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How Pasadena Has Encouraged Me to Learn More About The World
Pasadena Independent Jul 25, 2017
I’d wanted to try classic Chinese fare like these dumplings for a long time, and I finally got the opportunity at Din Tai Fung in Pasadena – Courtesy photo
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I’d wanted to try classic Chinese fare like these dumplings for a long time, and I finally got the opportunity at Din Tai Fung in Pasadena – Courtesy photo
By Tom Williams
It’s wonderful to travel as a student: when one is so willing to learn and accept new information, travel acts as a gateway to exploring more about the world and different people. As a British student living in Pasadena for the past two months I’d like to demonstrate how, in a modernised, tiny and metropolitan milieu of a world, it is still very much the case that “The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page.”
I’d like to start off with a very simple example, one to which hopefully most can relate: food. It is often the case that food is said to be the gateway to other cultures. Despite Britain’s controversial history of colonization and Empire (a subject of much uncomfortable debate among many Britons which I do not wish to explore here), there is actually relatively little variation in the cuisine of my country. Sure, if you venture north you are more likely to discover a deep-fried something; to the south, more delicate light boiling of meats and root vegetables or baked fish; and everywhere the fragrant curries of India. Yet in Pasadena I’ve had the opportunity to sample foods from so many different cultures and areas of the world – Eastern Asian food such as dumplings at Din Tai Fung, or the classic Southern fare of chicken and waffles at the famed Roscoe’s.
This has acted as an entrance for me, allowing me to scrape the tip of the iceberg of so many cultures and histories which I otherwise would have had very little exposure to. Sitting in different restaurants, talking to people of different countries of origin, eating their food, listening to some of their traditional music has made me much more interested in small points of fascination, such as the Chinese tradition of eating different roots to regulate body temperature, for example. This has led me to a greater interest in wider issues, such as race-relations in modern America or the history of Japanese migration to America, which I was able to learn more about at the Japanese American National Museum in LA. I’ve also become more interested in the local history of Pasadena and the surrounding area, an interest which I’ve attempted to satiate by volunteering at the famous Huntington Library and Gardens.
I’m not claiming that I suddenly understand these different cultures or that I am in any way now a part of them, because I know that I’m not. It’s true that I’ve led a rather sheltered life up to now, growing up in the English countryside, and I’m trying to avoid the typical trope of spending two months with people of a different culture to my own and then saying that I’ve been changed as a human being. All I’m saying is that, despite how messy our world has become with politics and prejudice, I’ve been rather delighted that Pasadena has allowed me to experience new things and to learn a bit more about the world. So, Pasadena – thank you.
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