This story is the first story I wrote after coming to Michigan for graduate study. It relates an experience I have found to be interesting.

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I was often asked by my friends when I was in college, " What kind of husband do you want?"

"Of course, a man who is good at cooking and interested in cooking." Every time, I gave the same answers without hesitation since I loved eating so much at that time.

I did meet a man who was good at cooking. That was a reunion party of classmates from senior middle school. He was one of my classmates too. Nobody knew he was a good cooker until the party. The party was about five years after we graduated from the senior middle school. He used to be quiet and blush while talking to schoolgirls. He didn’t do very well in his classes although he studied very hard. Sometimes, we suspected he was clumsy. Five years after not seeing him, I almost couldn’t remember his name. Furthermore, I didn’t think he would became my boyfriend later, but he did.

"Who will play the main role today?" One of the classmates asked.

"Jade is the qualified one, I think, still remember the cakes she did for my birthday party ?" My close friend Lily shouted.

"No, but I don’t want to work today. I want to be more relaxed." I murmured to myself.

"Jade, let’s do the cooking together if you don’t mind." He said to me. I couldn’t believe my ears. He could cook, couldn’t he? In order to show my politeness, I said yes reluctantly.

We went to the kitchen. The first thing that attracted me is that his skills of cutting was excellent. The potatoes he cut were so slim that they looked like the elegant silk thread. Then he cut a fresh fish into thin slices but linked to each other. If he didn’t tell the fish had been cut, every one must have thought it was a whole fish. All of us were amazed by his sophisticated cutting skills. But also, the fish bones were just separated from the meat. That was convenient for us to eat. We didn’t have to worry about the fish bones. It was called sour and chili fish. He first put the fish into the pan when the oil was warm, (not so hot) and fried the two sides of the fish until it a was light brown color. Then he dumped out the oil from the pan. He carefully used a small bowl and put ginger powder, onion, soy, sugar and chili, stirred them and poured on the fish from head to tail slowly, and cooked a few more minutes. It smelled so good that we couldn’t wait to eat any longer, It made our mouths water.

Everyone looked at him with new eyes, especially me. He got a lot of praises that day, but still kept quiet and smiling, that impressed me deeply.

After the dinner, he sent me home. By the time we said good-bye, I said to him: "Can you show me how to cook better?" "My pleasure." He smiled honestly.

We got along well from then on. He came to see me often and cooked different delicious food, such as sweet and sour pork, thousand layers of steaming pork, steamed pot chicken, three colored vegetables and so on. We shared both food and friendship. I was happy to have dinner with him not only because I had a food opportunity to feast my appetite on food, but also enlarged my views of food culture. The more importance, it also made me understand that everyone has his merit, and learning to appreciate other people even if you thought he was not an outstanding one. All of us can make the things great if we know how to develop the strong points and avoid the weak points. An old Chinese proverb gives a description that one may distinguish himself in any trade.

He's never been my husband, but it was just a happy episode of my life.

© 1996 Jade Yuxuan Gao