16. Eating Out in China

Carved Doves from a Radish

When we were working in Chengdu in 1984-5 we had a cook to cook for Bernice and me. His name was Xiao Yang (Little Yang). He was a marvelous cook. Every dinner he would carve some thing like this for our centerpiece and our enjoyment. If we dropped a chopstick he was there with a replacement in a flash. If we didn't eat what he fixed completely we never saw it again. Likewise if we finished a dish he put it on his list to fix again. He was a good friend and a fine cook. The next time we came the cook was awful and lazy. Xiao Yang was running his own restaurant. We sometime ate there.