|
By Lynne Spina
The FCC Adult Programming Committee's kick off event was a recent Chinese cooking class and dinner party. Held at member's home, the affair was casual and social with an appropriate amount of get-down-to-business cooking.
Theresa Liu, skilled in the culinary arts, conducted an educational cooking class while periodically interjecting informative and amusing cultural anecdotes. Attendees enjoyed learning her step-by-step demonstration of home style cooking as much as they enjoyed eating the scrumptious food!
First, the participants learned to make crispy spring rolls with roasted duck, followed by chicken and shrimp foo yung soup. Everyone paused for a sip of red wine--‘Daughter Red'. In her book, Fairy Tale Soup, Theresa writes:
"Shaohsing wine (manufactured in Shaohsing, Chekiang province) is considered the best and is traditionally served warm. The taste is strong and sharp. In this small wine town, when a newborn baby girl arrives in a family, wine is prepared to be used for her future wedding dowry. Therefore, Shaohsing wine is also called ‘Daughter Red' (red symbolizes wedding, new birth, and happiness)."
Next, Theresa cooked up two entrees: Szechwan spicy pork and beef with soy and wine sauce. The sauce was delicious and it, like several of Theresa's sauces, can be purchased from her if you give Theresa just a few days notice.
Chinese tea followed....did you know that "the earliest document pertaining to tea as a beverage in China was around 304 A.D."?(1) The cooking class attendees delighted in a tea ceremony which made a smooth transition into dessert time. A dessert of rice pudding ended the meal on a sweet note!
Afterwards, Theresa autographed her book, Fairy Tale Soup, which was available for purchase, while everyone exchanged stories about their adoption journey to China.
Theresa, who is in the process of writing a second book, teaches cooking classes at the Kitchen Conservatory in Clayton and also at Dierberg's on Tesson Ferry Road. Theresa also offers private cooking classes and can be hired for private parties.
The evening was organized by Pat Ellis and Lynne Spina, members of the FCC Adult Programming Committee. After the formation of the committee, a survey was sent out to all FCC members polling their interest level on various cultural topics. The programming committee will continue to base the subject matter of future events on the results of this survey.
(1) Theresa Liu, Fairy Tale Soup, China Bridge Publisher, St. Louis, MO, 1990 pg. 8
|
