#60: Sesame Crunch Lotus Bun Ice Cream

At San Francisco International Airport I crave sesame crunch lotus paste dim sum buns. Out of hundreds of airports across America, only in San Francisco do we have an entire counter (at the International Terminal) dedicated to dim sum!

But the cravings have a very specific and peculiar time frame. They occur only when I land (not before a take off). And only about 15 minutes before touch down, and about 8 minutes after I've resumed life back on earth.

"To order? Or not to order?"

Somehow the tug of home, of being back in California -- and especially, in the SF Bay Area, the historical port of entry for immigrants from Asia -- is especially strong at touch down, when the dim sum cravings always hit.

Maybe it's the lunar pull of moon, or the reminder that just a hop, skip and jump across the Pacific (what is an ocean to ancestral spirits?) lies the land of my birth. Only...I've never been back there. Not since my adoption.

Maybe it's the reminder of my Chinese roots. The lotus bun, like a tender sweet egg, just ripe for time travel and transformation.

I don't know. But I've noticed these cravings are calculable and connected to a geometry of time-space memories and experiences (not just in San Francisco).

In Paris I crave freshly-made morning palmiers, profiteroles (ice cream cakes in lush chocolate sauce) and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants). In England I crave sticky toffee pudding, packets of crisps, a good lime spritzer. And in San Francisco, I crave sesame seed lotus buns. With each bite, I am transported to a past that somehow lives in the present -- if only for a moment -- through these divine morsels of delicious food.

Which snacks make you happiest, remind you of home, or of your mother or your grandmother, or of a time in your life when you felt safe, loved, comforted and warm?