As exchange students we did not think that we would get a chance to share our favorite foods. We made simple homemade items, like banana pancakes, chicken wings and mashed potatoes. Making American food with fellow Chinese American exchange students in "A Taste of the World Cooking Competition”, organised by JC Harmony Hall, was the most exciting part.

By cooking American style food for different countries and cities, we are sharing our cultural food with them. As exchange students, we experienced something new. We were able to talk to other students and tell them about our food style. We remember one of the students asked us if our mashed potato skin was part of our dish, and it was nice to explain to them that Americans eat it with the potato skin. We learnt that we have to inform other students about our cultural style of food.

We made sure to use milk and eggs for the pancakes so they were extra fluffy. Mixing it was easy, but cooking them was hard. We were not used to cooking with electrical hotplates. It took us three hours to master the cooking techniques and we made it into an art form. It was a really great experience to cook without the necessities we need, giving us a chance to be more creative.

No American dish is complete without some chicken wings, so we used a southern style sweet barbeque sauce, and to make it a little spicy, we used Chinese hot sauce; it really was the best of Chinese American cooking. We blanched, seared, fried and sauced the chicken wings, and everyone questioned how saucy it was. We described the way Buffalo wings are supposed to be, very saucy and messy. Serving the food to a large number of the residents was a challenge. We did not realize so many people would show up. It was fun to watch everyone eat our food, and the best part was when they did not even care if they had to use their fingers.