I recently made a bowl 担担面 (dan dan noodles), a famous staple in Chinese Sichuan cuisine. Originally from China, I frequently crave the taste of home and its wonderful flavors while I am in the US. The delicious peanut sauce mixed with home-made chili oil atop minced pork laying in a bed of fresh white noodles and topped off with green scallions acted as a teleportation device. The moment I started to devour the delicious bowl of noodles, I closed my eyes. As I sat in my apartment, it imagined I was sitting outside on a plastic blue chair during Shanghai’s blistering hot summer. The only thing that felt like it could cool you down was a bowl of dan dan noodles. It felt all too real, all too much like home. Chinese cuisine has taught me the power in food, in how it brings people together and how it exhibits our differences. That bowl of dan dan noodles was so mouthwatering that it taught me one more thing. Food is best eaten eyes closed.