The Bathing Women (16 page)

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.

There were also Tbilisi pickles, Italian wine fish stew, Hungarian cabbage stew, Ukraine red cabbage soup, Cantonese tomato barbecued pork, and Hangzhou barbecued pork. They felt particularly close to the Chinese dishes introduced in
Soviet Woman
. But for grilled and fried game, they felt totally at sea. Because they had no way to get game, they made fun of the illustrations in the cooking section: a rabbit holds a knife in one hand and a fork in the other, explaining to the readers how to cook and eat delicious game. It was like a person enthusiastically telling others how to kill him and make him as delicious as possible.

Once in a while, they would try to make some snacks: Russian sweet bread, sugar and honey pancake, and curry beef turnover. Some recipes required “marshmallow cream,” and they immediately studied the instructions and searched for the ingredients to make it: cream, gelatine, egg white, sugar, caramel, water, and vanilla. To make marshmallow cream you mix these ingredients together and beat for a long time until it becomes fluffy. Cream, gelatine, and caramel were the things that were most difficult to find, and the stores in Fuan just didn’t sell this kind of stuff. Youyou remembered that the mother of one of her elementary school classmates worked in a food processing factory, so she went to talk to her. Her classmate’s mother said, “Our factory does have these things, but what do you need them for?”

Youyou said, “My grandma is sick and the doctor gave her this folk prescription, which requires only these three things. Just a little, a little bit of each of them.” But even a little cost money. The food processing factory was government-run, so Youyou used her back-door connections and spent a vast sum of money, 1.40 yuan, to buy cream, gelatine, and caramel. She and Tiao took turns beating the mixture, using chopsticks, the way they beat eggs. It was really hard work. When Tiao thought about it years later, she felt that mixing these watery ingredients and beating them into a snow-white, fluffy cream was nothing short of a miracle. She’d kept at it with Youyou’s encouragement. They beat the mixture for almost an hour, until their arms were sore and their vision was blurred, but, at last, they succeeded. The sticky fluid finally turned into fragrant cream! Ah, marshmallow cream!

There was a sumptuous spread in the “Home-Style Kitchen” section that particularly interested Youyou. Actually, it was only a few examples of cold dishes with fruit and vegetables. It read: The dishes you make should be both tasty and attractive. Using ingredients like fresh cucumber, green peas, sliced boiled eggs, green onions, and tomatoes, you can put together an attractive dish. In early autumn, vegetables are abundant, so homemakers can easily prepare a variety of delicious and appealing dishes.

Below are recipes from Vladimir Lepushin, head chef of Moscow’s Metropol Hotel.

1. Festive Appetizer (Cold Dish): First, cut cooked wild fowl into thin slices, and then take fresh potatoes, green peas, cauliflower, and celery stalks, and dice after boiling. Thinly slice both cucumber and tomatoes into the same thickness, then combine all of these, adding salt and dressing (mix vegetable oil, egg yolk, and, according to taste, add mustard and vinegar, and whisk together). Then your appetizer is done. Next, arrange your appetizer in the following manner: In a tall, footed bowl, stack the ingredients in layers, making a tower shape, and drizzle with the dressing. Then on top of the tower place a hollowed-out chili pepper, and on its carved-out tip place an olive (or a small plum) and then surround the tower with olives (or plums), and around this arrange fresh apple and cucumber slices with their edges cut in a zigzag shape. On these slices place more olives, and finally around the outer edge of the bowl garnish with fresh lettuce leaves.

2. Apple Cup: Carve out most of the flesh of an apple to form a shell in the shape of a cup, then take the small pieces of carved-out apple, along with fresh cucumber, boiled carrot, green peas, and cabbage, and combine, adding dressing, and place back into the apple shell. Put the apples on a platter and surround with lettuce leaves, lemon slices, and rings of sliced chili pepper.

3. Little Basket: Take a large cucumber, scoop out the core, and carve into an oval-shaped basket. In the interior of the small basket you can add cold vegetables. Using a green onion, fashion a handle for the small basket. Around the small basket arrange cabbage leaves, and on top of the leaves you can place balls carved from carrots and fresh cucumbers.

Youyou attentively studied the three examples described and felt that the “Festive Appetizer” was not achievable. The wild fowl and olives would be impossible to get, and furthermore, the whole process seemed too complicated, like culinary acrobatics. The “Little Basket,” however, was feasible. Cucumbers, green onions, carrots, and cabbage were all easy to find. She then started carefully sculpting the “Little Basket.”

Tiao was not interested in any of the “garnishing” techniques in cuisine. As an adult, every time she saw those “realistic” peacocks and flowers carved out of carrots and turnips, or goldfish made out of preserved eggs on a banquet table, she would respond with disgust at the showy bad taste. She thought that for a chef to spend so much time and effort on these decorations was not only unnecessary but simply a useless sidetrack of culinary art. That was why she didn’t applaud Youyou’s “Little Basket,” even though Youyou crafted an exquisite version with her inspired hands and a paring knife.

