Yesterday was a public holiday, the first of five, if you count next weekend, as the Chinese do. However, today is the main day May 1st, the international Labour Day. Yesterday, two of the last students I taught before retiring came to visit.
I have cooked for them in the past, but this time they wanted to cook for me to demonstrate they had learned something besides linguistics. Well, one of them wanted to cook; the other was assigned washing and chopping duties. She is now a PhD student and lives on campus in Guilin without cooking facilities.
Here is last night’s dinner
The Spread
Beef, Asparagus and Matsutake
Steamed Shrimp
Steamed Grass Carp
Clam, Pork and Greenery Soup
This was morning glory but I have no idea how she cooked it. Unfortunately, it was inedible. It turned out she tasted it then salted it but thought it needed a little sugar to lift it - a common Chinese practice. Unfortunately, she thought a container of sea salt in my kitchen was actually the sugar and re-salted it in error. They were mystified as to why I have more than one kind of salt (I have four). So, they gained a lesson on saltistics.
This caused more hilarity than grief and we had too much food anyway and everything else was more than fine!
The chef
