My friend S insisted on making traditional Chinese food for me, my friend E, and Husband a few years ago, and it was so good – authentic, simple flavors and textures, with hints of vinegar and salt but mostly the taste of the tomato, the egg, the short ribs. It was at a time when I was eating way too much processed food and needed nourishment more than average, but even more so I needed to eat with others, with people I cared about. I thought that S and I had become close in vain, because she moved back to China when each of us finished our graduate school program. However, a year later, she returned from China to take a PhD degree, and I get to see her every month or two – a surprising positive in a world when sometimes you have to think that this might be the last meal you share with a close friend.
Recipe in a Bottle 