Hungry in Houston

December 27, 2004

My family went out to a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. I have a confession. I think I must be the only Chinese person on this planet who does not love Chinese food. People always look at me like I'm insane when I say so. I don't know any Asian Americans, whatever generation they are, who do not love the cuisine of their motherland. I think I would appreciate Canto cooking more if I did not have so much of it growing up. It was almost all we had and I was always craving other things, any thing. Airplane meals were exciting to me simply because they were not Chinese. I'd never had anything but Canto and the occasional Italian or Mexican meal until I went away to college. Which is a shame because Houston is such a great food town, with large immigrant populations, and anything you could ever want to eat. I intend to eat my way through this town while I'm here. And I carry a list around in my head of all the places I want to eat when I come home. But not one of them is Chinese.

Contributor: 

Melissa Hung

Founding Editor

Melissa Hung is the founding editor of Hyphen. She was the editor in chief for the magazine's first five years and went on to serve in many other leadership roles on the staff and board for more than a decade. She is a writer and freelance journalist. Her essays and reported stories have appeared in NPR, Vogue, Pacific Standard, Longreads, and Catapult, among others. She grew up in Texas, the eldest child of immigrants. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.