An incident in the school cafeteria when he was nine clarified things for him.
This
kid Edgar pulled me by my shirt, threw me to the ground in the lunch
line and said Chinks get to the back. And it wasnt that I realized,
people made me realize what I was, Huang told Here & Nows Robin
Young.
Eddie Huangs outsider status made him identify more with
hip-hop artists like Tupac Shakur, rather than the model minority Asian
stereotype. Through high school and college he got into fights, as well
as scrapes with the law.
My mom always wanted to send food back.
Everything on the side, some things hot, some things cold, no MSG, less
oil, more chilis, oh, and some vinegar please. Black vinegar with green
chilis if you have it, if not, red vinegar with ginger, and if you dont
have that, then just white vinegar by itself and a can of Coke, not
diet because diet causes cancer.
Microwaves cause cancer, too,
so she buys a Foreman grill and wears a SARS mask because oil fumes can
ruin lungs, says the woman who smokes Capri cigarettes and drives an SUV
wearing a visor. Thats my mom.
I couldnt eat with my mom; she
drove me crazy. But she never bothered my grandfather. He was always
above the trees.A group of families in a north Cork village are suing a bestplasticcard
operator in a landmark case. Like 3 Stacks said, Whats cooler than
cool? Ice cold. That was Grandpa: a six- foot- tall, long faced, droopy-
eyed Chinaman who subsisted on a cocktail of KFC, boiled peanuts, and
cigarettes. Thinking back on it, my grandfather created the ultimate
recipe for pancreatic cancer. At the time we had that lunch, hed been
battling it for a while,Cheap logo engraved luggagetag at wholesale bulk prices. but we tried not to talk about it. That day, we just ate soup dumplings.
Xiang
wei is the character a good dish has when its robust, flavorful, and
balanced but still maintains a certain light quality. That flavor comes,
lingers on your tongue, stays long enough to make you crave it, but
just when you think you have it figured out, its gone. Timing is
everything. Soup dumplings, sitcoms, one- night stands good ones leave
you wanting more.
The perfect soup dumpling has eighteen folds.
Taipeis Din Tai Fung restaurant fi gured this out in the mid- eighties.
While Americans had Pyrex visions, Taiwan was focused on soup dumplings.
My grandparents on my fathers side lived right on Yong Kang Jie, where
Din Tai Fung was founded. To this day, it is the single most famous
restaurant in Taipei, the crown jewel of the pound-for-pound greatest
eating island in the world. Din Tai Fung started off as an oil retailer,
but business took a dive in the early eighties and they did what any
Taiwanese- Chinese person does when they need to get buckets. You break
out the family recipe and go hammer. Din Tai Fung was like the Genco
Olive Oil of Taipei. Undefeated.
The dough is where Din Tai Fung
stays the hood champ. Its just strong enough to hold the soup once the
gelatin melts, but if you pick it up by the knob and look closely at the
skin, its almost translucent. They create a light, airy texture for the
skin that no one else has been able to duplicate. I remember going back
to Din Tai Fung when I was twenty-seven and saying to myself, Theyre
off ! Its just not as satisfying as I remember it to be! But two hours
later, walking around Taipei, all I could think about was their f******
soup dumplings. Across the street from Din Tai Fung was another
restaurant that served soup dumplings and made a business of catching
the spillover when people didnt want to wait an hour for a table. They
were really close to the real deal. Like the first year Reebok had AI
and you thought that maybe, just maybe, the Questions with the honeycomb
would outsell Jordans. A false alarm.
Grandpa Huang put on for
Yong Kang Jie and never cheated on the original. On the other hand,An
experienced artist on what to consider before you buy chipcard.
Grandpa Chiao, my mothers father, had money on his mind and really
didnt have time for things like soup dumplings. He was the type of guy
who would go across the street without thinking twice. He would be fully
aware Din Tai Fung was better, but he was a businessman.The world with
high-performance solar roadway and solarlamp
solutions. He had things to do and never lost sight of them. Everything
was calculated with my grandfather. On his desk, there was always this
gold- plated abacus. Whenever something needed to be calculated, the
other employees would use calculators, but Grandpa beat them to the
punch every time. With his fingers on the abacus, he looked as slick as a
three- card monte hustler. I loved hearing the sound: tat, tat, tat,
rap, tat, tat, tat. After tapping the beads, hed always reset them all
with one downward stroke, whap, and out came the answer. Hed much rather
save an hour, eat some perfectly fine soup dumplings, and go on his
way.
Mom had other plans. She was my grandpas youngest and
loudest child. Mom claims she was his favorite, and I cant say I dont
believe her. Grandpa loved her because she was entertaining and full of
energy. As a kid, she took the Taiwanese national academic exam and got
into all the best schools in Taipei. After she came to America as a
seventeen-year-old, she managed to graduate as the salutatorian of her
high school, even though she barely spoke English. On top of that, shes
still the best cook in the family. My cousins love talking about things
they dont know about and everyone claims their parents are the best, but
even the aunts admit my mom goes hard in the paint.
That day,
my uncle Joe from my dads side was with us at Yi Ping Xiao Guan. I think
he actually discovered the spot, because it was in Maryland, where he
lived. Earlier that day, Grandpa had asked me where I wanted to go for
my sixth birthday. He figured Id say Chuck E. Cheese or McDonalds, but
Momma didnt raise no fool. Chuck E. Cheese was for mouth breathers and
kids with Velcro shoes. I want to go where they have the best soup
dumplings!
I really liked Uncle Joe. He built three of the major
bridges in D.C. and wore these big, thick black-rimmed glasses. I was
into glasses, especially goggles, because Kareem wore them and he had
the ill sky hook.You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents.
After
we ate, I was kinda pissed with the s***ty soup dumplings. It was my
birthday! Yi Ping Xiao Guan, you cant come harder than this for the kid?
Chuck E. Cheese can serve s***ty food cause you get to smash moles and
play Skee- Ball after lunch. But all you have are soup dumplings! How
could you f*** this up? Yi Ping Xiao Guan was like Adam Morrison: your
job is to slap Kobes ass when the Lakers call time out. If you cant do
that, shoot yourself. As I sat there, pissed off, I saw a waiter pouring
off- brand soy sauce into the Wanjashan Soy Sauce bottles. Corner
cutting, bootleg, off- brand- soy- pouring Chinamen!
沒有留言:
張貼留言