"Taiwan's Station in the UK" (Episode 2)
Everyone's family background is different. I was a student in the lower grades during my school years, and I witnessed all the exciting moments of the "cattle class". I remember when I first got married and moved to Cambridge in 1999, I met many friends here and accompanied elites from all over the world. This made me feel inferior and insecure. I felt clumsy and couldn't even speak basic English conversations smoothly.
In the loneliness of a foreign land, I could only quietly soothe my homesickness with the flavors of home in the kitchen, while also taking care of the health of my children and the whole family. I also used food to make friends, inviting many international students and exchange scholars to my home for meals, showing concern for their lives abroad. Under these circumstances, I honed my culinary skills and became proficient in various international cuisines—my most important survival skill overseas. My interest in food helped me pass the time during my lonely and boring days in England, and also allowed me to connect with elites from all walks of life.
When my eldest son was little, he especially loved Taiwanese pineapple cakes. Every time I went back to Taiwan, I would buy a box of pineapple cakes to take back to the UK for him. However, considering health concerns, pineapple cakes with a long shelf life often contain preservatives, which are unhealthy, and fresh, high-quality pineapple cakes have a very short shelf life, so I could never buy enough for him. At such a young age, wanting to eat pineapple cakes as soon as possible, he asked me to make them for him. At the time, I didn't even know how to use an oven, and I disliked kneading sticky pineapple filling, so I dissuaded him from having his mother's homemade pineapple cakes.
My eight-year-old son actually persuaded me, saying, "Mom, how about this? I'll help you knead the pineapple filling, and you knead the dough. If we work together, we can make it!" As his mother, I was truly speechless. My eldest son's ingenuity left me no reason to say "no!" For his sake, I reluctantly decided to try making pineapple cakes for him. They weren't very good at first, but my husband kept saying, "Delicious! Delicious!" He was happily "enjoying it!" Then he devoured them all like they were garbage cans, which truly touched me.
I was both touched and embarrassed, so I decided to make delicious and healthy pineapple cakes for my family. I diligently researched and refined the process, using healthy ingredients and natural preservation methods. When I first started baking pineapple cakes, I often failed and felt very frustrated. A friend suggested that I learn from doctoral students conducting experiments, meticulously recording every change in ingredients, and one day I would be able to make delicious pineapple cakes. It sounded like I was writing a doctoral dissertation on pineapple cakes! 😂
So I started doing all sorts of experiments. It took me more than three years to make nearly 10,000 pineapple cakes. I studied them as seriously as if I were conducting an experiment, and I finally figured out how to make the best-tasting pineapple cakes by utilizing the characteristics of the ingredients without any harmful additives. During this process, I don't know how many nights I stayed up, and my hands developed calluses from frying the pineapple filling. I even developed carpal tunnel syndrome, but I still persevered.
During this exhausting process, there were times when I really wanted to give up. At those times, my husband would encourage me by saying, "The biggest failure is giving up. As long as you don't give up, you have a chance to succeed!" This gave me the courage to keep working hard and persevere in "never giving up".
Stay tuned for episode 3
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