You don’t get that very often… The first day she was here, we went to the grocery store to get some vegetables for a Chinese dish. She made us something very simple and very tasty – white rice cooked with peas, carrots, corn, and broccoli on the stove, without any oil or seasonings. We had soy sauce to put on at the table, but that was it. And this was delicious. See, I guess you don’t need all those fancy, who-knows-what-they-put-in-them sauces, do you?
A couple of days later, we went to a Chinese restaurant along with a friend of mine and her Chinese guest. I know it sounds odd, but as both my friend and I went to China last summer, we learned that American Chinese food is very different from authentic Chinese food, and we wanted our Chinese guests to experience this. (After all, we ourselves found that even Pizza Hut is different, and better, in China.) After working through some menu item confusions – they couldn’t tell what anything was until they got the Chinese version – they devoured their food, seeming to love every bit of it. Alice said with a satisfied nod that it was “different, but better,” and I believe she was describing a difference in the sauce.
Mainly what I took from this month was that Chinese food is simple. It’s about eating vegetables and rice, and having a balance of it. And another thing I’ve learned, sort of gradually, is that Chinese people eat a lot. I think they have better appetites than Americans do – probably because they don’t feel compelled to always be on a diet since their natural diet is healthy enough.
