Familiar Feeling

   Daniel Quan

 ESLINTG100 CE

 February 8, 2022 

Familiar Feeling

Food can cause people to have a longing for their country, especially the country's cuisine. I have had a longing since I moved to my new city, Chicago. Food and its taste are different everywhere in the world and influenced by the people, places, unique styles, and culture. I lived in Vietnam for almost twenty years. I tried and ate a lot of different kinds of not only traditional cuisine food, but also modern food in Vietnam. However, I think Vietnamese cuisine is so unique that other countries cannot imitate it. Thus, I really miss the real Vietnamese cuisine since arriving in Chicago.

Chicago does not have various Vietnamese foods and the taste is also different from back in Vietnam. A few months after arriving in Chicago, I spent time on arranging and getting used to the new environment. I tried to find places that serve Vietnamese cuisine. However, there are not so many popular Vietnamese restaurants in Chicago. When I arrived in Uptown, a Vietnamese neighborhood in Chicago, they had popular Vietnamese cuisine such as Pho, Banh mi, and Banh cuon. However, I tried to find other dishes such as Ho lo trung, Bun dau mam tom, and Banh bot lot. Bun dau mam tom is also one of the popular and cultural foods in Vietnam, but not in Chicago. A lot of people can eat Mam tom in Vietnam, but people who were not born in Vietnam don’t enjoy this dish in the same manner. Probably because people living in Chicago cannot stand the shrimp sauce in this dish. All of these are probably the reasons why some famous Vietnamese food is not available in Chicago. 

 In addition, one of my favorite Vietnamese foods is Pho. Pho is popular not only in Vietnam, but also in so many other countries and in Chicago. However, It is not as delicious or tasty as Vietnamese food in Vietnam, which makes me miss Vietnamese food a lot. The first time I tried Pho in one of the stores in a Vietnamese place,  the soup tasted lighter and the noodles were thicker than in my hometown. I could also feel the meat still had a bit of a frozen taste when I ate it. Even though I eat Pho, I cannot feel the familiar feeling. 

Besides, I cannot find a lot of Vietnamese food places nearby the area I live in Chicago. When I found the neighborhood, it took me an hour to get there. When I get there, it is hard to find parking places. Unlike Chicago, in Vietnam I could find food easily. When I walked out of my house, it took me around five minutes to get to the store and order. There is not only street food which appears everywhere in Vietnam, but also a lot of cars or bikes sell food in front of the school. I did not need to drive an hour to buy Vietnamese food. 

Furthermore, Vietnamese people also call Vietnam a culinary paradise. Not only are there a lot of delicious and cultural cuisines, but also a lot of food stores in Vietnam open twenty four hours a day. Whenever I felt hungry at night, I just went out and got food which was very easy and convenient. Whenever I go to a Vietnamese place to buy food or for the market, it is really hard to find a parking spot. Because it is always easily full, I  always have to wait for a long time or there is no place for parking. Unlike Chicago, most people in Vietnam use motor-bikes, so there are a lot of places for us to park easily. In addition, there are a lot of parking places and it is large.  

    All of my nostalgia has been around these typical Vietnamese dishes since I arrived in Chicago. I wish I could eat a lot of real Vietnamese cuisine food and get it more easily and conveniently. There is not a lot of cuisine in Chicago such as Bun bo hue, Banh cuon, and Thit kho to and the way to get the food is so far and inconvenient.  My mother tried to cook my favorite dishes, but she failed because she couldn’t find some spices and recipes. Because of that, my family and I are trying to get used to the change and wait until we travel to Vietnam to eat all of our special food. Someday in the future, I believe I will get used to living here and I hope I can find plenty of different Vietnamese cuisine nearby with similar taste to Vietnam.