Fei had her own amusements at the time. She leafed through the pages of photos in
Soviet Woman
for the fashions:

This coat, with gold print, has raglan sleeves and no buttons. The skirt and lining are made of pale mauve silk.

Gorgeous two-piece dress, waist-length, with form-fitting top.

Woollen dress with white and green stripes, set-in sleeves. Skirt pleated along the stripes.

Boating clothes. Tank top, pants made of pea-green waterproof material, and a deep blue jacket with black and white stripes.

Fei devoured the fashions in the magazines, sure she would look very pretty in any of the outfits, particularly the boating clothes. It was
Soviet Woman
that first informed her that boating involved special clothing. How professional and romantic it made a pastime like boating look! Fei told Tiao what she thought and Tiao agreed with her. During a period in which no one could tell women’s clothes from men’s, everything they saw seemed beyond luxury. They stared at those clothes obsessively, so absorbed that they couldn’t help fantasizing that they could lift them right off the page and try them on. There was a black evening gown with flared skirt called “Cairo Night,” worn by a model with bare shoulders and a slender waist, which Fei couldn’t resist imitating. She put down the magazine, walked to the door, and took down a black raincoat that belonged to Youyou’s father, conveniently hanging on the back of it.

She ducked into the bathroom with the raincoat. When she came out, she was “Cairo Night,” her plaits coiled on the back of her head and her beautiful, smooth shoulders exposed. She caught the black raincoat below her shoulders and above her breasts, showing off her sculpted collarbones. She clutched the clothes tightly at her chest to keep the raincoat from slipping down. Ah, “Cairo Night,” both Tiao and Youyou clapped for her. Just then she played a little trick, suddenly loosening her grip and letting the raincoat fall. She stood naked in front of her two friends. Perhaps she hadn’t really done it on purpose; or perhaps she wanted them to see that body of hers, so mature and worldly. How many secrets her body kept from them!

Youyou screamed and Tiao laughed. Smiling, Fei calmly put her clothes back on. Next, she did their makeup for dinner. It was accomplished very simply: the only thing necessary was lipstick. She tore off and moistened a small strip of red paper, telling them to take the paper between their teeth and press down with their lips. The red of the paper was printed on their lips. Their faces immediately radiated seduction. They sat down to dine with red lips, putting on pretentious airs. “I’ll have the Ukraine red cabbage soup,” Tiao said to Youyou. And Youyou, wearing a tall homemade chef’s hat, waited on her attentively. Fei stuck out her little finger and made a special request for Tbilisi pickles. She pinched a cigarette, a real cigarette, between her fingers while she ordered. They ate, drank, and then wanted to hear a story. Their stomachs had been tended, now it was their minds’ turn. The storytelling was usually left up to Tiao.

Tiao looked at Youyou, and then turned to Fei. Ah, what a perfect arrangement, with her in the middle savouring the gourmet food and admiring the lovely chef on her left and the beautiful girl on her right. She was the perfect storyteller. What else did she need? She started to tell a story she had read in
Soviet Woman,
the issue that had the “Little Basket” recipe.

It was actually a very ordinary story. A girl named Genia is sulking and giving her fiancé, Mischa, a hard time on their outing. For the whole day, Mischa tries all sorts of things to cheer Genia up, but fails. One moment he’s making faces, the next he’s telling stories, and after that he’s singing songs—songs that Genia loves, but still she pouts. So, during their dinner at a small restaurant, Mischa flirts with a girl sitting at the next table, to make Genia jealous. That was all that happened in the story, according to Tiao. She thought the story was boring; she was interested only in the jealousy part. From the story, Tiao got the impression that emotion sometimes had to be indirect: a man loves a woman, but occasionally he has to make the woman he loves jealous by flirting with another woman. If she gets jealous, it proves that she loves and values him. A man has to use this roundabout way, approaching other women, to love the woman he loves. This way of testing the feeling, Mischa’s jealousy method, had a subtle attraction for Tiao. How troublesome and intricate the relationship between men and women could be! But what did jealousy feel like?

It took time and energy to get jealous and to make people jealous. Jealousy, this bitter, delicate, sharp feeling, perhaps had something primitive about it, an antique foolishness; an emotion out of the Era of Steam. Jealousy would have no place in the nineties. There would be no time for anything, no time to laugh or cry, to win or lose at love, no time for heart-to-heart talks, no time to get jealous or to work up the courage to duel. The nineties were an era without rivalry in love. This was what Tiao would believe as an adult. If rivalry in love didn’t exist anymore, who could make you jealous?

But right then, in the seventies, the girls with red-paper-dyed lips still discussed jealousy.

“Would you get jealous, Youyou?”

“Would you get jealous, Tiao?”

“Would you get jealous, Fei?”

Fei said, “I won’t get jealous, but I’ll make others jealous of me.”

5

Fei always seemed different from others, and she was different. When Tiao and Youyou talked about whether they would get jealous or not, Fei was thinking about making others jealous of her; when Tiao and Youyou sighed for lives like those in the movies, Fei told them, “I am a movie.”