I was curious about my vinegar aversion and looked up why I didn’t seem to have any vinegar in my southern Chinese (Teochew and Cantonese) coastal cuisines at all. We also have almost no fermentation culture
Apparently, the climate, widespread availability of fresh food, and centuries of global trade in our ports and regional preference for food caught / prepared on the same day meant we have almost no need for food preservation.
Those cuisines dislike any flavors that overshadow the ‘original’ flavor of meats, seafood and vegetables. So yeah we almost never used any vinegar. I could not even eat northern Chinese food for a long time. Coz of the vinegar. It took me a long time to be able to eat anything that was vinegar heavy.
Now, my favorite ones are Yucatán foods flavored with citrus.
The first time I tried Tabasco and Sriracha, I was so mad. Hot sauce should not have vinegar (to me). It should just be straight up chillies, made fresh, daily, at lunch. ;)
I still don’t like Tabasco or American style sriracha. But I can now have a panucho with cochinita pibil with a lot of zest and acid.
Most people in my family cannot even deal with a drop of acid or vinegar. That was me, until very recently!
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Adrianna Tan
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •The Teochew and Cantonese ‘fresh foods’ obsession is so ingrained in me. All of my languages for foods have to do with how knowing how to select fresh fish is a virtue, getting frozen is bad and morally suspect and foolish. Every elder in my life, alive and dead, felt similarly. I never even ate microwaved food until I came to America. I never had hot sauces bought off a shelf until I left Asia. (All of our condiments were freshly made)
Except for a handful of preserved staples (preserved soy beans, olive vegetables, all of the staples for porridge).
Sometimes I run up against the realities of where I live now and how my elders ate and how different that is. It’s not possible for me to eat like that all the time. Frozen fish is probably fine, but I still can’t accept it.
Coming from a culture that taught me that being extremely fussy and bothersome with food is a virtue, it’s fine to care deeply about each meal every single day, that’s what adults do, to.. whatever the hell this is here, I feel very out of place sometimes. I wa
... show moreThe Teochew and Cantonese ‘fresh foods’ obsession is so ingrained in me. All of my languages for foods have to do with how knowing how to select fresh fish is a virtue, getting frozen is bad and morally suspect and foolish. Every elder in my life, alive and dead, felt similarly. I never even ate microwaved food until I came to America. I never had hot sauces bought off a shelf until I left Asia. (All of our condiments were freshly made)
Except for a handful of preserved staples (preserved soy beans, olive vegetables, all of the staples for porridge).
Sometimes I run up against the realities of where I live now and how my elders ate and how different that is. It’s not possible for me to eat like that all the time. Frozen fish is probably fine, but I still can’t accept it.
Coming from a culture that taught me that being extremely fussy and bothersome with food is a virtue, it’s fine to care deeply about each meal every single day, that’s what adults do, to.. whatever the hell this is here, I feel very out of place sometimes. I want to eat a certain way but I know I should probably also adapt to some realities. I want to live in a place where I can have fresh food at every meal.
It feels like a type of culture shock that I don’t know how to explain. And I miss being among people who feel similarly. Not just about the final product, like whether the dish is good or not, but about the whole thing, provenance and all. ‘I bought this fish from this person. They caught it here today. I am going to steam it, with salted plums, for dinner later, but for lunch we will have the taro rice and braised duck.’
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Adrianna Tan
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •I also learned, on coming to this side of the world, if there were things and flavors I didn’t really like; (like.. vinegar.. potatoes.. yes sorry but I really didn’t like potatoes)
I should try how Mexicans and Peruvians make those foods and I will probably like them a lot and change my mind about everything I dislike.
I want to write a cookbook about all the foods I disliked and how I changed my mind
Jay
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •I hope I make further discoveries about the remaining foods I don't like...
David McMullin
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •Adrianna Tan
in reply to David McMullin • • •@mcmullin hah you read my mind
hachyderm.io/@skinnylatte/1159…
Adrianna Tan
2026-02-01 18:27:21
@mcmullin hah you read my mind
hachyderm.io/@skinnylatte/1159…
Adrianna Tan
2026-02-01 18:27:21
David McMullin
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •The vinegar was novel for me but I like it. Sugared up potatoes took some getting used to. I’m Irish-American, so definitely in the potato-eater lineage.* And I like them just about any which way; my Chinese in-laws tease me about it. I also like thinking of tu dou as “dirt beans.”
* Previous thread on potatoes and the Irish in America:
musicians.today/@mcmullin/1154…
David McMullin
2025-10-20 08:27:48
Adrianna Tan
in reply to Adrianna Tan • • •on potatoes: beloved most parts of the world, disdained or perceived as inferior in the parts of the world i have heritage.
potatoes gained popularity in inland china and in the north, in places with drought and frost, but were always 'insignificant crops' in the southeast, where i have most of my heritage (because caloric sufficiency was already achieved with rice).
the people of the south largely perceived potato to have 'inferior texture' (and also they just didn't go with our rice-based dishes). they also often caught viruses in our humid climate near a lot of water.
in fact, 'tu dou' (or 'underground beans') mean 'potato' in mandarin, in northern china, but 'tu dou' in my southern chinese languages mostly mean 'peanut' (which preceded the arrival of potatoes).
we call all potatos (including sweet) 'fan shu' instead, or 'foreign tubers'. there was very little potato in my life. i still mostly don't love it, but mentioned above, as our climate was the same when my ancestors moved to places like singapore / malaysia / thailand. still rice based primarily,
... show moreon potatoes: beloved most parts of the world, disdained or perceived as inferior in the parts of the world i have heritage.
potatoes gained popularity in inland china and in the north, in places with drought and frost, but were always 'insignificant crops' in the southeast, where i have most of my heritage (because caloric sufficiency was already achieved with rice).
the people of the south largely perceived potato to have 'inferior texture' (and also they just didn't go with our rice-based dishes). they also often caught viruses in our humid climate near a lot of water.
in fact, 'tu dou' (or 'underground beans') mean 'potato' in mandarin, in northern china, but 'tu dou' in my southern chinese languages mostly mean 'peanut' (which preceded the arrival of potatoes).
we call all potatos (including sweet) 'fan shu' instead, or 'foreign tubers'. there was very little potato in my life. i still mostly don't love it, but mentioned above, as our climate was the same when my ancestors moved to places like singapore / malaysia / thailand. still rice based primarily, potatoes still caught viruses, rice is still religion.
in fact, the slightly derogatory (now reclaimed to be cute) term that mandarin speakers from the north had for people from the south, like me, was 'xiao tu dou': little potato. it had to do with how *our* potatoes were actually peanuts. because we were not potato eaters.