User Comments - auntie68
auntie68
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 1:24 PMDear uncle changye, thank you SO MUCH for the fascinating Chinese cooking show links! Here in Singapore we have something called the "Asian Food Channel" -- much loved by my 90-something Amah --, but the Chinese-language cooking shows on that station are so weak by comparison with the progamming in Japanese, Korean, English, and even Malay(!). The Malay "cooking show" hosts are like the secret weapon of Malay-/Indonesian culture, they are so good that I find myself tuning in even though I need to flip through my dictionary to jot down the ingredients! In contrast, there are two dry programmes from Taiwan on "Chinese health food" and "The Chinese Way of Tea". And one very annoying one -- also from Taiwan -- where the host is a 40something Chinese lady who wears her hair in childish plaits, talks and acts like a 15-year-old, and slips into Minnan dialect as she makes fun of the chefs on her show. There are a couple of really good shows by (impressively bilingual) Singaporean hosts on the subject of "street food", but this is of purely local interest, and it is like nothing against the sheer volume of poor-quality Mandarin programming. Thank goodness for the Internet!
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 1:13 PMDear channa, thanks for supporting the "cooking" lesson request! I wish I knew the appropriate vocabulary for following a fabulous home cook into his or her own kitchen, and learning from that experience. I can't help being convinced that the best food on this planet is locked in the long memories of "Auntie-Ji"'s, Mak Ciks, Amahs, Ayahs, "Zie", "Titas", and "cook wallahs" in each country, whatever they may be called in their own culture. The first -- and only -- time I ever cut a whole chicken up by myself was... in Ravello, Italy (by necessity, not by choice; the chicken was raised by my friends, no question of a styrofoam tray of trimmed parts from the supermarket). And the first time I ever went to the toilet that had a very alive, and splashy, fish in a pail of water right next to the "throne" was in... Dongguan, southern China. The fish was the main course for my "welcome" dinner! None of this was fun at the time, but food is such a marvelous way to understand the people who eat it!
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 10:12 AMP/s: In Chinese culture, an "Amah" is a professional nanny, somebody who cares for children, or -- as in the case of my family -- she can even be something like a Head Butler/ Housekeeper. Much respected, possibly much feared, not to confused with a "maid" or a scullery assistant.
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 10:08 AMHello. This Auntie's dearest wish, CPOD-wise, is for a reasonably advanced lesson on how to receive an informal lesson in cooking from a Chinese person who is a fantastic cook. I love food! My French and Italian is reasonable enough for me to make good friends with very good chefs who don't speak English, and with that, a passport to the kitchen where I can get to know their team a little. And during holidays in Europe, you'll usually find me in somebody's home kitchen, watching somebody (or even a whole team of zie!, that is, "a1yi2"'s) fix lunch or perhaps a family recipe which they are particularly proud of. For me, the warmest feeling is when they feel comfortable enough to let me do something, or - wow! -- invite me to come along with Uncle Whatever on his next visit to the local butcher/ fishmonger/ local market etc. Chinese chefs are a bit shyer, I think. My Cantonese cooking vocabulary is actually quite big because I grew up in a family that employed Cantonese or Hainanese cooks to prepare the family meals. As a child, the cook would chase me away fiercely at cleaver-point if -- out of pure curiosity -- I dared to lurk in the kitchen. Fortunately for me, my old Amah (aged 90something) has become mellower in her old age. So these days she is more than willing to show me the things that she learned by observing the cook for 60 years. Gosh, she's a better cook than any of the cooks we ever employed! Wish we had known that thirty or forty years earlier... Well, I don't have that kind of vocabulary in Mandarin, and I wish I did. Even simple things like, "You know, I've tried making this a few times before, but it just didn't turn out right..." would be helpful, because it's like heaven when your host cook says, "Oh, that's probably because you XXXX instead of YYYY, let me show you..." Please? Thank you so much!
Posted on: Noodles without Cilantro
March 19, 2008 at 2:32 PMThanks so much Steve, I feel better already. The "white foods only" rules took us completely by surprise... it's reassuring to know that an American family -- halfway across the world -- knows the rules which I was trying to describe. There were days when we fed him bananas (a "white food", apparently) to keep up his nutrition! Thanks so much...
