This weekend I had a lot of Chinese food. Friday night a few of us went to Miss Shirley's and ordered Chinese. It was saucy and tasty, particularly the eggplant with hot garlic sauce, and came with lots of fortune cookies.
Then last night I went up to visit Cho - I'd made arrangements in advance, so she was there this time - and her in-laws, who live with them, cooked dinner. The main dish, and highlight, was basically a Chinese quesadilla - some kind of greens with tofu and garlic, inside some kind of pancake thing that was folded in half and fried a little. It was deeeeeelicious. (Very cute: in an attempt to meet my American tastes, they made one with cheese instead of tofu and garlic, which was actually pretty good, but the real one was better.) There was also a plate of shrimp, some very wet rice porridgey stuff that I didn't really care for, fava beans, and some sauteed summer squash.
It was a little different from, ok, anything I'd ever had, particularly anything I'd ever had in a Chinese restaurant. I assumed people in China didn't actually eat anything remotely related to what we call Chinese food, but it was still cool to get personal confirmation.
Fun fact: When I got there yesterday afternoon, Cho's husband was just leaving for work. What job, you ask? Delivery for a Chinese restaurant.
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4 comments:
MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, water rice porridge!!!!!!! That stuff rocks my world. I grew up with it so it's my serious comfort food.
I used to be a Chinese food snob - anything that wasn't my mom's Chinese cooking wasn't good enough to eat (although my mom does more Taiwanese cooking). But since moving away from home 13 years ago, I have softened my hardline stance... (clearly - I make fried rice from fresh rice!)
I like scallion pancakes a lot a lot. And I also like all kinds of steamed breads with stuff inside them. My mom used to make the best "xiao long bao" (little dragon buns) and "sui jian bao" (pan-fried little dragon buns). I'm glad to hear that you had fun eating Chinese food cooked by a real Chinese family!
Oh gosh, steamed bread with things inside it. The very thought makes me want to run out and...well, fly to Japan and eat steamed buns from the convenience store. I suppose flying to China would work, too, but I think my chances of navigating are generally better in Japan.
Oh, the delicious irony of your hosts trying to win you over with a cheese dish!
I KNOW!
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