When Cai Fei visited her then-boyfriend at his home in the Netherlands in 2016, she was appalled to find that breakfast and lunch consisted primarily of whole-wheat bread.
"Isn't that a human rights violation? Two cold meals a day was just too much for my Chinese stomach," said Cai, a Beijing-born data analyst who now lives near Amsterdam. The 35-year-old recalled how stunned her partner was the next day, when she whipped up a two-course lunch of thinly sliced flank steak with red and green bell peppers in a savory sauce, as well as scrambled eggs and tomato stir fry.