With all the burners atop her stove on, Yanhu “Betty” Zhang prepares her dinner, pointing out some of the ingredients in her pan.
“It means ‘tree fungus’ in English,’” she explained, regarding an ingredient she has combined with others such as pork, scrambled egg and a spice called “aniseed” in a large pan on the stove. In the other pans, she reveals pieces of chicken simmering in broth, potatoes and a boiling cabbage soup.
Zhang, a junior at the UO, is from Tianjin, China, and has brought many traditional cooking methods and recipes she uses every night in Eugene.
Although she cooks for one, Zhang cooks plenty. Leftovers get tucked into her backpack and are served as mid-day meals.
When at large grocery stores, there is not much in the aisles that appeal to Zhang. Many of the ingredients she uses in her dishes are either imported or purchased from small specialty markets. Highly marketed snacks don’t catch her eye and sweets don’t tempt her.
“Everything I eat is good, and is good for me,” Zhang said. “I like to control what goes and doesn’t go into my food.”
Since the age of three, Zhang has been ushered around a small, traditional Chinese kitchen. Even growing up and attending school in Tianjin, Zhang would make and bring her own food. She believed that the school’s quality of food to be far from on par with her own. Her mother and father, keen on continuing the ways of their parents, strongly stressed the importance of traditional home cooking and its benefits for both mind and body.
In contrast, Keiko Matsunaga, a new UO international student from Tokyo, has instead developed a new love for tacos and takeout Chinese food in Eugene, straying from her usual home cuisine.
“I do not miss the food from Japan … [and] I cannot cook,” Matsunaga said.
Rafael La Madrid, a UO international student from Peru, offers an explanation as to why the girls’ perspectives on their home diets may greatly differ.
“It’s about convenience … it can be difficult to source some traditional ingredients,” he explained, “and the food here is good.”
Although La Madrid agrees that food is an important part of individual culture and identity, he notes that international students must make compromises to accommodate hectic lives and schedules.
However, Zhang does not compromise.