I could say that is a match made in heaven, but I would be accused of prejudice. Growing up in Brooklyn…, New York City, a short subway ride away, offered the best food, recognized and agreed by many around the world. (So I have been told). All levels available; Ethnic choices, specialty varieties, home cooking, diet preferences, fast food, all the way to upscale fancy, and extravagant cuisine, made to your personal liking and individual taste. Offered a choice, most often“ Chinese food” was our pick. HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY MY LOVE! Oh how sweet, as I start to unwrap the box with the pretty big pink bow on top, and staring back at me is an oversized black non stick cooking WOK. No booklet, no directions, no sticker, no, we know what it is. ( A WOK is a deep round bottomed cooking pan of Chinese origin). The silent message
here, was, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could learn how to cook Chinese food”? No surprise. IT, the WOK, sat motionless for quite some time, unused, silently waiting and hoping for someone to at least take it out for an airing. Obviously it wasn’t going to be me. Having recently moved cross country, landing on the west side of Los Angeles, we were privy to many “Chinese Restaurants” and had fun, proceeding to test them all. Unpacking everything, the WOK seemed to have been given an elevated place on top of the stove, and Ed was now teaching himself, and seriously learning the art of Chinese cooking. His fried rice was already a winner, with shrimp, spectacular. And then there was the
grateful WOK. When eating out, and enjoying, Ed would invariably ask to meet the chef, to thank him or her for the lovely meal, many times us ending up in the huge kitchen where it had been prepared.

A friendly suggestion offered, was to try Madame WU’s Garden in Santa Monica. Oh yes, it was elegant, glamorous, quite popular, and very quickly became our love at first taste. Ed was in heaven. He managed to meet and charm the lovely Madame WU herself, and every time we were there, she would sit with us for a few minutes. Time enough to ask a specific question and then use her helpful hints in his cooking experiments. We were frequent patrons, and of course, Ed the happy student. Fast forward, we are now living in a lovely home in the hills overlooking downtown Los Angeles and within earshot of Dodger stadium. Twelve miles for him to get to NBC in Burbank, happy to be writing and in the world he knew and loved. And twelve miles, for me in a bus to the bank where I was employed. Constantly bragging about his cooking accomplishments, he invited his NBC team, promising a beautiful home made GOURMET CHINESE DINNER. It did give me a break, but then I was assigned clean up. Not sure who had the better deal. Well, in case you didn’t know, Chinese food has many seasonings, and here we are, the plotted night. On this long counter top, lined up as soldiers ready for attack lying very neatly numbered and named are small paper cups. I repeat NAMED AND NEATLY LINED UP IN ORDER OF USE. 1 Soy sauce, 2 rice wine, 3 sesame oil, 4 five spice powder, 5 sichuan peppercorn, anise, oyster sauce, ginger, black vinegar, chile paste, and many many more. Those cute little cups were prepared, named and numbered, waiting, ready to be added in just the right order for Ed’s cooking perfection. Did I mention that we had opened a bottle of special Chinese wine and testing it while we were preparing his PERFECT PREMIERE CHINESE DINNER? Well besides being delicious, it was mighty potent, is when I decided to play a guessing game with all those carefully numbered and named cute little paper cups lined up on the counter top, waiting to be lovingly dumped into THE FAMOUS WOK and a few other simmering pots.

Feeling tipsy, and like a little kid, I playfully moved those little cuties around, mixing and facing them the wrong way. Uh oh, no, that was definitely not the best idea. Ed was a writer, happy and lucky to be involved in early television. If he were telling the story, it might be a little different…however, his hard work and first experiment dinner did happily turn out as a
success. You can’t go wrong with alcohol, FOOD, friends and a sense of humor. When he spoke to me again, we both laughed and said ’’YES, THE FOOD was delicious!”.

your friend,

dorys