Child

American families do. My parents looked at me in

bewilderment. “Son, you must be kidding, right?

Those sandwiches and precooked food do not give you

enough nutrition for growing up,” my dad said. “And

precooked food is not good for your health,” my mother

kept on. My elder sisters showed no interest in my

idea. I grew frustrated from their reaction, but I

did not give up. Evening after evening, I kept

bringing up the idea at the dinning table. My mother

finally permitted me to make one American dinner for

the family. That day, I went to the supermarket to

buy bread, ham, and chicken soup right after school.

I planned on making ham sandwiches and chicken soup

for the dinner. The dinner was ready and served at

our usual dinnertime. My mother tasted a spoon of the

chicken soup and said, “It tastes like brine, nothing

but salty. Why don’t they put some shark fins in it?”

She refused to have another spoon. My sisters only

had a small bite of their sandwiches and then put them

down; my father barely finished one. Even I could not

have another one after finishing two. That night, my

parents and sisters had instant noodle for dinner.

Such a result was out of my expectation, but I had to

accept it. From then on, the subject of changing

cooking style is never brought up to the family

conversation.

I think Soto had the same feeling as I did when he

found out that there was no way to change his family

to be the “perfect family” he expected. When he

realized that, he went out to look for work; being

different from him, I tried to bring up another

subject to the family conversation.