(1)
March 14, 2010, Sunday.
An Jing got up early, thinking that today Yu Minghui would also sleep in and get up slowly, but to her surprise, she could already hear the sounds of Yu Minghui bustling about in the kitchen.
Just as she was about to head into the bathroom to wash up, An Jing poked her head around for a look.
On the kitchen counter sat a bag of sliced bread, and that old-fashioned aluminum pot was bubbling away—she had no idea what was being cooked inside.
“Xiao Jing?”
“Wow, Huihui-jie, do you have eyes on your back?”
“I heard your slippers. Why are you up so early today? Going out again?”
“Not really going out for fun. I’m helping Ah Qiang with something. Remember he rented that garage? I’m going to help him clean up.”
“Oh~ That was what you agreed on yesterday, right? Then take some snacks with you today.”
“Snacks?”
“I’m planning to make sandwiches.”
“Huihui-jie, you can make sandwiches?”
“I watched a tutorial. It seems pretty simple~”
“Don’t put anything weird in it…”
“Don’t worry, this time it’s strawberry ham sandwiches.”
“Still sounds a bit strange…”
“It’s the strawberries we didn’t finish yesterday—if we leave them too long, they won’t taste good.”
“Need any help?”
“Sure, come by after you wash up, okay?”
“OK, be right there!”
***
(2)
The morning breeze felt especially refreshing—especially after washing her face, it was as if every pore on An Jing’s body was relaxed and open.
An Jing hung her wrung-out towel back on the rack and smiled lightly at her reflection in the mirror, “A new day, An Jing… uh… Why am I talking like Xiao Ying now…”
She didn’t take long to freshen up, and when she returned to the kitchen, Yu Minghui had just dropped a handful of cleaned choy sum flowers into the pot of boiling water.
“Choy sum flowers?”
“Mm, just blanch them quickly, then drain them, and later we can use them in the sandwiches.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen sandwiches with choy sum.”
“There’s a difference between just choy sum and the flowers, you know. Choy sum flowers are more tender and crunchy, with a better texture. Most importantly, they’re a seasonal vegetable—spring and autumn only. Seasonal vegetables always taste better than greenhouse ones.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course, because they’re more natural.”
An Jing scratched her head, “Like green, healthy food?”
“You could put it that way.”
“So what are the ingredients? Choy sum flowers, ham, strawberries… Oh, have the strawberries already been sliced?”
“Yep! All you have to do is help assemble them, Xiao Jing. It’s really easy.”
“How do I do it?”
Yu Minghui didn’t answer right away. Instead, she fished the just-blanched choy sum flowers out of the pot with a long pair of chopsticks, rinsed them under cool boiled water, and set them on a steamer rack to drain.
“I’ll do one first, you watch, okay?”
“Alright, it shouldn’t be too hard, right?”
“Very simple.”
Yu Minghui smiled, took a slice of bread from the bag, and set it on the dry cutting board.
“Let’s wait a bit for the choy sum flowers to drain and then we’ll start.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Xiao Jing, do you know why sandwiches are called sandwiches?”
“Why?”
“Because there are three layers of bread.”
“Huh? I thought it was because there were three—”
“Well—there are a lot of explanations. Anyway, the sandwiches we’re making today do use three slices of bread.”
“By the way, Huihui-jie, shouldn’t we slice the ham? Also, that cordyceps—can you put it back? I’m scared…”
“That was for making tea this morning. I forgot to put it away.”
“…Who ate the fried cordyceps last time?”
“Feifei did.”
“…She could actually eat that?”
“It did look pretty unappetizing, so I’ve learned from my failures.”
“As long as Huihui-jie doesn’t mix cordyceps or whatever with food, I’m good.”
***
(3)
The choy sum flowers didn’t drain that quickly, but Yu Minghui wasn’t aiming for them to be bone dry.
Once they stopped dripping, she used some kitchen oil-absorbing paper—if it can absorb oil, it can absorb water too.
After drying the choy sum flowers, she began to demonstrate how to layer the ingredients for the strawberry sandwich.
“See, first lay out the bread, then put the choy sum flowers on as the first layer. Since these are small, we use three of them.”
“Uh-huh…”
“The choy sum flowers were blanched in salted water, so they’re lightly seasoned—no need to add more, just sprinkle a little sesame.”
“Why sesame?”
“For extra aroma!”
“Oh, then?”
“Next, cover with the second slice of bread. Then lay out the ham slices flat, then the strawberry slices flat, and then scoop some pork floss and spread it evenly. Because we want to bring out the fresh sweetness of the strawberries, we won’t use any strong-tasting seasonings—just squeeze a bit of mayonnaise at the end, like this. It also helps keep the pork floss in place.”
