WHY I NEVER OFFERED TO COOK AT SARAH'S HOUSE

Today is the da BIG day for me.

A week ago, I thought I might need extra effort to keep a cool exterior without my brains exploding to bits. Being with my beloved friends was enough to ground me because I knew when I returned home, all of us would resume our normal daily lives once again. Every second counted and I was determined to make it worthwhile.

We headed out to Morrison’s in the critical search of Chinese Rice Vermicelli Noodles. I always have fun shopping at supermarkets because a lot of the culture is based on its food.

Food is always great and food is a whopping load of fun.

Again, the chocolates were prominently displayed in front of us and could not help but to take a look at their lovely selections (what does this say about the English?). Before reaching the Asian section, I suggested making a lo mein dish (they call it chow mein in England) as a contingent item instead of mai fun. She agreed and was appalled to find the lack of variety in Tamworth (Surprise! Surprise!). She realized when we hit Morrison’s buying ready made stir-fry was looking better than ever. Believe it or not, the store actually did have the vermicelli noodles, but it was incorrectly stacked behind the rice noodles (need to have a word with the store manager about that..). Ching excavated through the piles before accidentally coming across the beloved product.

Upon reaching home, Ching and Andy partnered up to prepare the Chinese dishes feverishly in the kitchen. Andy enjoys cooking and loves to learn new techniques and how-to’s of the dishes. Moi, was busy with ‘stuff’ – quite honestly, I don’t know what on earth I was messing with. Like a typical schmoe, I promised to help and never showed up. I would occasionally pop in to wash a pan or two, put stuff away and waltz back into the living room with Sarah. Cooking isn’t really my forte anyway. Ching’s an excellent cook and I pale in comparison.

[I wanted to spend as much time as I could with Saz. When we corresponded as kids, using actual pen, paper and postage, therefore receiving a letter was like manna from heaven. All our menial wages went into buying cutesy little gifts, stationery, and postage. Those days were extraordinary and we couldn’t get enough of each other. She’d supply me with a load of Wet Wet Wet articles and stuff and I toss back my Hello Kitty collection.]

Our original plan was to visit a bit of Brum in the early afternoon, but the food preparation took well over 3 hours. Although they had done some of it the night before, Chinese cooking demands HOURS of preparation and only minutes in cooking under very high heat, of course. She had to creatively figure a way to make her dishes w/o necessary ingredients, ultra high heat, tools (a mega cleaver and spatula) and so forth.

Richard came by to take us into Brum, but because of the time spent in the kitchen, we finally left at 4PM. Ching was exasperated from the physical workout and workarounds she implemented to construct these dishes. For assurance, I told her that she could start her own frozen food line and have Grandpa Chicken be prominently place right next to Mr. Brain’s Faggots. She wanted to smack me so badly, but was laughing too hard to do so. Indeed, those faggots are lovely!!

I anticipated some of the difficulty only because I had nothing in my own apartment for a couple of years and never bought proper tools for cooking. Heck, when you live in NYC Chinatown, there’s no need to cook. The take-outs are so inexpensive that you could have a complete meal for under $5.

So off to Brum we go!