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Most of us have fielded the question: \u201cSo where are you from?\u201d To say I\u2019m not a fan of this question would be an understatement, considering how my response \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m Chinese\u201d \u2013 is often met with palpable disappointment. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t have a rare nationality, like Bruneian, nor am I a fun Korean. But before I can spiral into an identity crisis, my appetite always anchors me in the comfort of being Chinese.<\/p>\n
In a somewhat unexpected way, New York introduced me to more Chinese delicacies than I could count, from roujiamo<\/em>, the Chinese answer to a burger popularised by the now ubiquitous Xi\u2019an Famous Foods, to tieguodun<\/em>, a generous Northeastern stew cooked in a massive wok, corn bread lining its sides.<\/p>\n Indeed, as New York\u2019s Chinese food scene expanded beyond the golden trinity of Cantonese, Shanghainese and Sichuanese to include Hunan, Shaanxi, Yunnan and more, the signifier \u201cChinese\u201d began to feel inadequate. Lumping these regional cuisines together makes as much sense as calling Portuguese, French and Georgian cuisines simply \u201cEuropean\u201d.<\/p>\n A single kitchen can employ Chinese from cities as varied as Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Shanghai and Shenyang. Different strains of Mandarin inflected with regional tongues mingle in the thick air, some dropping retroflex sounds and others merrily rolling their suffixes. Amid the sometimes dizzying medley of tones, everyone manages to understand each other, for all are fluent in the hustle and flow of an immigrant restaurant in Flushing. In these moments, there is strength in numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nTo be fair, most of these regional restaurants cater largely to the Chinese diaspora concentrated in the tri-state area and only occasionally to a few adventurous outsiders. Behind the scenes, in kitchens and among restaurant staff, an unexpected harmony often emerges. Mandarin, the language mandated by the government back home<\/span> and learned with varying degrees of success, has proved more useful in New York for communicating with their compatriots than it ever was back in China, where they would be surrounded by people speaking their native dialect.<\/div>\n