EP02｜吃什么，怎么变成我是谁？

Gua! In our second episode, we dive into food, memory, and the new lives we are currently shaping. This is a free-flowing conversation that begins with a few books and slowly winds its way back to our own dinner tables. While reading Tastes Like War: A Memoir, it struck us that leaving one's homeland sounds like a grand, sweeping narrative, but at its most intimate level, it might simply be the absence of familiar foods from the table. Food is more than just a taste of home, and it's more than mere comfort. For the author, cooking initially felt like a detour—straying from the academic path her mother had envisioned for her. Yet, ultimately, it became a profound way to understand her mother and her own past. In Prose Collection of Hong Aizhu: The Shopping Route of My Mom, we encountered an entirely different kind of food memory. The bustling markets where ingredients are gathered, the home-cooked dishes steeped in family history, and the lively warmth of the kitchen—all these intertwine with a deep sense of longing, forming a portal back in time. Naturally, this led us to share our own culinary memories: the egg fried rice and fish noodle soup from Wen's past; the zhajiangmian (fried sauce noodles) and fennel dumplings that CY, having lived away for years, instantly associates with "home"; and the gradual, ongoing evolution of CY's kitchen. Food is wondrous. It acts as a time machine, transporting us to the past, and as a bridge, helping us forge new connections and a deeper understanding of those who once nurtured us. And as we begin to cook for ourselves and for others, food slowly transforms into our own expression of life. How does what we eat become who we are? Perhaps it isn't because any single dish is particularly extraordinary. Rather, it's because the meals we’ve consumed, the food we were lovingly fed, and the dishes we’ve prepared for others—bite by bite, meal by meal—ultimately become the very lens through which we understand ourselves and the people around us. 呱，第二期我们聊食物、记忆，和正在形成的新生活。 这是一场从几本书开始、慢慢聊回自己饭桌的漫谈。读《她是幸存者》的时候，我们想到，背井离乡听起来是个很大的词，但落到最小处，可能就是餐桌上熟悉食物的离去。食物不只是家乡味，也不只是安慰。对书中的作者而言，做饭一开始像是偏航，偏离了母亲曾经期待她走上的学术之路； 但到最后，它反而成为作者理解母亲、理解过去的另一种方式。 读《老派少女购物路线》的时候，我们又看到另一种食物记忆。购置食材的市场、饱含家族记忆的家常饮食，还有制作食物的厨房烟火，都与思念交叠到了一起，成为回返时间的通道。 于是，我们也由此聊到自己的食物记忆：小温记忆里的蛋炒饭、鱼汤面，离乡多年的CY一想到“家乡”就会惦记的炸酱面和茴香饺子，还有现在慢慢建立起来的“小李厨房”。 食物很奇妙。它像一台时间机器，会把人带回过去；也像一座桥，让我们与曾经抚养自己的人建立起新的理解和连接。 等到我们开始为自己、为别人做饭，食物又慢慢变成自己对生活的表达。 “吃什么”，是怎么变成“我是谁”的？ 也许不是因为某一道菜本身有多特别，而是因为那些一顿一顿吃过、被长辈喂养过、也为别人做过的饭，最后都成了我们理解自己和理解别人的方式。