An Interesting Eating Experience

It is truly my honor to have such a professional cook as my mother. Thanks to her excellent skill in Chinese cuisine, I could enjoy a gourmet’s luck year in and year out.

When I was in my senior school, I got acquainted with a foreign teacher called Eric. As often as not, we chatted in the canteen located in our beautiful campus about what happened in recent days, such as Oral English Competition, Autumn Sports Meeting, Celebration for Christmas Day etc. I could not recall how many times we burst into laughs in the canteen and other schoolmates gave a surprised expression to us. They wondered what was happening and looked in all directions. Seemingly, they considered themselves to be made fun of. In a word, we both had many precious memories in the canteen. And afterwards, we frequently paid calls to each other.

One afternoon on the other day, I was about to pick up after myself when the doorbell rang. At that moment my mother was busy preparing supper for us in the kitchen. Hearing the doorbell, she yelled, “Linda, would you please go to see who is out the door.” But then I was snowed under with my own affairs and unwilling to do it, so I pushed this trouble onto my little sister. Surprisingly, she was staring blankly at the door and did not know what to do. I hurried to the door and could not recover from my shock within a couple of minutes. I cleared my eyes and looked at the visitor standing and smiling gently out the door from head to toe. Yeah, it was indeed Eric.

“Hello, Linda, can I come in please?” “Sure, have yourself please.” Then I directed Eric to our lounge. I did not know what to do from the time being and could not but make tea for him as a way of welcoming. “Just make it at home, Eric.” “Ok!” Erin chatted on and on, holding nothing back. Then we both could not help recalling the days in our canteen. My mother heard the exaggerated laughs in the lounge and came to bring us some fresh fruit. Eric expressed thanks for my mother’s enthusiasm. Then we continued our topic.

Suddenly, Eric mentioned young chicken sautéed with dried bamboo shoots that we had had talked about before and he showed his willingness to have a taste of it. But my mother said, “I am sorry, dear, but there is no dried bamboo shoots left.” What is worse, it was time we began our supper, and we even had no time to go to the supermarket for it. I did not want to disappoint Eric, but I had no idea of how to tell him about it. Luckily, a good idea occurred to my mother and she seemed to have a detailed plan in mind for solving the problem.

It finally came to our supper. After my mother made sure that every one of us was seated at the table, she proudly carried many dishes of delicious Chinese cuisine from the kitchen, including the young chicken sautéed with dried bamboo shoots. Eric did satisfy his appetite for delicious food. And he repeatedly said, “The young chicken sautéed with dried bamboo shoots is true to its name.” I failed to understand the subtlety of the situation. And I showed my confusion. Then my mother pressed near my ear and said, “My dear, it is indeed made of another material, namely day lily.” Hearing this, I burst into laughs. Though Eric felt confused, he pretended to have known all. “Oh, yeah.” Then we were all intoxicated with the joy of unknown.

It was really an interesting eating experience.

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