Salmon – Avocado Noodle Recipe

G.L is one of my roommates’ mothers and I interviewed her for some folklore she has encountered or experienced.  She is Taiwanese and was born and raised in Taiwan, but she moved to California to raise her children. She thinks that it’s more beneficial to have her children study in the State but also having experience their ethnic culture. Having lived in two countries for a long period time, she had experienced two big cultural aspects of the world, so she would have a decent idea of how the Chinese and Western culture works.

One piece of folklore she gave me was a recipe that was passed down from recent generations in her family. Her recipe would be for a salmon-avocado noodle. This would be made by having the salmon cooked, with the noodles. The noodles would be Taiwanese noodles. Then you would need to chop up some cucumbers and green onion and avocado. This cuisine is called salmon – avocado noodles because the taste of the avocado stands out. Then they would add soy sauce and stir everything together.

G.L likes this particular recipe because of the multicultural ingredients from this. The ingredients are a hybrid from the avocado from California and the salmon from Japan, as her mother is from there. And since they would cook this in Taiwan, some of the ingredients would also be there like the noodles. Although this recipe hasn’t been passed down from generations and generations before, it’s still a tradition to the family, as only the female members of the family knows how to cook it.

As stated before, the recipe has food from all over the world, making it a multi-cultural cuisine. By using all these different types of ingredients, the family can experience many culture from just one instant. Since it’s also shared by the women of the family, it’s prideful to them in that only they would know the recipe.

I think this is a good way to experience different cultures without actually going there. People can make any type of hybrid of food, the ingredients doesn’t have to be just from one culture or country. And mixing different types of ingredients from all over the place doesn’t necessarily means that the food would taste bad. Some of the best tasting foods have ingredients from all over the world.

Taiwanese Funerals
S.S is one of my suitemates. We were also friends in high school. She was born in the states but moved to Taiwan for school. Her family is Taiwanese. As an individual, she is really interested in sports, and recently, while in college, she has also become really interested in Christianity. While participating in these many things, she has experienced many traditions that are expressed as folklore.

This tradition is about visiting the relatives who passed away and respecting them. S.S told me that each year, when they were in Taiwan; they would go to the graveyard of her grandmother. To visit their grandmother, S.S and her parents would go to a tradition Chinese market, and buy fruits, rice, and chicken (just any food in general). They then went to the graveyard site, lay out plates and put the food they bought on it. The foods would usually be laid out  neatly. The family would then take incense and put it into a pot and would do a “bai bai,” a form of silent prayers to communicate with them. Then after, they would clean up everything.

S.S experienced this right after she moved to Taiwan from the states. She started doing it in 3rd grade, and her parents were the ones that told her to do this tradition with them.  She thought that this tradition was interesting because she gets to connect with her ancestors. In addition she can see how much her mom cared about her mother. Her mother would always buy the best quality food, despite the cost, and they would do it every year.

Food and incense is a big part of communicating with the ancestors. Incense is also a big part of Chinese cultural. People would light of incense whether praying or during the Chinese New Year. Foods were also used as a way to connect with the ancestors by giving them something to eat during the afterlife. In a way, it’s like a gift for them even though he ancestors are dead.

I think the Chinese culture is more influenced by the respect of the dead because Chinese culture is more respectful to family. Even if they’re dead, one cannot forget about the relatives as they still need to take care of them when they die. This may be different from western culture because they haven’t been taught by the value of family. Of course family is still very important in the western culture, but the Chinese culture has significant figures like Confucius who values filial piety; respecting your elder.

Chinese Wedding Hong Bao

S.S is one of my suitemates. We were also friends in high school. She was born in the states but moved to Taiwan for school. Her family is Taiwanese. As an individual, she is really interested in sports, and recently, while in college, she has also become really interested in Christianity. While participating in these many things, she has experienced many traditions that are expressed as folklore.

One other folklore she told me about is a tradition people usually do in the Chinese culture. She explained to me that the guests of a wedding would have to give money the bride and groom. Her parents once gave about 500$ to the bride and groom. S.S was with her parents when this occurrence happened, but she was young, so she didn’t know exactly was going on. It was at a wedding with the bride being S.S’s mother’s childhood friend. She remembered that the wedding was at a restaurant, one at time, near the end of the wedding, each guests would walk up to where the bride and groom were sitting and they would give them the money. The money would have to be in a “hong bao” or a red envelope.  This tradition would need to be done in every wedding, or else it would be an awkward situation for the guest, as they might be the only one without the money.

