One section that stood out to me is in the first sections of the personal account. Chang describes, vividly, his mother cooking in the kitchen. He describes that his mother “scored it diagonally”, “sifted sugar into the crevices with her pinched fingers” and “adding a few splashes of soy sauce.” Chang’s mother was positive of herself in the kitchen. She had a process for how she went about cooking. Chang’s mother goes on to explain that, “The meat needs the bone nearby...to borrow its richness.” Chang is in the kitchen learning the methods of his mother’s cooking. Chang and his mother are connected by the “bone” through cooking. When Chang’s mother died, the flavor to his life was weakened because his backbone was not there any longer. More
