(Guiyang, Guizhou 1986-90) Sooner or later, I had to come to grips with the reality that it was more practical to ignore those homesick munchies and perfect my Chinese culinary skills, instead. By the second year, I had become proficient in making any living creature that creeped or crawled taste good. From the chopped ears, tongue, or snout to the pig’s feet, a sprinkle of soy sauce and a dash of hot pepper made any cut succulent.Living in China stretched both my kitchen skills and ingenuity to the max. Fried water buffalo meat, pork tendons, and sea slugs presented the most defying challenges. Dismissing the art of tendons and slugs, I could never manage to get the former as tender as did the restaurant chefs. Mine turned out like brontosaurus burgers. What was the missing link?
There was never a dull moment in the kitchen. Some of the teachers on the team were American. Their first and last Thanksgiving dinner during their stay saw a spread of stir-fried lotus root with hot pepper, noodle soup with seaweed, browned potatoes with soy sauce, and—you got it—steamed white rice. Adding protein to their festive diet was trickier. A live bird had to be selected at the market, killed at home, and dipped into scalding hot water so that the feathers could be plucked.
As a young boy, I had seen my grandmother go through this procedure! She used to raise her own chickens and quails. One day, she called me into the kitchen and said in Neapolitan, “Now, I will teach you to cook!” as she cleavered the head off a chicken. “Never forget to hold the bird down firmly,” she cautioned, “or it will run allover the house...and what a mess!”
I wish for the sake of the other teachers that I had seen her prepare cornbread, but southern Italians did not eat cornbread, and just as well. The process in China was even more drawn out than the one with the birds. Fresh ears of corn were purchased and husked. The kernels then had to be dried in the sun by spreading them across a balcony or on the sidewalk. Platforms at the train station were favorite spreading areas. Once thoroughly dried, the corn was taken to a mill and ground into meal.
Photo Copyright Men's Fashion by Francesco.
