Goodbye to Homesickness

Maybe I’m a little outside-of-the-ordinary when it comes to emigrating because I’ve done it more than once, but it seems that unlike many people I talk to, the more differences I discover in my newly adopted homeland the more I like it.
I am so OVER being homesick!
To be honest I can remember that when I left New Zealand back in April 1995, I did get awfully homesick for the little Kiwi things that made life unique there. Perhaps first off I should explain that by homesickness I’m not talking about missing your friends and family, because obviously that never ends. You’ll miss those who are dear to you whether you live an hours’ drive away or a days international flying, end of story.
What I’m talking about is the kind of homesickness where you crave certain foods or magazines or TV programs…but mainly foods. The first few years I lived in Holland I used to crave Marmite, Milo, hokey pokey ice cream, roast lamb, mint sauce, beef steak, Mum’s stuffed roast chicken, Weetbix, Pinky Bars…all sorts of stuff that was the everyday food of life. Over the years that diminished, although I would have been seriously disappointed if each visit by Mum or Dad didn’t include some Pineapple Lumps for me and jellies for the kids. Over the years I have had custard powder, baking powder, chicken stock and even an entire delicious beef fillet steak (no kidding, it looked like half of a dead cow in a suitcase and it was by far the best smuggled contraband yet!) brought over from New Zealand. Yet as time goes by I came to enjoy the local treats instead, like olie bollen, stroop waffels, Dutch cheese and white asparagus.
Now I’ve reached a stage in my homesickness evolution where I can’t be bothered missing any of the old things and am just loving trying out all the weird and wonderful new treats that Southeast Asia has to offer. OK, I do draw the line at some things. To the person who commented on a previous posting that cockroaches pickled in brandy are considered to be medicinal in China – yeah right. I draw the line at bugs, reptiles, and endangered species. But who couldn’t be charmed by the guy who handed me a big mug of sugar cane juice yesterday, freshly extracted from the pile of woody stalks piled up on his stall at Tangs Market? And the smiling Chinese lady with the missing teeth who sells handmade Pau (steam meat-filled dumplings) next door? Today at the supermarket I spotted Japanese Steam Bread – just put it in your bamboo steamer for ten minutes or if you’re me, in the microwave next to a bowl of boiling water for 1 minute and then enjoy this slightly sweet, ever so delicately flavoured pure white loaf.
Sweet smoky satay cooked over an open flame, the tiny local lobsters rubbed in sugar and garlic, piles of nasi rice flavoured with soy sauce and prawns, steamed chicken and barbeque pork, Hainaese chicken-rice with a steaming bowl of broth to wash it down, buttered crab so big the beast won’t even fit on your plate, the dark treacle-like fermented soy sauce called Ketjup manis which is so sweet the kids lick it off their fingers….it’s all part of the fun of living in this new country. Discovering local cooking secrets is also fun, like cooking food in banana leaves and how to flavour your rice with long grass-like panadana leaves (most of you will have tried Pandan rice at least once – now you know what it means!).
Introducing the kids to local food is part of the adventure, and we’re never sure whether they will eat something or not. Niels is less adventurous, being the oldest his tastes are more set already. But Carl will eat anything – or at least try it once – and loves prawns, siew mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), duck and any sort of noodles.
I admit I’m a foodie and for me a country’s identity is inextricably connected to its food. As a life-long lover of Asian food, it’s like I’ve died and gone to culinary heaven to be living on the island which is a rich soup of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Indonesian cuisine. So for all of those who are planning to visit - welcome to the afterlife and don’t forget your chopsticks!