Chinese Cooking Lessons

Last Friday I got a message on WeChat from one of our friends saying he and his wife were coming on Sunday at 4:00 to make dinner for us. "I'll bring the ingredients to your place to make something delicious."

We moved things around to accommodate. And that is how chicken feet made their debut in my kitchen (at least since we've lived here).

They showed up with the works. Fish. Crabs. Chicken. Broad beans. Red bean spring rolls. Tofu. Several types of mushrooms. Artemisia Verlotiorum. (Well, that was the translation...) Ginger. The only things we needed from our kitchen was salt, sugar, peanut oil, soy sauce, black vinegar, MSG, and yellow wine. (I didn't have the latter two.)

I watched and tried to learn. Nothing was written. She speaks less English than I speak Chinese so our communication was by gesture only. She would sprinkle about a teaspoon of something. Look at it and sprinkle a little more. Then look at it some more and sprinkle a little more. No tasting. Maybe the food speaks Chinese to you about what it needs and if you just stand and listen you know what to do. At any rate, it's an art that I don't have! But it was all delicious!

And we got crab eating lessons from it!

I also learned their kitchen habits are very different from ours (or at least mine). I have a hard rule that no food goes into the bottom of the sink. But she put meat in and then without cleaning, the vegetables went in right after. I've learned to keep my thoughts pushed back with reassurances that these people are all still living despite the bacteria that is in kitchen sinks/kitchens; but I admit, it was very unsettling. She would wash every pan/dish/utensil before using it, but I learned why after she used my cleaver to cut chicken and then put it right back in the wooden holder. (Me and the disinfectant and boiling water spent some time with that knife block soon after....) We all just have so many different ways of thinking! I'm very sure that they think we're just as fascinating.

So technically, I'm not sure this can count as a Chinese food cooking lesson, but I did learn a lot!

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