1,378 miles. The distance between my two hometowns—Cedar Park, Texas and Corona, California. Growing up in many houses, I found my home in something different: food. Different types of foods have comforted and taught me many important lessons. Panda Express, dim sum, and Chinese fruit cakes, especially, have guided me through many journeys in my life.
Panda Express, surprisingly, helped me through one of the most terrifying journeys. At the age of two my brother started chemotherapy due to his benign, inoperable tumor. Whenever my brother obtained some sickness like the flu, I would get a phone call and know right away the message: he was in the hospital. Walking toward the front of the school, I would mentally prepare myself to see my brother, not knowing how badly the chemotherapy and sickness had affected him. And after every visit to see my brother, my dad would take me away to Panda Express. Each time we would arrive, exciting thoughts of orange chicken and chow mein would replace the worries over my
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Those fruit cakes always caught my attention, since the shades of red, green and blue, from the delicately laid slices of fresh fruit, popped against the white cake and white walls. Although I loved eating the fruit cakes, I loved what those fruit cakes meant more: family gatherings filled with stories and laughter. Chinese fruit cakes are much more than a delicious dessert; they allowed my family and I to reconnect and listen to each other talk about our journey through life. Chinese fruits cakes gave me the opportunity to absorb and carry all those stories, and the lessons embedded in them, with me. I will always have a smile on my face and gratitude in my heart when I see a Chinese fruit cake, because the lessons I’ve learned from those moments after we stuffed are bodies with those mouth-watering cakes have brought me to where I am