School lunch in China is a technicolor delight
To the editor:
It seems part of the total school experience: Lunch in the cafeteria. Entering the dining hall looks pretty much the same no matter where you are in the world. You have a line for your plates, spoons, chopsticks, and trays. Cheap chairs, wobbly tables, and the usual noises abound between the four walls. In short, lots of fun.
We use the term cafeteria today. The older term, canteen is what is used here in China. Unlike the school kitchens back home, there is not one large cooking room and one set menu of items. Chinese thrive on diversity in their food. Typically there are a variety of lines and different types of food available. Chinese like their food prepared freshly. The only item that seems to be cooked ahead of time is the rice.
As you enter the dining hall there are a wide variety of dining options on view. Each station has a specialty and students can decide on what type of meal they want. Hot pot is one of my own favorites.
This dish starts with a pot of water sitting low on the table. The water is heated while students pick the vegetables and meats that they would like to have. Trays upon trays of different items are brought to the table. There are trays of greens, whites, reds, and yellows. All neatly laid out, skewers of meat, pork, beef, chicken, and duck are laid out raw. Selecting a skewer or two of meat, the chopsticks are used to push the meat into the heating water. Some of the thicker vegetables are also pushed in. Chopsticks are cleaned by stirring the pot. Everyone sticks their sticks in and stirs the mix. The water boils now. Conversations become raucous counterpoint to the boiling water.
The scent of cooking food, steam coating the windows, and lots of noise as people enter and leave the room become one giant feast. Soon the small pieces of meat are cooked. Plucking them out of the pot and dropping them into a bowl. Now dip the spoon in a few times to get the broth, It smells so good! Crack an egg into the pot. Real egg drop soup begins to form. Lastly, the lettuce leaf. A bright green leaf, dunked into the roiling water. it collapses and turns a vibrant green. Wow, technicolor delight.
Out of the pot, into the bowl, and then into the mouth! A bit of rice, some spice, and a bit of meat fill the bowl with more broth on its way. Gone are the chills of the day. Another world is created, one where laugher, mist and time fade away. It’s lunch time.
Orpheus Allison, MLA
Guangzhou, China
orpheusallison@mla.com
