One of my friends doesn’t like to try new things. When we go to restaurants, she only orders food she knows someone else has eaten and enjoyed.

That’s not me. 

I am “the friend who likes weird food.” Avocado with soy sauce. Mayonnaise with broccoli. Rice with ice cream. Persimmon with bacon. Beef with sweet sauce. Cheese on ramen. Egg on yogurt. Fish and banana. They have raised eyebrows, but I’ve made them all. Not every attempt was successful, but some ended up being brilliant. My favorite was dipping avocados in soy sauce, which makes them taste like salmon rolls.

But my creativity comes from my background.  I was born and raised in another country, and I discovered that some foods in my culture sound weird to other people. The experience of living in two countries taught me to be open about food. I learned that when people say the food I made looks disgusting, their discomfort is just the differences between culture and region – my dishes are never weird in the places where they belong. 

For example, I learned about bacon-wrapped persimmon from Japan, cheesy ramen from Korea, beef with sweet sauce from Czechia, egg on yogurt from Turkey, and fish with bananas from Britain. Being away from my hometown for so long, I've forgotten how my mom used to cook. Forgetting, however, has provided me with the space for creativity, and I've started to concoct my own recipes. Some were disasters, but I found people are generally willing to enjoy the creativity of cooking, even my picky friend. Once, when I was learning to cook, I offered to make her tomatoes with eggs, which she thought sounded bizarre, but when she tried it, I was proud that she really enjoyed it.

Later, I explained to her that tomatoes and eggs is a very common Chinese dish.