Two Things I Missed in My Hometown
My hometown is Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. It’s also the hometown for the pandas. I’ve come to the USA for almost fifteen months. And I didn’t go back home this summer because of the summer school. After staying in America for almost one year, the two things in my hometown that I missed the best are the food and the public transportation.
Sichuan cuisine is one of the most popular kinds of cuisine in China, even in the world. Hotpot is what I miss the most. The Sichuan hotpot is pungent and spicy, which is really different from what I eat in the USA. Also, we cook haslet of pig, cow, and sheep while I just have pork, beef, and vegetables in the USA. Many food materials I can’t get in the USA makes the hotpot here not perfect. Besides hotpot, other dishes such as double cooked pork slices and Mapo beancurd are also what I miss very much. Although, in the USA, I can still get tasty dishes from various of countries around the world. I have Sushi, Korean BBQ, American fast food, and Italian dishes. However, these dishes cannot make me, a person living in Sichuan for almost 20 years, feel satisfied. In the summer this year, my mom came to visit me and cook for me for several days. Her cook makes me feel at home.
Another thing that I missed very much is the public transportation in my hometown. In America, the public transportation like the bus is really inconvenient. I usually spend about 20 minutes to wait for a bus to take the 10 minutes ride to a market nearby and then take 30 minutes back. Moreover, the train in America is two slow. It takes about 3 hours from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara by the train, but only 40 minutes for the same distance in China. Also, there are subways in Chengdu, which takes only 30 minutes from the west of the city to the east. However, in America, it takes hours from the west of downtown Los Angeles to the east because of the traffic jam and the signals. Although, to save time on the road, I bought a car for convenience, I still miss the public transportation in my hometown.
Staying in America for almost one year, I get used to having other dishes than Sichuan cuisine and driving myself. However, I still miss hotpot and the convenient public transportation in my hometown.
