I’ve been recently inspired by graphics from contemporary and vintage food poster art. This poster explores how food can be a friendly gateway into culture and personal history. A quote that inspired me:
“Food is everything we are. It's an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from the get- go. “ - Anthony Bourdain
Like many nervous daughter-in-laws, my husband’s mother was coming to San Francisco for a visit. My last attempt to introduce her to Chinese food failed miserably.
I ordered a wide variety of dishes (after consulting my mother meticulously on the phone) from a local Chinese restaurant in East Hanover, NJ. Let me rephrase, it was the ONLY Chinese restaurant in this small New Jersey town, where I was visiting for the first time. We all know where this story is headed, yes, that’s right, down the toilet.
So this was my moment for her to see what the San Francisco Chinese food scene was really like. Dim Sum was the meal of choice. We ate at the famous Koi Palace in Daly City. Har gao arrived in steaming circular trays, the shrimp noodles soaked in soy sauce were placed on the spinning tray and our two families sat around the circular table eating these dishes like many generations before us. This time, we bonded over steamed dumpling dishes and we even ended with an order of spicy chicken feet which my mother in-law whole heartedly ate.