Posted on: Noodles without Cilantro
March 19, 2008 at 2:01 PMP/s: The Stunt Toddler was actually eating all kinds of things from the moment his teeth came through. Happily. Even food which we thought might be too spicy for him; I distinctly remember watching him enjoy a "curry puff". But then he turned 2-1/2, and suddenly all these RULES started to make themselves known to us. Aarghhh!!!
Posted on: Noodles without Cilantro
March 19, 2008 at 1:55 PMDear Steve, I'm sorry I unleashed all that on you! Guess I misunderstood your question; what you wanted was the name of an actual dish ("soup noodles with veggie"), only I didn't know that dish. If there are picky eaters in your family, they have my sympathy. On TV, I see PRC toddlers eating with gusto, shovelling everything in expertly with their own adult-sized chopsticks. In contrast, my Singaporean Stunt Toddler nephew, who has a great set of teeth, is only just emerging from a puzzling "white food" phase. Meaning that he would only eat things like: a bowl of plain white rice; plain white rice swimming in clear broth and (if we're lucky) maybe a few slices of plain white fishballs; Italian spaghettini al dente with nothing but dab of butter, warm crusty foccacia with EVERYTHING scraped off, plain Chinese egg noodles swimming in clear broth (emphasis on "clear"), slices of untoasted white bread (with cream cheese, if we're lucky), the fluffy dough outside part of a "pao" (Chinese pork bun), or two or three hardboiled quail's eggs, eaten dry. This drives us nuts! And I think I have caught hostile glances from fellow diners who probably thought that we were punishing him by withholding food. Sigh...
Posted on: Relativity
March 19, 2008 at 5:07 AMHello uncle changye. Hikaru Sulu really was supposed to be a Filipino? It figures! Hee hee. Thanks for remembering Arthur C. Clarke in your later post; my father purchased -- and read -- every one of his science fiction novels as it came out, which was convenient for me when realized that I liked reading them!
Posted on: Noodles without Cilantro
March 19, 2008 at 2:07 AMHello sballa. I think that a bowl of noodles with only green vegetables, and none of the usual "fixins", would definitely be considered a special order to most Chinese! You really need an answer from somebody living in China, but this is how we would say it in Singapore, where the Mandarin may have local quirks : If your meaning is: I'd like a bowl of plain noodle soup (汤面; tang1mian4), hold the usual meat/fish/wontons etc, I think you could ask, "请你给我一碗汤面，白的, 不要料“ （qing2 ni3 gei2wo3 yi1wan3 tang1mian4, bai2de, bu2yao4liao4) The "白的“ literally means, "a white one", here the word "white" means "plain". The "料“ is what you call the "fixins" in Chinese, the stuff that has meat or fish in it. If the noodle vendor seems incredulous, you can confirm your wishes by saying, "什么料都不要" (shen2me liao4 dou1 bu2yao4); "Not even a little bit of liao4"), pointing at the child who is the fussy eater. I see young parents doing this all the time here in Singapore! Better to ask for the green vegetables separately, to avoid confusion: "要放一点蔬菜，可以吗？“ (yao4 fang4 yi4dian3 shu1cai4, ke2yi3 ma?"; "Some green vegetables, if that's okay") The following vocab might be useful for you if you have any picky eaters in your family: 一碗白饭 ＝ yi4wan3 bai2fan4 (a bowl of plain rice) 一杯白开水 ＝ yi4bei1 bai2 kai1shui3 (a glass of plain water, previously-boiled for hygiene) sballa, I hope that somebody else will jump in and give a better answer. I have been following your family's preparations for going to China, and I'm so excited for all of you. Oh well, at least this bumps your question to the top of the "Conversations" list...
Posted on: Knitting a Scarf
March 20, 2008 at 1:54 PMP/s: I really, REALLY like the 我爱厨房 clips; the chef was so personable, and so clear. And authoritative: I didn't even have to flip through my dictionary because the things he stressed are the same things which are stressed by Cantonese chefs. But I can still the need for help from CPOD. When the TV chef said that it was better to "过一点儿水“（ "put the ingredients under water a bit"), he actually was recommending that those ingredients be "blanched" with near-boiling water. But I only understood that correctly because I knew the corresponding cooking expression in Cantonese. And I think that concepts such as "ao3", which refers to simmering ingredients slowly and patiently for flavour, and which the chef was emphasizing, may need some extra explanation for Chinese learners unless they have a decent cooking vocabulary in Chinese. Thanks again, uncle changye!