Italy Noodles

Yesterday afternoon Liu Xi and my roommate Meiyi invited me to go to their teachers' apartment to make dinner for them. I am, of course, always game for Western food, particularly when it's under Y40, and I love going to teachers' houses. This is generally because my teachers - I'm thinking of Jim Henle and the deVilliers in particular - are wonderful cooks, but I also love having a chance to get out of the weird atmosphere of College/ACC and peek at people who have lives.

The teachers in question, Wang laoshi and Xu laoshi, are new this semester, and in fact I remember attending Xu laoshi's "tryout" last spring. They're from Taiwan and when I learned that they lived together I assumed they were married, since under other circumstances I don't think Chinese people can have co-ed roommate situations. It did not take me especially long to surmise that this was not the case, however - they are the exception: two women can live with a man if he's gay - wasn't that the premise of a TV show before I was born? I have now met four gay Chinese men and all four have been absolutely delightful - all the loveliness of Chinese men with none of the unpleasant personal habits. Or at any rate, fewer. Chief among the sins committed by Chinese men are hacking phlegm all over the place (the ground in Beijing is seriously coated with a layer of phlegm at all times), growing their fingernails really long, and smoking all the time, which causes the long fingernails to yellow. I hasten to emphasize that not all Chinese men do these things - not even all heterosexual Chinese men, and not all gay Chinese men - presumably - refrain. Just the four I've met.

So, moving right along from my charming racist overgeneralizations, the two teachers and my friends and I went to Fabao for ingredients, then to their apartment in the professors' dormitory to whip up some "Italy Noodles" and fruit salad. This is the second time I have made Italy Noodles for Chinese people - the first was in Chengdu with Zheng Xiaoxue - and I would say it was fairly successful. It was so nice to have a meal that was not literally dripping with oil. There are only three methods of preparing food in China - fried, deep fried, and boiled. The teachers seemed to enjoy it (they claim Taiwanese food is not as greasy as Beijing food - I am not sure) and we talked about which Chinese pop idols are the most handsome.

"We have a saying that girls who hold their chopsticks really high up will marry someone from far away," Wang laoshi told us as she helped herself to salad. "Maybe a foreigner or someone from another province, and girls who hold their chopsticks lower marry someone nearby - "

"Like their roommate," said Xu laoshi, and shifted his hand to the very end of his chopsticks.

"Well don't do it on purpose!" Wang laoshi scolded him. "I really want to find some handsome guy," she confided, "but people see me with him all the time and think we're together, it's so annoying!"

"Thanks," said Xu laoshi.

"Jingwen thought you were married," said Liu Xi helpfully, referring to me.

After dinner the others had to finish their homework (not me though - I had an important date with David Duchovny. Fourth year is great), so we headed home. It was raining hard, as it has been lately, so the laoshis sent us off with umbrellas and a slice of dried kiwi apiece.

And the best part was, I think they may let us come over again.