A couple of weekends ago, I accompanied my Mandarin teacher
and several of her students from other classes to Chinatown in Boston. Having
lived in and around Boston for 28 years, I had been to Chinatown every so often
but never really spent too much time there.
We arrived at the China
Pearl (one of the larger restaurants that has been in business since 1960)
for Dim Sum at 11AM. Dim Sum literally means “a bit of the heart”. I had normally
thought of Dim Sum as a selection of fried Chinese appetizers. We did not order
one fried item although many were passed around. There were steamed dumplings
filled with shrimp and bamboo called har
gau, many types of baozi
(steamed buns-one of the first words we learned in Mandarin was “baozi”) and jiaozi (steamed dumplings of many
varieties) and chrysanthemum tea (júhuā chá) was
served. Then, the chicken feet (ji jiao) arrived.
Have fully intended to immerse myself in the Chinese
experience all day (most of the shopkeepers speak very little/broken English to
add to the authentic experience); I decided to try the chicken feet. They are
also eaten in Peru, Mexico and South Africa, to name just a few. Surprisingly,
they were quite flavorful but a bit gelatinous. The biggest surprise of the day was to
see that the Chinese use jalapeno
peppers (Mòxīgē làjiāo) and cilantro
in their cooking. That was a very pleasant surprise as those are my two
favorites!
The Chinese bakeries reminded me of bakeries found during
one of my several trips to Japan, where you commonly see corn, cake and
other oddities (for Americans) baked into the bread.
Then it was on to try bubble
tea. I had no idea what this was but knew it was very popular in Taiwan.
The bubbles are actually small balls of tapioca placed at the bottom of fruit
or milk-based tea drink. You are given a large straw and with every sip of your
cold tea, two-three of these “bubbles” end up in your mouth. Soft and chewy and
not all that pleasant. I tried a pineapple green bubble tea but I saw a sign
for durian bubble tea and almost, ALMOST tried it. Durian is a large, spiny,
very foul-smelling fruit that is an acquired taste. I will try durian one day
but that day was not the day.
Next it was on to a very large, all-Asian supermarket in
Quincy (a small city south of Boston). This place is amazing. Rows and rows of
Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese foods, clothes, house wares,
school supplies, etc. Heavenly! There was also a large Asian bakery section
selling a variety of desserts and steamed buns and a mini-Chinese takeout
section selling authentic Chinese cuisine. Buddhas and Kuan Yins were beckoning
to me everywhere! I ended up leaving with very cool bracelet with the prayers
for the Buddha written in Cantonese on it and a Kuan Yin hanging protector for
my car.
Back to Chinatown after that for an authentic Chinese dinner
at Jade Garden. Yes, this was the
eating tour of Chinatown! We were served platters of stuffed lobster, beef and
vegetables and my personal, favorite, salt and pepper squid. Imagine a lightly
breaded calamari (rings and tentacles) lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper
with a layer of jalapeno peppers.I will go back just to have this dish again.
All the sights, sounds, smells felt like I was in Beijing
for the day. While we didn’t do much conversing in Mandarin (although a lot of
Cantonese was spoken by those around us), we did a lot of socializing,
learning, talking about why we are studying Mandarin and laughing. I realized that language learning isn't just about learning the words, tones and sounds; it's about learning and absorbing the culture, the food and the customs.
A truly enjoyable experience!
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