SC - Thanksgiving and Semi-Alternate Lifestyles (long)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Adamantius commented:
> > What we used to do was all
> > the prep but very little actual cooking, setting up the necessary
> > ingredients for various Chinese dumplings with three or four different
> > fillings, pots of boiling water, soup stock, fresh and fried noodles,
> > steamers for breads and dumplings, a wok or three, various condiments
> > and pickles, and lots of fresh fruit. People could come and make their
> > own dumplings (in some peculiar and amusing shapes, too), in short, play
> > with their food and eat it, too,
> 
> Did you give any instructions on how all these ingredients were supposed
> to be put together? Or were you presenting your version of Master
> Cariadoc's "Period cooking is not just using period ingredients".

As I say, most of the prep was done, so all people had to do was put
fillings into wrappers, seal them and boil them, and we were there to
show people how to do that, and how to deal with the other foods. Of
course we might advise people on combinations that either simply don't
work, or which might be considered medically unsound, but people were
there to have fun, and not necessarily to acquire a full education in
southern Chinese cuisine, so things generally were pretty unstructured.
If you had a good time you knew the day was a success...   
> 
> If you gave me all those ingredients without at least a bit of instruction,
> it might be edible (or maybe not) but I doubt that it would resemble
> anything your wife or mother-in-law would consider chinese food.

Maybe, but what I'd do is gauge your interest in being instructed before
intruding on your fun. Some are interested in only doing things "the
right way", and some aren't, and that's fine. Assuming, of course, you
didn't plan to throw a whole box of shrimp chips into a wok full of hot
oil... ;  )

Another consideration is that while China is, in theory, a single
country, its regional cuisines are as varied and as localized in scope
as any of the American regional cuisines. Suppose, say, I were to ask
this list, "What's the right way to cook ham?" I'd get about a dozen
answers, all of them different, and all of them, in theory, right. The
right way to fill and fold a cusk--I mean a wonton-- could be completely
different as little as 100 miles away, maybe less, from where one
happens to be. Then, of course, there are the places where they don't
eat wontons, but jiao tze, or guo tie, etc., etc. Our instruction would
run something like, "Well, here's how my great-grandma in Guangzhou
would have done it, but my mom lived in Shanghai during the War and this
is how _she_ learned to do it, and this is how the Northern Barbarians
in Bok Ping/Peking/Beijing would do it, and if it tastes good the
chances are it's correct."  

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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