fuschia.

Much hilarity and Chinese/Sichuan food yesterday. Mara's bao (she's gotten it down to a singlehanded science) were awesome as expected, both the char siu and BBQ tofu options are total weeners.

This is water spinach from Dun Yong.

I've said it before about the invaluablility of having friends that can really cook. Magda and Anthea showed up and did their thing on a couple of Fuchsia Dunlop recipes.

This is Fish-Fragrant Eggplant, which has absolutely nothing to do with fish, and which could not have been any better I don't think. It was really perfect, I only wish I didn't know how much oil was involved.

And then there was this Boiled Beef Slices in a Fiery Sauce, which I'm sure sounds better in Chinese. Most Chinese dishes sound better in Chinese. Husband and Wife Sliced Lung, for example. 

I also made some pretty good Sichuan Cucumbers.

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And then the serious social lubricants appeared and Shit Got Real. We spent a loooong long time smelling this thing that Magda was comparing to Sichuan peppercorns and no one knew what she was talking about and she Googled it and it turns out Andy had it on his Spice Wall:

It was like an Instant Olfactory Nostalgia Generator: pine trees, backyards, summer camps, bonfires, cinnamon, camphor....everyone had a slightly different take on what childhood memory it connected to.

I'm not going to even try to explain Anthea's physical comedy experiment with her strawberry-lime-vodka thingie. No one could explain why it was funny but it most definitely was.

I crushed WTFITB's head for a bit.

Eventually WTFITB became totally Chocolonely, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the incredibly shady-looking mattress behind him.

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