I just went over all my writing on this trip so far, steak in Argentina, churrascaria in Brazil, chilli in Mexico, street food in China etc. I noticed that I paid a lot of attention to food and eating. I guess it is fundamental to everyone but to me it is the one of the most pleasurable things in life.
In every city I visited, I hunted down the local restaurants and food stalls. I like to try what people fuel themselves with, learning about the local flavour and understanding the history and background of each country’s cooking. I vividly remember walking 45 minutes in Moscow at night just to find reheated Chinese fast food, having a biggest piece of steak in Buenos Aires, sharing the heat with charcoal griller to warm me while waiting for barbecued lamb on a street in Shanghai, or the toasted sandwich I had in the morning of our video submission day during the selection week in London. My memory is full of various eating moments.
Each person has different eating habits and preferences. It is exciting to learn about someone through eating. It supposedly takes up ten percent of our time in our lifetime. A dinner tells many secret messages in a person, from the food selection, table manners, food sharing and offering, even how he/she manage the payment. The sub-conscious is exposed during the simplest activity.
It was at lunchtime in Mexico City where me, Kareem, Takashi and Ania went to a buffet Chinese restaurant. We all filled our plates up with fried rice, fried noodles, stir-fry vegetables and all the stir-fried and deep-fried we could find. I noticed how 4 people all have 4 ways of eating same kind of food. Ania had knife and fork in her hands, I used spoon and fork, Takashi was only equipped with a fork while Kareem ate with his bare hand.
It reminds me of how different and unique we all are. It makes me aware of life, four people having four means to achieve a common goal. It is not just about eating but also working. You have to understand and compromise with the individual custom, generating the overlapping area with each other. This is what makes my experience original to me.
