For the first 18 years of my life, my mom cooked Chinese food every day, all served family-style. But when it came time for me to teach myself how to cook, I didn't ask my mom for help. Instead, like so many young people, I turned to the online recipes. By the time I got married, I could cook many dishes.What I didn't really know how to cook at all, however, was Chinese food.
Part of the problem was that I only knew how to cook by following recipes.And up until maybe 5 or10 years ago, the number of English-language recipes for Chinese dishes you could find in a cookbook or on the Internet still felt extremely limited--at least when it came to homey(家乡菜),everyday recipes written with a younger Chinese American audience in mind.
That was the experience, too, for sisters Sarah and Kaitlin Leung. Like so many other ABCs(American-born Chinese) and younger first-and second-generation Chinese immigrants (移民),the Leung sisters reached a point in their adult lives when they started to love to eat the food they'd grown up on, but found it really difficult to learn how to prepare it.
As it turns out , though , the Leung sisters were uniquely positioned to do something about it: Their father had spent years cooking at his family's Chinese American takeout restaurant. Their mom had deep knowledge about traditional Shanghainese cooking. Meanwhile,the two sisters had grown up in New York , eating their parents', food, but also immersed(沉浸) in America's own food culture.
So, in 2013, the Leungs started a food blog"The Woks of Life". What made their blog different from other blogs was that the intergenerational transfer of knowledge that the Leungs were so eager for was baked right into the concept: The four family members took turns posting recipes, each sharing their own favorites. In that way, Sarah says, the blog reflected-and continues to reflect--the diversity of the Chinese diaspora(华侨).