Chef Craig

Being the expert chef of such unforgettable and complicated dishes as cheese pieces, cold cereal, orange juice and hot dogs, you can understand my excitement when I came home to find Craig at the stove preparing something in the wok.


The tantalizing aroma filled the house (it is making my mouth water just remembering it!) and my anticipation for dinner had me sneaking an early peak into the wok to see what was creating such an olfactory sensation. Let's see, there was a special kind of rice with ham, scallions, and other vegetables plus a unique sauce. As we eagerly dished out our helpings we knew we were in for a culinary delight. Craig explained that this was a common main course in Taiwan. He wouldn't divulge his recipe even after our pleading (and threatening).


As I sat down to eat I noticed that there were these two sticks where my fork should have been. They were about twelve inches long and one quarter of an inch in diameter at the thickest end tapering down to about one eighth inch. You guessed it--chop sticks. The object is to somehow hold the sticks so that you can also grab and lift the food. It is supposed to arrive at your mouth before it falls back to the plate. (Do you know how small a grain of rice is? Whoever invented this technique for eating probably died of starvation.) Craig was chowing down on the food and seemed to easily handle the sticks. Mary Lee was doing pretty well herself. I was learning first hand why the Chinese are not as tall as Americans: They almost starve to death, and by the time that they finish one meal it is time for the next, but because there is no time to earn a living they have to skimp on either the food or the work. Thus we see that the invention of the fork has enabled Western Civilization to succeed because people can eat in short enough time to have time for work (and play).

Craig is really a good cook. The food was great--one grain at a time.