Chinese Feast

If the ace Chinese food in Sydney yesterday weren't enough, tonight we had another memorable feast. Last Monday a friend from uni invited me 'round for dinner at her flat. She's from a neighbouring ward, and she was hosting the missionaries and three Chinese students that the Elders have been working with.

During the course of the night, I asked them what they thought of Australian food. They agreed that it was painfully bland most of the time. I then asked them what they thought about what passes for Chinese food most places in Australia, and they laughed in agreement when I said that I thought it was pretty much just Australian food with soy sauce added. I told them about the place near the temple which has really good food, and I asked them if they'd discovered anywhere in Canberra where one could get proper Chinese food. 'No,' they insisted in unison.

I asked them why, and they claimed it was because Aussies wouldn't eat real Chinese food. I would, I said. I think they may have interpreted this as a challenge because, at the end of the night, they invited all of us over to their place tonight for a proper Chinese dinner.

And this was definitely not your typical takeaway. We all sat on the floor around the coffee table and feasted communally on rice, pickled jellyfish tentacles, tofu with dried prawns, stir-fried asparagus, fish stewed with pickled cabbage and whole chillies, and rare-cooked chicken served with a dipping sauce full of sliced raw garlic. I frequently say that life's too short to eat boring food; none of this was boring food.

I had no idea that one could even eat jellyfish. I half expected the tentacles to sting my tongue, having once been stung by a jellyfish in St Thomas. Instead, they just tasted great--crunchy, a bit chewy, and pleasantly flavoured. My favourite dish, though, was definitely the stewed fish. The flesh was sweet and mild--and then the chilli kicked in with a beautiful slow burn. The sauce, infused with the chilli and the pickled cabbage, was addictive.

I definitely gave my chopsticks a good workout. I think the three Chinese students were impressed. Near the end of the meal, one of them said he didn't know if I was really an American or maybe just a Szechuanese in disguise. I took that as a compliment.