Thursday, January 19, 2006

Chinese Food

When one is sick, there is something soothing about Chinese food. I guess maybe it is the chicken noodle soup thing manifested in egg drop soup or the soft feel of lo mein on a sore throat. Because Steve and I have been fighting the flu (and it may be winning) we have been eating a fair amount of Chinese carryout food the last couple of weeks. Of course, one thing it has going for it is that I don't have to cook it! That is always a plus!

This got me to thinking back to my first acquaintance with Chinese food. I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and we had one Chinese restaurant there. It was a neat place to go as a kid because they had booths with soft curtains -- very private and special. For some reason I always seemed to have trout almondine (which now that I think about it isn't very Chinese). I especially liked that they always kept my water glass full!

When I was doing student teaching in Columbus, GA in 1968, we (myself and my two roomates) invited boyfriends over for "Chinese dinner." We bought canned Chinese food and heated it up and thought we were sophisticated. The guys were OK with it though -- guess they enjoyed the company more than the food. For my part, I ended up marrying Steve a year or so later.

Of course, Steve is a native New Yorker and really does know a fair amount about Chinese food. He grew up enjoying the restaurants in New York's Chinatown. He introduced me to really exceptional Chinese food and WOW! Early in our marriage I got a wok and learned how to use it!

When we lived in San Bernardino, California, in the early '70s we often frequented a handfull of excellent Chinese restaurants. I remember one incident where the waiter was writing Chinese characters using a ball point pen. My husband commented and the waiter responded -- "when in Rome." That is one of Steve's favorite stories.

Another of his favorites is about his Uncle Jim and the Chinese waiters. Although I never met him, he must have been quite a character. On this particular occasion, he was in the hospital and became hungry for Chinese food in the middle of the night. Picture a NYC Catholic hospital in the 1940s. He sent the ambulance driver, who came back with the ambulance filled with Chinese waiters and steaming dishes of food -- enough for the whole ward. He got in trouble with the nuns for sure!

Turns out my childhood favorite Chinese restaurant in Birmingham (which shall remain nameless) many years later opened a new cafe near my dad's assisted living home. Naturally, we decided to try it for "old times sake." Since Daddy was ill, we did carry out. I picked some nice entrees for us and an order of their traditional lemon meringue pie (I know, how Chinese is that?). Talk about a MSG headache! I'll not be going back there. So much for memories!

Today, living in Maryland, we have plenty of very good Chinese restaurants to choose from, plus Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese and a very good carryout. And my Chinese sister-in-law has given us a wonderful cookbook and lots of Chinese delicacies.

Life is so full of changes and while you are living them, they seem so subtle. When, in reality, taken over a lifetime they are monumental.

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