Tie Ning - The Bathing Women

When every scrap of food was gone, they started to discuss the menu for their next banquet. Tiao said, “My dad knows how to do a dessert called grilled miniature snowballs.” Youyou said, “Wait, wait, grilled miniature snowballs? That sounds wonderful. Just by the name I can tell it’s unusual. Who would have imagined? Can snowballs be grilled?” She wanted Tiao to tell her every detail of the recipe for grilled miniature snowballs, but Tiao couldn’t remember it all, so she promised Youyou she would look it up when she got home.

How exciting it would be to make grilled snowballs! It got Tiao enthusiastically searching for old magazines at home. Even though there were not many left, she remembered that when they moved from Beijing, Wu had kept a few copies of the Chinese edition of Soviet Woman, selling or discarding the rest. A magazine that Wu used to subscribe to, Soviet Woman introduced different styles of cooking, knitting, cosmetics and grooming, and fashion. Wu loved the knitting and fashion sections in the magazine — it was where she had found many of her jumper patterns — but had no interest in the food. When a holiday came, it was Yixun who created novelty dishes from the magazines. He successfully made the grilled snowballs, the magic of which Tiao would never forget. She came back to rummage through the books and magazines, taking advantage of Wu’s absence. Wu must have gone to People’s Hospital to see Dr. Tang, but Tiao found herself less concerned about that than she had been. It was definitely not because she’d become more accepting of Dr. Tang, but because she now had her own friends, friendships that were more important to her than the relationship between Wu and Dr. Tang.

She searched for the issues of Soviet Woman at home, and Fan, just back from school, helped her until they finally found them. Tiao knew that to carry around this kind of magazine was illegal, and that it would be subject to confiscation, which was exactly why she experienced the excitement and vigilance of a secret agent. She wrapped the magazines in newspapers, hid them in a big backpack, and then dragged Fan along with her to Youyou’s place.

She came through the door and signalled to Youyou to lock it behind her. Youyou bolted the door and tiptoed to sit beside Tiao, patiently waiting for her to show her the Soviet Woman magazines. Tiao opened the backpack, took one of the illustrated magazines out of the newspaper wrapping, turned to a page, and read aloud, word for word: “Nothing could be better than following your holiday lunch with a delicious, easily digested dessert like grilled miniature snowballs.

“Mix powdered sugar and citric acid into egg white that has been beaten into foam, then dip a soup spoon in cold water, scoop up the egg white batter, one spoonful at a time, and drop into the boiling milk. Don’t let the balls stick together. These balls of egg white and citric acid will then absorb some milk and react chemically with it to form miniature snowballs. Cook the snowballs for three minutes, gently scoop them up with a straining ladle, and then put them in a colander. When the miniature snowballs dry, serve on a plate with syrup. Take care not to let them stick together.

“Syrup: Carefully mix egg yolk and sugar and beat well. Add a soup spoon of flour and pour the batter into boiling milk. Keep stirring as it cooks, until the syrup begins to thicken. Add vanilla, stir, set aside to cool.

“To make miniature snowballs, you’ll need two egg whites, 30 cubic centimetres of sugar powder, 30 cubic centimetres of citric acid, and 200 cubic centimetres of milk. To make the syrup, you’ll need 100 cubic centimetres of milk, 100 cubic centimetres of sugar, and one egg yolk. The quantity of vanilla will vary according to taste.”

What Tiao read aloud struck Youyou with awe. Although many things in the recipe, such as vanilla, citric acid, and sugar powder, were mysterious to her, she had the superior intuition of the world’s gourmets. Her intuition involved her sense of smell, taste, and touch, and allowed her to come to the conclusion that the grilled miniature snowballs must be full of flavour, rich, mellow, and delicious. Her pork skin aspic and fried crystal pork were nothing compared to the snowballs; they were not on the same level — didn’t belong in the same world. But she was not intimidated; she believed she could make the dish. She asked what a cubic centimetre was, and Tiao said one cubic centimetre was a gram. Now Youyou became more confident — an experienced chef always pays attention to details. Her other questions concerned where she could find the ingredients. Youyou didn’t drink milk, and there were only egg, sugar, and flour in her house. Tiao said, “That’s no problem. We still have citric acid and vanilla. We also have milk. Fan and I drink half a jin of milk every day, which we can save for snowballs. Doesn’t the magazine say it takes only three hundred cubic centimetres? Three hundred cubic centimetres are three hundred grams, not even a jin, which is five hundred. Fan, what do you think?”

Fan nodded vigorously. She knew contributing half a jin of milk would be worth it, because they would definitely invite her to eat the miniature snowballs.

4

These copies of the Chinese edition of Soviet Woman, slightly dog-eared and hard to put down, were Tiao, Fei, and Youyou’s spiritual food for a long time.

They used Youyou’s house as a stronghold, reading and practicing recipes over and over without getting bored. With Tiao’s help, Youyou successfully made grilled miniature snowballs. When they stood in front of the briquette stove, cheek to cheek, and watched the egg white batter drop into the boiling milk and absorb enough to form the snowballs, they almost wept with excitement. They felt like they had reached a new level, where they were not just displaying craft, but art, great art. They held the spoons, gently placing the snow-white balls, along with light yellow syrup, into their mouths, onto their tongues, letting their tongues surround and taste them. They held their breath to chew and savour. They had a real taste for it. It gave fragrance to their mouths and stomachs and its rich flavour told them life could be very beautiful. Youyou would never go back to cooking those puffed rice noodles and fried crystal pork; her ambition now was to try out all the best recipes in Soviet Woman . Tiao went right along with Youyou’s ambition, generously providing all the ingredients that she could possibly find, items she had hidden from Wu, such as curry powder, cinnamon, bay leaf, whole white pepper, spiced soy sauce, tomato sauce, citric acid, vanilla, etc…. Almost every one of them was put to use at their stronghold for eating and drinking.

They didn’t spend their pocket money anymore; they saved it, one cent at a time. When they had saved enough, they shared the cost of buying fish, meat, fruit, eggs, and sugar. Soviet Woman calmed them, and they no longer minded the indifference of their teachers and classmates, the on-again-off-again classes, and the heavy physical labour — after they entered middle school they often went to dig air-raid shelters, and sometimes mixed dirt and water into moulds for no apparent reason. They would come home muddy and wet. After they washed, they went right to Youyou’s house, where Soviet Woman was waiting.

They studied and then made Armenian grilled pork patties: Mix ground pork, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and chopped onions together and make patties; sprinkle flour on the patties and brush with egg. Then sprinkle bread crumbs on the patties, put them in the oven, and bake for fifteen minutes. Use meat broth to make tomato sauce, according to the recipe as follows: Add tomato sauce to the meat broth and boil. Add MSG, salt, and a little flour or cornstarch. Finally, put the grilled pork patties on a plate and pour the sauce over them. They didn’t have an oven, but Youyou hit on the idea that she could substitute frying for grilling, spreading oil on the patties and using a low flame. They tasted very good.