Hi ,
I noticed (1) a recipe for mooncakes online a week or so ago and read it. It was interesting, but not something I wanted to try and cook. Firstly I didn't know anything about mooncakes and if (or why) they were special; secondly, the recipe sounded complicated.
Then I went to my class last Monday morning.
One of the students is Chinese. To my surprise, he gave each of us (it's a small class!) a mooncake as it was Chinese Moon Festival the next day. That led to a class discussion about Chinese traditions (2) and history.
We also commented on (3) the shop he’d bought the mooncakes from. That chain of Asian food stores seems to be opening everywhere.
After class, I ate the mooncake. It was yummy (4) and tasted almost the same as some little cakes I ate in Indonesia. Thinking back, my Indonesian teacher described them as ‘like Chinese mooncakes’; now I understand!
I have another student with Chinese heritage (5). When she was younger, her parents had a Chinese restaurant in a city a couple of hundred kilometres away. She worked there when she was a teenager. I thought it would be nice to buy her a mooncake because our next lesson was on the day of the Chinese Moon Festival.
There are lots of shops selling Asian products in the streets that I use. Due to my plans that Monday, I purchased from the same chain of stores as the student who had bought the mooncake for me. The packet had a little sticker on the back with the shop details.
In the lesson, I gave the mooncake to my student. She was surprised and thanked me.
As we talked, she read the packet. She pointed to the sticker on the back of the packet and asked if that was where I’d bought it from. I said yes, that was the place I got it.
That’s when I realised how small the world really is — this student’s uncle owns those Asian food shops!
Have you ever a had a 'small world' moment, when things that you thought were separate were suddenly very connected?
Have a fabulous week,
Andrea
(1) noticed - saw
(2) traditions - things a country (or family) does at a special time that are a 'habit'. They do the same thing every time because they've always done it that way.
(3) comment on - say something about
(4) yummy - informal word for delicious, tastes really good!
(5) heritage - something that is passed down from parents to children. It could be a personal quality or cultural practices.
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