“Is that it?”
“Not yet, now add another layer of ham on top of the pork floss, make sure it’s laid flat, then cover with the third slice of bread. ~”
“All done?”
“That’s where you come in, Xiao Jing. Once we finish all the bread, we’ll move to the last two steps.”
“What are those?”
“Let’s start first and you’ll see.”
Yu Minghui pinched An Jing’s cheek with a smile.
“But first, wash your hands well, okay? Did you use any face cream earlier? Make sure to wash it off, otherwise it’ll get into the food~”
“Got it—”
An Jing dragged out her words.
***
(4)
“Huihui-jie, we’re out of choy sum flowers!”
“How many are left?”
“Just one little stalk—this much.”
“Then just put in extra pork floss and ham for this layer. Oh, there’s still some pork crackling in the fridge—should we use a little?”
“Hey, putting pork crackling in a sandwich just sounds weird, doesn’t it?”
“But the best part of cooking is daring to try! How do you know if it’s good if you don’t try?”
“Then why not just put in the leftover soybean and pork skin jelly from last night…”
“Could try! I’m just worried it’ll melt if it gets too warm.”
“No way, are you serious?”
“Yep! Let’s do the last two like that, okay?”
“I feel like I just opened the gates of hell…”
“You’re being dramatic, Xiao Jing. I bet—it’ll taste great.”
“Let’s hope so…”
At last, the two sandwiches with soybean pork skin jelly were finished.
“Xiao Jing, grab the plastic wrap on top of the fridge.”
“Okay!”
“Pull that end over here, give it to me, and let’s wrap the sandwiches tightly together.”
“Heave—ah—”
“Riiip—”
The sound of the plastic wrap being pulled apart was strangely satisfying.
A whole sheet of plastic wrap was tightly laid over the neatly arranged sandwiches, then Yu Minghui brought over a much larger solid wood cutting board and pressed it down on top.
“What are you doing?”
“Pressing them together, but not too hard. That’s why we use a heavy cutting board—let it press down gently.”
Yu Minghui explained softly.
“Wait half an hour, and they’ll be nice and firm.”
“And then cut them diagonally in half with a knife, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Looks pretty simple, and the ingredients aren’t complicated.”
“Yeah, compared to this, making steamed buns is way harder.”
“Huihui-jie, you’ve never managed to make steamed buns, have you?”
“I don’t know what went wrong, I followed the tutorial—maybe the yeast doesn’t like our house?”
“Such a cocky yeast, why wouldn’t it like our house?”
“You’ll have to ask the yeast about that.”
“Ah, I just want to taste them now…”
“Don’t rush, Xiao Jing, you can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry. There are ten sandwiches here, so after we cut them, there’ll be twenty pieces. Let’s each try half a piece to test the flavor, okay?”
“Mm. Half a piece it is. If I eat too much, I might not be able to stop. But how are we taking them over there?”
“Use one of those big lunch boxes. How about that?”
“How big?”
“Like this.”
“…It’s not that big, and it’s a really old aluminum lunch box.”
“These lunch boxes saw me and Feifei through our entire student days.”
Yu Minghui said with a touch of nostalgia, running her fingers over the battered, dented aluminum surface.
“One box fits four pieces.”
“There are four boxes, so that’s only sixteen pieces.”
“The rest are for me and Feifei.”
“Cough…”
“Xiao Jing, don’t be so selfish!”
“I just forgot to count.”
An Jing scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“But back then, did you each bring two lunch boxes? Isn’t one enough for a person?”
“The other one’s for soup, look.”
Yu Minghui laughed, pinched the lunch box’s long triangular handle, and held it up in front of her.
“Xiao Jing, see? It’s way bigger than my face.”
“For one person, that’s more than enough. Ah, this one with all the dents must be Fei-jie’s, right?”
“Yeah, she used to put it in a plastic bag and swing it back and forth on her way home. Sometimes it’d slip out and crash to the ground, or the bag would break. Even after switching to cloth bags, she still broke several of them.”
“Haha, classic Fei-jie, never a dull moment with her hands.”
“And you were even more mischievous as a kid, Xiao Jing.”
“Ahem, was I?”
“Did you forget? In elementary school, you almost had to get a new lunch box every year.”
“That’s not because I broke them—I just lost them somewhere…”
“Because you were always climbing trees, catching birds, squeezing through holes with others, and whatever you were carrying would get lost along the way.”
“Cough, cough!”
“As a kid, even I sometimes wanted to whack you, you know.”
“Eh? Really? I thought Huihui-jie never got angry… You always smiled…”
“Yep, back then, I had to hold it in~ it was tough~”
“Eek!”