A recipe for keeping culture and tradition alive
The United States is often considered the melting pot of the world. Today many citizens born in other countries, but living in the U.S., cling to traditional foods and holiday celebrations as a way to blend and incorporate their cultures with their families here. One such example is Jaime Chao, a technology and learning coordinator at the Washington International School. She is Chinese-American who utilizes a traditional dessert known as red bean soup, as a way to honor her roots and keep these important family customs alive in the U.S.
For many immigrants and their families in the U.S., it has been becoming increasingly challenging to maintain their customs in our society. One example of this is Ms. Chao, who each year around Christmas time prepares a dessert based off of red beans that in her homeland of China signifies togetherness and reunion. “It is important for me to keep our heritage alive for my daughter, who was born here in the United States, so that she may learn and understand the Chinese culture,” Chao said.
When speaking with Ms. Chao she told me another way to keep some traditions alive is to encourage others to make this dish. “I really feel like you should try this out sometime with your family and share with them when and why we make this dish in my former country,” Chao stated.
After spending time with her, I felt inspired and motivated to make this dessert for my family. In speaking with my father, whose family came here from Italy, he echoed Chao’s comments. “In our home, the tradition of the entire family gathered around the table on Sunday afternoon to enjoy pasta and each other’s company is very important.” My father and I decided to give Chao’s recipe a try.
Chao lended me a tip before attempting to make the Red Bean soup. She said “Do not rush the beans, do them ahead of time.” I took this into consideration, so later that day, I set out to my local H-mart to seek adzuki beans, the base of the soup.
Later that evening, I let the beans soak in water overnight. The next morning, I got up early to start the cooking process that awaited.
I started by straining the leftover liquid from the beans and rinsing the beans with fresh water. After that, I poured the beans in a large pot and added six cups of water. I brought the water to a boil and let the beans simmer for an hour, adding more water as needed. After the hour was over, it was clear that the beans were soft and slightly broken down.
I then used a blender to pulse the beans to achieve a smoother consistency. I transferred the beans back into the medium-sized pot and mixed in some sugar and orange zest. I stirred the soup over a medium-high heat to dissolve the sugar. Next, I added tapioca pearls. To my surprise, I was unable to find the pounded sticky rice known as mochi at my local H-mart. There are so many toppings you can add to the soup. I did some research and found that some people serve it with warm coconut cream and sweet rice balls.
Overall, I thought the red bean soup tasted different, but I enjoyed it. It did not taste like your traditional soup, but to me, it did not taste like a traditional dessert. It was bland, but it had a very nice and creamy texture.
After interviewing Ms. Chao and trying out the Red Bean soup recipe, I feel inspired to explore more about my heritage so that I too can pass off foods and traditions to my future family. This holiday season I am going to continue a tradition of making Italian desserts for my family to honor my great-grandmother. As my great-grandmother, Isabella once said, “all the great traditions in our family are centered around food.”
You can find a link to a recipe here.
Siena Del Sontro
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Created with images by panayota - "the great wall china badaling china china"