I have a confession to make: I’ve never been particularly fond of Chinese food.

Don’t get me wrong—it’s not that I dislike Chinese food.  I’m not one of those people who thinks that eating rice is weird.  It’s just that my enthusiasm for Chinese food pales in comparison to, say, my enthusiasm for Thai food.  Or Japanese food.  Or Korean food.  Or Indian food. Or Vietnamese food.  Or…you get the idea (on the other hand, I’m more fond of Chinese food than German food—that’s for sure).

Given that we’re in the process of adopting from China, this is an issue for me.  I strongly believe in the importance of trying to incorporate Chinese cultural heritage into our family-to-be, and food is a big part of culture (not the be-all end-all; still, it’s important).  So I’ve been working on my relationship with Chinese food.

But first, a little history.  I grew up in a small town that had not one Chinese restaurant.  Let me rephrase that: no Asian restaurant of any sort.  My first experience with Chinese food—make that “Chinese” food—came when my mother started cooking chicken chow mein.  I love Mom, but this one was not one of my favorite dishes.

After I moved to more cosmopolitan places, I started eating at Chinese restaurants.  I found most of them disappointing, however.  There were exceptions—most notably, one high-end dim sum place in Seattle and another in DC (I’m also embarrassed to admit that I like the food at P. F. Chang’s, which I understand is a far way away from being the real deal).  I always suspected, however, that the real problem was that I wasn’t ordering the right dishes in the right restaurants.

Last night, I had a dining experience that seemed to corroborate my suspicion.  One of my former students—now a colleague and friend—invited us out to dinner with her husband. Both she and her husband are from China.  We let them choose the restaurant, and they picked their favorite Chinese restaurant in town (they hold most of the local Chinese restaurants in low regard).  This place has two menus—one that lists the Americanized dishes and one that lists the traditional dishes.

We ordered from the second menu.  ZGirl and I had eaten there once before, so my friend’s husband asked me what I had ordered the last time.  “Chicken with black bean sauce,” I said.  He told me that this had been a mistake; the restaurant’s specialty is seafood.  So we ordered three seafood dishes and one beef dish (I usually don’t eat beef, but this time I made an exception).

The food was excellent.  Especially the squid. 

Good to know.