How to Cook!!

Last weekend I had two cooking experiences. The first was part of a small and informal Chinese cooking class that my program is offering. And the second was at the house of a young family in Haerbin. The class was particularly interesting because of the old man who taught the class. Oddly enough, all of the participants of this class are male. There are five of us in total and every Friday night we walk over to our teacher’s house to learn a different dish. This past Friday was our first class, and we prepared a fairly simple stir-fry. Our teacher is a Chinese relic – he must be 80 plus years old and speaks and acts exactly how you would expect an old wise Chinese man to speak and act. He speaks slowly in short concise phrases that seem well thought out. It’s as if he’s reading from a prepared poem – poetic cooking instructions (my next book). The emphasis he puts on the tones in the language produces a rolling melodic feel which draws you in more in more – whether you understand what he’s saying or not. Perhaps it calls back to a time when spoken word was at the heart of society – meaning story telling, lesson-giving etc. Not to say that spoken word has lost its importance, it just seems like it’s been a while since I was sitting around a camp fire sharing my experience through crafted spoken word, or sharing knowledge that had been passed down to me. Seems to me like there is a lack of that kind of sharing of knowledge these days. In a knowledge rich and hungry world, have we forgotten the most basic tradition of passing on knowledge? That of story-telling? (Becca loves story telling and this week was at a workshop on story-telling, so it has been on my mind.) It seems as though story-telling hasn’t completely died out, at least not in China because our cooking teacher is a master of it. His crafted instruction was accompanied by very crafted and careful preparation of the meal.
We began the lesson with tea and a brief introduction on the ingredients: the importance of good quality fresh ingredients and preparation techniques – use of the knife, types of slicing and chopping, washing of vegetables, and order of preparation. He then began the preparation and frying of our dish. The dish took less than 10 minutes to prepare – we had stir fried bean-sprouts, with thinly sliced pork, and green onions, in a “special sauce”. He came close to us and said in a mysterious whisper (which is funny because he’s 90% deaf) “ Do you know why when I make this dish it always tastes better than the restaurant’s”, we all shrugged, obviously not knowing why, and crowded around him waiting for the answer. He then said triumphantly “It’s because I add the right amount of vinegar!.... and my ingredients are of better quality”. I thought to myself, not much of secret culinary weapon… vinegar? But his preparation of this seemingly simple dish did seem to have a higher goal than just a preparation of a meal. Each step was carefully measured, not with a measuring cup or any sort of units, but with care, experience and commitment, so that not only the proportions were correct but the sizes, shapes, placement, and finally most importantly the timing was correct. After three other students, hurriedly prepared the same dish we then discovered the importance of his magical ‘vinegar’. None of ours tasted as good as his…. Although simple, his trick to making a great dish is something that requires more than just getting the ingredients together. It requires the right preparation, proportions and timing. One flavor cannot overpower the others, an ingredient added too late leaves that flavor lacking and brings out other unwanted flavors. All pieces are important to the meal and when carefully measured produce great food:
‘for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.’ (I believe this is in the Bible somewhere)
And I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. ‘Of course, isn’t it obvious that patience, time and effort produce something of quality?!’ Yes, but it does seem that humans are very good at getting the proportions wrong (whether in cooking or in life) and putting emphasis in the wrong place, and over-looking events, details, people….
If it is patience and an even temperament that produced the most beautiful and full flavors, why are we humans so drawn to the extremes? This imbalance can be as obvious as religious extremism, (in America the Middle East, Europe… etc), and as subtle as a ‘bad taste’ in our daily lives…. And we’re probably not really aware of it… we’re not paying attention. I don’t know how this culinary story turned into a sermon…. But I’ve always thought that the preparation of food was something quite special and this old man reminded me how good food should be prepared: with a bit of love!
Thats why mom’s food is so damn good!