Hello! My name is Ania Hoang. I am a senior Chemistry major and Art History minor at Carleton College.
Welcome to my website, where I will explore the cross-cultural experiences I’ve had throughout my life and time at Carleton through food. They say that food is a window to another world. Food is the first thing we learn as we step into another culture and the last thing to leave as we depart.
The major cultures I have interacted with over a long time are Polish, Japanese, and Vietnamese. The pages are divided into different cultures and are titled by food that I found to summarise my experience with said culture. Follow my journey through delicious food and its cultural importance, and I hope you, too, will become curious about food and want to connect deeper with people and places through food.
Background:
Born in Warsaw, Poland, to Vietnamese parents, I got to experience both worlds. Growing up in Poland, I was able to engage with Polish history and culture through the people around me, whether they were friends, neighbours, or classmates. To me, locals are no longer strangers, instead, they are friends who share more than just food. Each tasty dish comes with a story or tradition passed down through generations.
As a child, I attended a Polish-English kindergarten to expose me to various cultural experiences. Through the cultural immersion, I also met teachers and classmates who carried their own cultural backgrounds that differed from my own.
My favourite way to interact/connect with cultures is through food. From kindergarten, I would have traditional meals for lunch and tea time at school. Coming home from school, I would be welcomed by the aromatic scent of my mother’s cooking.
At Carleton:
Moving to the states for college to Northfield initially meant almost completely separating from the foods I knew and loved. On a more positive note, it meant an opportunity to challenge myself to bring in my background knowledge and recreate the foods I missed from my own with a limited pantry, essentially an attempt at fusion food.
On top of that, I was able to interact with Japanese culture through the Carleton language department, campus events, and food (which, too is limited by ingredient accessibility), which eventually led to my travels to Japan, where I could taste the local foods.
Through my cross-cultural experiences, I gained appreciation of the cultures and personal stories that influence the food.