Growing up in Beijing, I had heard the rumors. Food in America is different. It takes some adjusting. I brushed the rumors off.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d lived in Washington D.C. before I started middle school, so I figured I knew what I was getting into.<\/p>\n
But when I first walked into Allison Dining Commons and saw a sad, fried cheese sandwich staring at me, I just stared back. Living in D.C. did not prepare me for this.<\/p>\n
I missed home. Images of Beijing hot pot flashed through my mind. Lamb slices in bubbling broth, dipping sauces mixed just right. I missed food that felt familiar.<\/p>\n
Then someone introduced me to Chipotle. We don\u2019t have that in China, so I\u2019d never had it before. I walked up to the counter and froze. Rice or tortilla? What even is guac? I had no idea what half of the items were. So I just copied the cherub in front of me and ordered a honey chicken bowl with black beans, white rice and sour cream on top.<\/p>\n
That first bite? Game changer. Warm rice, umami chicken, a hint of spice from the beans \u2014 all in perfect proportion. I went back every week after that. I\u2019m already mourning the day I can\u2019t get my burrito bowl fix in Beijing.<\/p>\n
The dining hall grew on me too. The salad bar stopped looking so intimidating. I actually started liking the mac and cheese, the waffles with syrup and the chocolate chip pancakes.<\/p>\n
Another international student, Sophie Lee of Daegu, South Korea, said she noticed the very large portion sizes of American food.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could eat a normal portion here with two of my friends,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Lee said the heavy flavors of food in America were also hard to ignore. Everything seemed to have added an extra spoon of salt or sugar.<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday, I went to Insomnia Cookies, and I had a sugar rush afterwards,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
Arsen Shymon of Oleksandrivka, Ukraine said food in America can be hit or miss. But if he had to compare, the food is much too bland when compared to his hometown meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s completely different, especially in terms of vegetables and fruits,\u201d Shymon said. \u201cThe biggest difference that I see is, for example, in Ukraine and in Europe in general, I feel like when you taste the fruits, you can really taste the flavor, and here sometimes you don\u2019t always.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whenever Rania Raj of London is faced with too much unfamiliar food, she said she resorts to her stash of hummus chips, digestive biscuits, dried fruit and nuts from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have my food from home sometimes, and then I would go and try something new every day to try and balance it out,\u201d Raj said.<\/p>\n
While exploring downtown Evanston, Lee said she discovered Koco Table, a Korean restaurant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really made me feel closer to home in a way because I’ve been craving Korean food, not just instant ramen noodles, but just handmade Korean foods,\u201d Lee said. \u201cBecause the restaurant was also owned by a Korean grandma, it was way more heartwarming, and I felt a bit closer to my home and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daisy Yin of Shenzhen, China, went to a Chinese restaurant with friends during the second week of the program. One especially memorable dish was y\u0101n s\u01d4n ch\u01ceo r\u00f2u. Each bite of the bamboo slices unleashed a rush of savory richness.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven before the dishes even came, I was already about to cry,\u201d Yin said. \u201cThe first bite is just like heaven. It made me feel so at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food isn\u2019t just food. It\u2019s how you find home, one unexpected bite at a time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With reporting from Jiayue Zou<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" International students navigated American cuisine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":368,"featured_media":11877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[710],"class_list":["post-12167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":710,"user_id":368,"is_guest":0,"slug":"xiao26","display_name":"Huiting Xiao","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f97f402a2de3d4c5041803fde407c9f33ce304a6140bf86f65e02a4f60569886?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Xiao","first_name":"Huiting","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/368"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12167"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12968,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12167\/revisions\/12968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12167"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}