Normal
0

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;}

Ah, there’s nothing like a Kiwi Chinese. The Birkenhead Pair came over last
night with chicken & cashew nuts, squid and blackbean sauce, egg foo-yong
(err…mind that spelling), won-tons and sweet and sour fish.

And of course we
had some great Sauvignon Blanc to wash it down with, so all in all it was a
very pleasant evening. 

Kiwi Chinese food is just the business, especially compared to the Chinese I
was subjected to during my years in London.
I have a distinct memory of the first chicken chowmein the Other Harf brought home
for me. It was a mountain of dull rubbery orange noodles with this petrified
(as in solid, ancient, rock-like; not scared…or hang on, maybe it was…)
piece of chicken balanced on top.

I was incredulous. Where’s the broccoli?Where’s the carrots? Where are all the
vegetables! The Other Harf was confused; this was how chow-mein had always looked. I
forced it down, but next time Chinese was suggested I went for the bag of chips
option instead. 

My aversion to UK Chinese lasted throughout my stay there, and when we lurched
off the tube on Friday evenings, a little intoxicated (alright, pissed!),
everyone else would pile into Wong Foo’s in the high street for orange noodles,
and I would have to have cheese on toast.

Boo-hoo – just like when I was a kid
and my Dad used to make me go pipi-picking,
knee deep in mud, wind howling across the bay. I hate pipis! Why me? Then he,
Mum and Lil’Sis would stand round the kitchen, making obnoxious lip-smacking
noises as they ate pot fulls of pipis, and I would sit in the corner with my
plate of spag-on-toast, with a big moody face on me, quivering at the injustice
of it all.

Hey, but now I’m a big girl, and I can have proper Chinese, with all the
vegetables, any time I want…