Yammmmm! Yam me doooown! That’s right, I don’t spell the word you say when something tastes good, with a U. I prefer the letter A. Take a word like 蚊， (man, meaning mosquito but also dollar). Most of my native English students would spell that ‘mun’. But the next time they read that word, they invariably pronounce it like ‘moon’, presumably because it sounds more Chinese, and also because of the spelling of stuff like Tuen Mun. So I would always spell the ‘AAH’ sound with an A.
So anyway – yesterday. Four guests, four dishes. It was the hottest day of the year so naturally I cooked heavy, starchy and oily food. And after ten years, I think I may have cracked the secret to cooking good Four Seasons Beans （四季豆 sei gwai dau). But I’m not going to share it here. You can read all about it in my next book, Cook It, Sichuan Food Made Easy.
川菜，(chuen choy, Sichuan food), truly is the best in the world, 世界第一 (saigai dai yat, World Number One). I love having guests, it’s the only way I get to taste a lot of dishes.
P.S.
The kitchen is running all summer, but why not take a crash course in Chinese menu reading first?
Saturday night! What a brilliant night. Above is the table just before the hordes (12 people) started pouring in. I hosted, cooked Sichuan food for and expressed my life through the medium of dance (optional) in front of a bunch of people who didn’t know each other and some of whom I’d never met! It was the same on Thursday night. I had met only two of the nine people who turned up then. Excellent! There are SO many great people around and I want to meet them all.
Then the people started trickling in and I became rather busy with the precision cooking. Sichuan food: 95% preparation, 5% cooking! (And then about 200% cleaning, but hey).
So it was chew, chew, swallow, swallow, drink drink for a couple of hours. As I stood precision-cooking in the kitchen, I heard peals of laughter coming down from the roof. That always makes me happy. Of course during precision cooking I never have time to take photos, but I did manage to snap Ma Po Dau Fu (Pockmarked Hag Tofu) before:
and after:
Yum! Yum! Yum! and double YUUUUMMMMM
Wonderful people, good fun and they gave me beer! Then it was time to trot off to Tap Tap for some more beer and being drunkenly explained about addresses by the local postman. That’s what I call a brilliant evening in and out. Thank you very much for coming, people!
You can take cooking lessons from me and/or come to the next Meet New People Extravaganza on September 3rd. However on that night it’s vegetarian/vegan food only. Still good! The protein will come from dau fu (tofu), beans and peanuts.
禮拜六夜晚 – Lai bai luk ye maan (Saturday night)
麻婆豆腐 – Ma Po Dau fu (hemp/pockmarked old woman/grandmother bean rotten)
郵差 – Yau chai (postman)
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