Gung Hay Fat Choy! (Cantonese: May prosperity be with you) & Xin Nian Kuai Le! (Mandarin: Happy New Year)
Glasgow’s Lunar New Year celebration was held safely indoors on Wednesday, but we can imagine the color and action in San Francisco this weekend with lion dances, processionals and fireworks snapping. Times like these we miss the many-flavored Bay Area with its varied communities (and love of celebration), but Glasgow has its own Asian immigrants, and last weekend we had the unique experience of Glaswegian Chinese food.
Back home we enjoyed watching the TV show Chinese Restaurant which was a documentary series discussing issues of the Chinese diaspora – migration, settlement, assimilation, identity, history, inter-racial marriages – in the context of Chinese restaurants in various countries and Chinese food. It was fascinating, and it should have prepared us for Glasgow’s version of Chinese food. It …did not.
We looked at our fried bean curd and vegetables in shock. The tofu was… round. ROUND. How do you get round tofu? You batter dip it and deep fry it.
Granted, we were in a neighborhood with chip shops and a strongly fried smell emitting from take-away restaurants up and down the block and should have guessed that this wasn’t Chinese food for the discerning palate necessarily, but it was still such a funny, funny shock. Round! When we know tofu goes from amorphous into …blocks. Always! Fortunately, the other tofu and vegetable dishes were something more familiar, and we …well, we can’t say enjoyed the food, but it was filling and we were able to ingest the rest of without too much incident. (Including the dessert we were urged to try, fruit fritters. Fritters by the way — are batter dipped and deep fried fruit with sugar syrup on them, according to the Maryhill Chinese restaurant…)
Last night we had the funny experience of hearing a father describe his daughter as “a cracking girl.” I love the adjectives used in so much of the spoken language here. If you’re “shattered” you’re beyond upset – you might also be “knackered,” which, for those of us who inhaled James Herriot as a child, obviously means the knacker man is coming to drag your dead carcass to the glue factory. A “ripping” good story is… well, one that… rips? Okay, I can’t really make too much fun, here, it all makes about as much sense as saying something “rocks.” Okay, enough with English major obsessions…!
As D. continues to lay plans for next year, the realization that student loans don’t cover much more than tuition has become clear! D. has been job hunting, and has sent his résumé winging to various areas, including to a biostatistics IT & data management job for the University. When T. found that position listing, there was a moment of stunned silence, as this job is right along the lines of D.’s PhD research project! Stay tuned…
– D & T
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ah, now I want to see some Wallace/Gromit!
This is one of the most humourous posts I have ever read…
If you Google “round tofu shapes” the
links are really amusing. Tofu is always being worked into regular shapes, very precisely measured.
As for the “cracking girl”, I live in a culture where children, regardless of gender are addressed as “lads”… as in, “Right, lads, this is what we’re doing today.”
Hi there, you guys! Another great post and so I have nominated you for an Excellent Blog Award! I think you guys are crackin! Come over and collect your award!