meat loves salt

In Chinese, a person of a particular trade is called by the title of shifu, which means “master.” I’m more used to hearing shifu in the context of kung fu movies, but in Beijing I was quickly grateful for the term, which makes it easy to refer to people older than you, whom you’re not familiar enough to call uncle but also can’t call by name. Xie Shifu was the driver at my husband’s office, …

Since I have a Cantonese background, noodles have never been as prominent as rice in the Chinese cuisine I’m used to. I grew up with all the usual rice-centered expressions: “You haven’t eaten unless you’ve had rice” or “That person is a rice bucket” (meaning they love rice, though it can sometimes also be used in a derogatory way). I knew plenty of Chinese kids who insisted on eating nothing but plain white rice. And …