S.S chose this particular folklore/tradition because she thought that this was an interesting way giving gifts to the bride and groom. She said that this was actually an easy way of giving gifts because if it wasn’t money, then each guests would need to think about what gifts they would need to buy for the couple.  And quoted form S.S, she said that “Money may not be the most meaningful gift, but it is the most useful gift.”

The context of this tradition is the money in the red envelope. This would be the symbolism of sharing the acknowledgment of congratulation someone.  This would also be a polite gesture for the bride and groom. This isn’t just one sided, the parents who give the money to the couple would expect the couple to give money to the parent’s children when they get married. So the money and gift would be reciprocated.

I think that this tradition is a way to acknowledge that the guests are also part of the family. Giving money to the couple could essentially mean that they got the couple back financially, so it’s a way that they can help them if the couple happens to be in trouble. This tradition would also be more prominent in an Asian cultural because I would assume Chinese culture is more prominent in family respect.

Cross-Country Bonding

S.S is one of my suitemates. We were also friends in high school. She was born in the states but moved to Taiwan for school. Her family is Taiwanese. As an individual, she is really interested in sports, and recently, while in college, she has also become really interested in Christianity. While participating in these many things, she has experienced many traditions that are expressed as folklore.

One of the traditions she has experienced is a Cross-Country one that is known and conducted by her high school’s cross-country team. S.S explained to me that every year, a sleepover would be held at the cross-country coaches’ house. The seniors of the team would have the freshmen dress up in a costume that the coach would have. Some of the costumes would be like an attire of a farmer, clown, or even a witch. The freshman would then participate in a scavenger hunt. They would need to collect things from the neighbors at night, for example a paper or an egg. Pot luck would also be included, and all the member of the team would need to wake up at 5am the next morning to drink a “disgusting” protein shake, and after, they would run for about two hours.

S.S particularly enjoyed this tradition because this it would help the teammates bond. In her personal experience, when S.S did it when she was a freshman, the confusion and the new environment actually made it fun for her. For the scavenger hunt part of the tradition, the point of it was team work and it was like team goal that they needed to accomplish.

In this tradition, there are of lot of events, from dressing up to running really early in the morning. And with all that’s happening in this particular tradition, I would assume the main focus is bonding, like what S.S said. This tradition is done yearly to let the teammates become closure, and in a sense, having the seniors accepting the freshmen as part of the team.

Personally, I also think that the main focus of this tradition is bonding within the team. This tradition brings in an aspect that’s missing from the sport itself, cross-country, into the tradition. I may be wrong, but in my opinion, cross-country doesn’t really rely on teamwork, but going through this tradition, they would learn more about teamwork and be closure as a team. In addition, I would think that this tradition would be a liminal point for the freshman, as the seniors are now officially acknowledging the freshmen as part of the team.

Construction Worker’s Ghost

J.H is currently my roommate is he also went to the same high school as I did. His ethnicity is Taiwanese but he was born and raised in Alabama.

J.H has shared with me a legend in the high school he went to. He told me that there was once a construction worker, who was helping reconstructing one of the libraries we have, but an incident occurred and he was accidentally killed in the library while working. J.H then said people actually saw the ghosts of the construction worker who died, and the other have heard a long “BANG!” in the library, and people would assume that the noise was the sound of a metal that crashed into the construction worker. J.H said that personally he has never seen the ghost or hear the lout “BANG!” but he only heard other students mentioning about it.

He found this out by one of his friends, and also his mom found out that the construction has died while remodeling the library.  J.H also said that his mom told him that apparently the school tried to cover his death up so there wouldn’t be any worries or bad press.  He thought that was legend was particularly memorable for him because this was probably the only scary rumor about the high school he has heard.

The main focus of this legend would be the construction and his ghostly occurrence in the library. This legend also shows a corruptness of the school, as would a lot of horror movies. Usually the big business would cover up something like a death in order to keep up the good image of the business or wherever the ghost appears.

This legend could be a historical fact for the high school, but it wouldn’t be something to brag about. In addition, even I haven’t really heard these ghostly occurrences as I went to the same high school. I’m not even sure that a construction worker had died in the library. Someone dying would be more plausible, but the ghostly occurrences could’ve been just made up, because like what J.H said, there aren’t much ghostly rumors surrounding the school, so someone could’ve made this up just for entertainment purposes.