12.6 Household events: Chinese food and Vivani
Household events: Chinese food and Vivani
Casa Blanca, el restaurante Chino
We decided that we would finally go to try out the Chinese restaurant that everyone has recommended. I?d been urging us to go, but after the totally disappointing results with Asian food elsewhere in Oaxaca Suzanne had been reluctant. But at last, starving for black bean sauce, she agreed.
We didn?t have the address, just a recollection of instructions on how to get there from Manuel months and months earlier. But I remembered that on the way we were going to pass an ad painted on a wall so I was confident. Well, the ad had only the phone number so we were a bit better off. Even though we didn?t have our cell phone, and neither of us was confident that we would understand instruction on the phone. But off we went.
And it was easier than we had feared. Manuel?s instructions got us to the big Fountain of Women on Porfirio Diaz, in Reforma Colonia. It has seven statues of women, each working at some traditional woman?s job and each dressed in the traditional clothing of one of the state?s main ethnic groups. And in the center, on a pillar, is a man.
We went through that traffic circle and immediately saw little red signs pointing the way. Good thing, too, because without those we would never have found it. We wound on, turning and twisting, and finally found it. Alas, the upstairs was full but there were tables downstairs, in the fried chicken place. So we lost the ambiance, but so what, let?s look at the menu. The young man who waited on us wanted to practice his English, so he did while we spoke Spanish.
Like many Chinese restaurants, this one also offered sushi. To me that is a bad sign, but we were here, we were committed, we were dying for Chinese food. We ordered California rolls, white rice, black bean pork and chow fun. We deferred on the rice when the waiter said it looked like too much food. Since I thought chow fun had noodles, it was no big deal.
Well, it didn?t have noodles, so we had a starchless dinner. And both dishes tasted pretty much the same. And the California rolls had no avocado and too much cream cheese. And both dishes had a LOT of onions in them. And we ate every, every bit of it. And could have eaten the rice, too.
And we will go back. It was not good, but I am a Chinese food snob after all, and it was OK. Like Suzanne said, if we didn?t know better this would be great.
Afterwards we ordered fried ice cream, hardly a traditional Chinese dish, but we had read about this being a Mexican specialty and never eaten it. It was good! Next time I will order each of us our own!
Vivani
So one night Suzanne were walking home from class at about 9:30. We both had late classes hat day, obviously. And as we passed by the newspaper stand we heard a kitten crying. Immediately I though, ?Uh oh??
Well, Suzanne just happened to be carrying a couple cans of cat food in case she came across a particularly pathetic and needy street dog. So she plopped one can where we had seen the kitty, who o course dashed away when it saw her coming. Then another one at the other side of where it would have been able to go from its hiding place. She was calling it to her and I said, ?Hey, skip it, we don?t need a cat now. I don?t want another cat in Mexico.? After all, we are going to have to leave, the car cat box and stuff takes up half the storage space, we don?t know where we will be going except to visit Dale who has a pit bull, and American hotels don?t like pets in them so we had to sneak Izzy in whenever we booked someplace before we came here. I don?t mind cats, and really, really loved Izzy; but it just is not the right time right now.
Next morning Suzanne had a really early class, beginning at 7 AM. Isn?t that just evil of the school to schedule that way? But I slept in, and was working on a manuscript when I heard the front gate slam closed and the dogs barking there. And a kitty crying.
Yes, of course, she had rescued it. And I was pissed. I had said I didn?t want a cat, and had good reasons, and although I know that she wants?maybe needs?a cat, I thought she had stepped over the line to do it without conferring with me. Sure, I would have caved in, but still, the conference is important. Plus that day I felt slightly ill, reason unknown. Didn?t help, whatever it was. So I was pissed off. So I hardly even talked to Suzanne for couple of days except to complain and gripe. And I still think I was right.
But since she had made up her mind, there?s no way I would have been able to change it. The kitty was tiny, really, really young. So at last, reluctantly, I of course agreed that she could keep it, but I didn?t want any responsibility for it. She would have to feed it, change the cat box, get it shots. It would be up to her to figure out what to do with it when we go to Dales, and when we go to the US, and when she goes hiking she will have to figure out what to do with it.
So we have a cut little itsy witsy kitty. It is still tiny, though we can see that it has grown larger in the week or so we have had it and since it started eating regularly. Its tail is broken and has a left-turning, right angle to it, but it still works, swishing around as it chases my shoelaces or eats the computer wires. It is mixed colors, streaks of white and black and brown, and it has a line of spots on its belly like a belt.
We have named it Vivani, which is the Zapotec word for Dawn, because we think it is a pretty name. And yes, I play with it, give it food. But I am not changing its box.