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Published: November 29th 2010
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In addition to regular classes, we offer an "English Club" for our students.
English Club is held at the school on Friday nights for the Primary students and again on Saturday nights for the Middle school students. Attendance by the kids is purely voluntary; it is sort of a "value added" bonus that the students receive. It is designed to be fun. The kids get a seasonal-appropriate activity, tomfoolery and (thanks to me) a chance to watch vintage cartoons from the 1940's and 50's. In an effort to add a little bit of legitimacy, we ask the students to learn a handful of English words while they're there.
I do not decide what the theme will be, that is entirely up to the Impossibly Adorable Roommates (IARs). Around Halloween, we carved Jack-o-Lanterns, learned how to extort candy and watched Huey, Dewey, Louie trick their Uncle Donald. For Thanksgiving week, we screened slides of American families sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, marveled at the size of the roast turkeys and watched Bugs Bunny trick Daffy Duck.
But not every week has an American holiday to discuss; sometimes we just have to make do.
A couple of weeks ago,
I showed the kids how to make, of all things, a salad. Making salads is not my forte, but the IARs had noticed that I had been making a green salad at home for dinner now and then and had concluded that I was some sort of salad maven. I'm nothing of the sort. Asking me to teach salad-making is like asking a vegan to teach about pork chops.
My recent interest in salad is due to working in a primitive kitchen with only a few tools, a one-burner, electric hotplate and an exceptionally dull cleaver. There isn't really a lot that I can do. Most of my Stateside cooking repertoire involves roasting or baking and I can't really do any of that on a one-burner hotplate, now can I?. But I
can manage a salad, so at home I have been occasionally making salads.
My students were not familiar with salad. They had never had it served to them in their entire lives. It simply isn't a part of Shandong cuisine. They had no idea what "salad dressing" was. The IARs brought various salad produce down to the school. They also brought some oil and vinegar, salt,
pepper and garlic and my own personal stash of grape tomatoes. They did not think to bring along a sharp knife or a cutting board, but we made do.
First, I chopped a handful of garlic (on the back of a porcelain plate) and tossed that chopped garlic into a jar. Then I added some peanut oil and cider vinegar (Yes, I do know better than that, but at the time, I did not have any olive oil or balsamic vinegar on hand, now I do) I threw in a bit of salt, ground some black pepper and sealed the jar. Then, I shook the jar vigorously as I could, and to the astonishment of everyone, held up the partially emulsified salad dressing for all to see. That old, lame-ass parlor trick worked as well as if I had just pulled a white rabbit out of a hat. With everyone watching, I tested the dressing it with my index finger, praying that the oil to vinegar balance would be close enough. Luckily it was spot-on. I set the jar aside.
In Weishan, there is only one variety of lettuce available, but it isn't too bad. I tore a
head of the crisp (but wet) lettuce into pieces and instructed everyone that salad is better when the lettuce is dry. I sliced a hothouse cucumber, an under-ripe tomato, green pepper and celery and threw all that into a big bowl. I tossed my precious grape tomatoes on top. (I had no croutons, Greek olives or grated Pardano cheese, as that stuff isn't sold within a thousand miles of here.)
I stressed that in America, salad was usually served as the first course, that salad needed to be made at the very last minute and that the dressing was not to be applied until precisely the moment that the salad was on the table being served. I poured on the vinaigrette, tossed the salad and stepped back out of the way. It was a bit hit. The kids, (all armed with disposable chopsticks) devoured it all within a minute. For the parents in attendance, I handed out printed copies of Julia Child's vinaigrette recipe.
And the next evening, I did it all over again for the Middle School students.
Maybe I really
am a salad maven.
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susanf
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I'm lovin this