Why are food memories so powerful? What exactly does it mean when people talk about food? Resonating with the recent OHMA workshop with Storm Garner for her Queens Night Market Vendor Stories and Oral History Project, OHMA student Nina Zhou shares an example of how food memories are curated on documentary media.

Before I departed for my study overseas for the fist time, my mom squeezed a bulk of snacks and ingredients into my suitcase, convinced that I wouldn’t be able to access Chinese food in Toronto. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be the reverse - you can literally get all sorts of food from across the globe in Toronto because of its multiculturalism and diversity. But I always remember the scene of my mom packing stuff for me before my journey. Wherever people go, the flavors of their hometown are haunting sensations that regenerate the smell, taste, and texture in their minds. Food memories are frequently connected with nostalgia, and so food is a portal to speak for where people come from.

During the workshop “Editing for the Mass Market: Tips and Tidbits from the Queens Night Market Vendor Stories Oral History Project” (QNMVS), Storm Garner shared details about collaborating with different parties for the public-facing components of her oral history work. Storm has mentioned that she had been enjoying the stories of food vendors the most, among the many aspects of the Queens Night Market project. As an intern for the Queens Night Market Vendor Stories Oral History Project this semester, I can absolutely resonate with Storm for her passion in digging out the richness of stories behind each vendor. Usually in each interview there is a prompt about food being sold at Queens Night Market, and the topics pivot to all the various directions you could imagine: immigration stories, family, career ambition, friendship, hardship, etc. This pattern of food as a spark for non-food stories has made me thinking more broadly about the relationship between food and people’s lives, and why this relationship goes beyond eating itself. 

The documentary television series “A Bite of China” has probed into this question through the lenses of the history of food, dining, and culinary culture in China. First thing first, it is a food show. But resonating with Storm’s focus in the QNMVS project, I became particularly obsessed with the documentary’s narrative style which, without naming it as such, relied on oral history, telling stories of different themes by chapter. The documentary makers don’t narrow the focus to just food but instead dedicate a significant amount of time to portraying people narrating their life and stories. For instance,  “Footstep” (Season 2, Episode 1) explores food stories that intertwined with nature, migration, and most importantly, human emotions. Scenes alternate among the changing landscape in China, filming of the food and cooking process, and stories of the people involved, either told by themselves or narrated in voice-over. 

The soused fish story in this episode gives a glance at how this documentary succeeded in curating food memories, not just menus. The dish dis not presented alone in the formula that you might have watched in a typical food show. Rather, the documentary approaches it by introducing the audience to an ethnic Miao family in a small village of Southeast China. We meet Li, a young girl separated from her parents during most times of the year. The camera follows the Li’s parents’ brief homecoming for the fish season. Like hundreds of thousands left-behind children in China, Li’s happiest moment is the reunion with her father and mother who work as migrant workers in major cities far from home. At some moments, an exact purpose of the show is hard to discern, and themes appear concurrently: the two-week process of food making, the family’s gathering time, and the natural and cultural life are all encapsulated in several minutes. After that, the scene shifts to Li sitting inside the cottage, leaning her body towards the window and gazing into the distance. She talks about her parents’ approaching departure, filled with a sense of loss. The fish sauce the family made together carries this bittersweet memory for her. 

Stories which aim to convey human emotions and food memories are prevalent in “A Bite of China”. Perhaps the documentary show is another form of oral history interview for audiences to interpret. To me, what’s been stressed in the term “food memories” is “memories”. As I write this, I am now back home in China and the sense of “being home” is reiterated by the now-daily scene of my mother making my favorite dishes at home or me getting street food outside. For instance, sweet green rice balls appear in markets around Qingming Festival time in April. Like the dishes at the Queens Night Market animated by the wide-ranging stories of the vendors who make them, these foods are a taste of memory. 

Inspired by Storm Garner’s workshop and her experience in working for Storm’s Queens Night Market Vendor Stories Oral History Project, Nina is reflecting on the the connotation of food memories, expressed in oral history related media production. For those interested in the whole series, they are available on YouTube in English or with English subtitle.