The nature vs nurture of food: 00

 

(From googling) 

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The expression “nature vs. nurture” describes the question of how much a person’s characteristics are formed by either “nature” or “nurture.”  “Nature” means innate biological factors (namely genetics), while “nurture” can refer to upbringing or life experience more generally. 

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    Liking or disliking a particular food is, in lots of cases, nature.  Some people like/love or dislike/hate bitter or sour food (e.g., bitter gourd / karela / 苦瓜; unripe apple, or lemon/lime).  Practically everyone, especially children, likes sweet things (e.g., sweets and chocolate)

    This series about the nature vs nurture of food is my take on the nurture side:  how much one’s liking or disliking a particular food item is determined by his/her real life background and practice — the culture or family s/he was born into, e.g., 

• Sub-continental Indian and Mexican people tend to like chilli and spicy food; 

• Most (southern, if not all) Chinese people must have rice regularly or they’ll feel something is missing, whilst an Englishman who’d spent a year in China complained about his diet there: “Not rice again!!”.

 

   For this series, I’ve selected items that elicit or evoke strong feelings in people for or against those foods, (almost inevitably) because they were brought up eating them (or not).

    It’ll be interesting to see how you relate to the chosen items and whether you agree with me that they’re more  because of nurture rather than nature.

The hidden message in Chinese food 03: making a coy announcement (Taiwan)

For the two years that Conoco Taiwan was drilling off the west coast of Taiwan, it was decided that it would be much easier to fly over from Singapore (the hub for the oil wells in Indonesian/Malaysian waters) all the oil rig personnel, because of the hassle involved in getting them visas and accommodation in Taiwan.

The men worked two-week shifts on the rig, so there was a fortnightly flight carrying them from, then back to, Singapore on the company’s Electra plane.  

The Singapore office would throw in a black doctor’s medical bag containing correspondence between the Singapore and Taipei offices.  This didn’t take up much room, so my eldest sister (who was at the time the geological secretary in the Singapore office) would throw in all sorts of goodies for me:  a scarf/hat/shawl set knitted by her for me, and other things that I wouldn’t be able to get in Taiwan.  

One day, a packet of durian* sweets turned up in the bag, so I went round the office, offering them to my colleagues.  They said, “Oh, are you treating us to sweets?” which, in Chinese, is: 请吃糖 qǐng chī táng / “treat eat sugar”.  The Chinese make a lot of remarks that a Brit would find too obvious (and therefore totally unnecessary), such as “Ah, you’ve come back” / “Ah, you’re home”, so I thought nothing of it, and said, “Yes!”  Everyone laughed and asked me when the happy event would be taking place.  

It turned out that the Chinese way of announcing one’s engagement is to offer sweets to friends and colleagues.  

If one wanted to know when a friend or colleague would be getting married, one would ask, "When are you going to treat us to some sweets?"（什么时候请我们吃糖啊？ shénme shíhòu qǐng wǒmen chī táng ah?）

*durian: a spiky tropical fruit the size of a rugby ball that’s native to S.E.Asia.  Regarded by the locals as the “king of fruits”, it is similar to cheese and marmite in the intense love/hate feelings it arouses.

(Taiwan, 1975)