an abundance of food in China. Each family would get pre-allocated monthly rationing tickets for egg, meat, sugar, and oil, etc. There were enough rice, vegetables, and seasonal seafood. Most of the time, meat was usually thinly sliced into strips or minced, used more as seasonings to a dish than as the dish itself. But there were various types of beans, tofu, or wheat gluten products that were cleverly flavored and textured into vegetarian chicken or meat, very similar to what we now call “plant-based” foods in grocery stores and restaurants. (The popularity of these “plant-based” foods in Chinese cooking is also heavily influenced by the Buddhist tradition of vegetarian diets in China.) Every weekend when I was home, my mom would cook up my favorite food for me. And when my mom was cooking in the kitchen, I was usually the "sous chef" helping to do chopping, preparation, and most importantly, tasting! My mom was an excellent cook. She would explain to me how one needs to add and balance different flavors and textures to build complexity and achieve that mouth-watering wow combination. And I would happily concur while doing my crucial task of tasting. I wasn’t doing any actual cooking then, but my palate was already very well trained. And those important lessons in cooking certainly immediately helped me when I started to do cooking myself.

My mother was also a perfectionist. She often visited several markets at the crack of dawn to buy the freshest and best ingredients. At mealtimes, she was busy cooking in the kitchen and commanded us to start eating those delicious dishes without waiting for her. And she would be the last person to sit down at the table when she finally finished all the cooking and took off her apron. I loved her cooking and her food. Of course, her cooking was universally praised by relatives and friends. But looking back, I think another reason I still remember all those delicious dishes after so many years is that she cooked with love, love for the food, and love for the family.

I will try to keep my post short as usual. But I’ll quickly mention a few of my all-time favorites from my mom’s repertoire. My mom would often make Shanghai-style big wontons during those weekends. They were filled and wrapped full of vegetable and meat stuffing (and sometimes even with shrimp!). I usually helped chop and mince the meat with a cleaver and then mixed and stirred the minced meat with seasonings until it had a velvety texture. And during the Chinese New Year holidays, my mom would cook up several feasts for the family and visiting relatives. I would help my mom make those delicate golden egg dumplings. My mom would make the small egg crepe in a round metal ladle on the stove and tell me to add the stuffing just at the right moment, and she would then dexterously fold the egg crepe to make those perfect crescent and delicious dumplings. And to this day, for all the spring rolls I have tried, I still consider my mom’s spring rolls were THE best. They were just the right size. The wrapping was golden, crunchy, and flaky while the inside was bursting with juice, flavors, and textures! Of course, my mom would rush everyone to eat them fresh while she was laboring to cook another batch for us.

My mom passed away back in 2016. But on this Mother’s Day, I write this article in remembrance of my mom, and I say, “mom, thank you for all the wonderful food you nourished me with, thank you for teaching me about cooking, and thank you for your LOVE.”

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P.S. After I came to the US, I married a Scottish wife, traveled the world, and always try to find or create some new flavor. My cooking has long moved beyond Chinese cooking. So, I plan to write a follow-up article someday, "Chasing Flavor - Part II. Fusion".