Chapter 15: Annie and Huaimin Return to Berkeley

85

Back in Berkeley, California, the maple leaves along the tree-lined streets were just beginning to turn red.

As soon as Annie and Huaimin arrived home, they set about cleaning and organizing the house. Huaimin took a pair of large garden shears and trimmed the flower beds in the yard. Annie cleaned the floors and wiped down the doors and windows. Huaimin pushed the lawn mower across the lawn while Annie worked on the plot of farmland, turning the soil and clearing away the weeds. They kept busy until dusk.

Annie took out the hunter’s rice parcels Meilan had prepared for them and put them in the oven to warm up. Then she opened the coffee canister, scooped out two spoonfuls of coffee beans, and put them into the coffee maker, brewing two large cups of coffee. Huaimin had just come out of the shower, a large bath towel draped around him. The two of them sat in the small dining room, eating the hunter’s rice parcels and drinking rich, aromatic Alishan coffee.

Annie said, “Your mom really packed these rice parcels full of good stuff! They have stir-fried strips of wild boar, chestnuts, salted egg yolks, and shredded radish inside.”

Huaimin smiled with satisfaction. “That’s my mom’s love!”

“It’s wonderful to have a mom.” As she spoke, Annie looked at her mother’s photograph on the windowsill, and for a moment she could not help feeling sad.

Huaimin gently comforted her. “Annie, you still have a mom in Alishan!”

A smile returned to Annie’s face. “That’s right! I still have a mom who’s a wonderful cook!”

Huaimin said, “We’ll be leaving here next spring. It’s a shame we won’t have time to sow millet and highland barley.”

“We won’t be too late!” Annie replied. “The winters here are quite mild. Haven’t you noticed that I’ve already prepared that plot of land?”

Huaimin smiled. “I thought you were getting ready to plant strawberries.”

“Of course, we can plant strawberries too! But we’ll have to wait another two months, until the temperature drops a little toward the end of the year.”

86

Annie took Huaimin to the cemetery and placed a bouquet of fresh flowers in front of her grandmother Drolma’s grave.

“My grandmother Drolma was a woman of extraordinary strength and determination.”

“Oh? You told me she came from Tibet.”

“Yes! When my grandmother was young, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, she was studying at the National Southwestern Associated University in Chengdu when she met my grandfather. He was an officer in the Flying Tigers. Have you heard of the Flying Tigers?”

“Yes. General Claire Lee Chennault and his wife, Anna Chennault, are well known in Taiwan. Their story as a couple is widely recognized.”

Annie continued at length. “After the war ended, my grandfather returned to Lhasa with my grandmother. Later, when the Communists advanced toward the Yangtze River, my grandfather was called back into military service. The two of them returned to Nanjing. My grandfather flew fighter planes on numerous missions. Just before Shanghai fell, they followed the Nationalist government as it retreated all the way to Taiwan. A few years later, my grandfather was shot down and killed while carrying out a high-altitude reconnaissance mission. My grandmother received his death benefits and, pregnant with my father, came alone to California. She found a job as a librarian at the University of California, Berkeley, and gave birth to my father, Zashi. She worked, raised her child, and continued her studies at the same time, eventually completing her doctorate in art history. She stayed on at the art school and taught there.”

Huaimin exclaimed in admiration, “Your grandmother was truly remarkable—a strong woman of her generation.”

“Grandmother Drolma’s life was an epic novel of her times. She embodied the upheavals of an entire era. By comparison, my mother, Grace, was a sorrowful lyric poem...” As Annie spoke, her eyes reddened, and tears began to well up.

“Oh! What happened to your mother?” Huaimin asked cautiously.

Annie shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about her. She’s a shadow that I can never escape.”

“All right. I won’t ask.” Huaimin tactfully fell silent.

“Let’s go visit Grace’s grave.” Annie took Huaimin by the hand and led him along several winding paths to the section of the cemetery with newer graves, where Grace was buried.

Huaimin noticed the dates on Grace’s tombstone and thought to himself, “So Annie’s mother passed away just last year. No wonder she doesn’t want to talk about her...”

Annie laid a bouquet of fresh flowers on the grave and silently prayed with her hands clasped together. Huaimin followed her example and clasped his hands as well. Standing before the mother-in-law he had never had the chance to meet, he did not know what to say. But he was grateful to Grace for raising Annie so well. He even believed that, when she was alive, Grace must have been a devoted wife and loving mother, because he could sense those wonderful qualities in Annie.

87

In the library of the graduate institute at the School of Arts, Annie introduced Tang Huaimin to Li Jianhua.

Li Jianhua studied the handsome young man standing before him very carefully.

“You look just as handsome as your father, Zashi, did when he was young!” Li Jianhua blurted out his first impression. Then he added, “Annie, you certainly have good taste.”

Annie smiled. “After spending more than half a year with my father, I’ve come to realize that he’s a genuine scholar. Huaimin, on the other hand, is more like an artsy young intellectual. He’s straightforward in his thinking and just as straightforward in his actions. He doesn’t seem to have much of a scheming side.”

Huaimin was hearing Annie’s assessment of him for the first time. Scratching his head, he gave an awkward grin and protested, “Actually, I’m not quite that clueless!”

Annie made a face at him. “I never said you were clueless!”

“Ha! It looks like you two are very much in sync. You’re a perfect match!” Seeing the young couple teasing each other, Li Jianhua felt reassured.

“Uncle, I may change the topic of my doctoral dissertation. I’ll bring you my proposal in the next few days.”

“No rush. Take your time and think it through. Good work takes time! I’m off to teach a class. You two carry on. I’ll wait for you in the department this evening and take you out to dinner.”

“There’s no need to go out, Uncle. Come over to my place, and I’ll have Huaimin show off his hometown cooking for you!”

“Sounds good! Then I’ll be your guest. I’ll take public transportation to your place later.” Li Jianhua smiled warmly, then turned and left.

Annie noticed that Huaimin was staring at her in stunned silence, as motionless as a wooden statue.

“What’s wrong, Huaimin?” Annie asked.

Huaimin complained, “Why didn’t you ask me before inviting your uncle over for dinner?”

Annie replied, “I wanted to test your ability to improvise!”

Huaimin frowned. “Come on! I can cook some dishes from my hometown, but are you sure we can find those ingredients here? Wild boar, free-range chicken, river fish and shrimp...”

“Don’t we have mountain pepper, cumin powder, and aiyu seeds at home? We’ll go to the supermarket later and pick out some similar ingredients. Then we’ll cook together! My uncle isn’t a picky eater.” Annie sounded perfectly relaxed, as though it were no big deal.

Huaimin gave a wry smile. “All right!”

“How about buying some chestnuts, salted eggs, and preserved radish so we can make hunter’s rice parcels together?”

“But we’ll need shell ginger leaves to wrap them!”

Annie smiled. “There’s shell ginger growing right in our backyard. We have enough for you to pick some every day.”

Annie continued, “While we’re at it, let’s buy some glutinous rice and a bunch of bananas. I love the banana mochi you make by pounding it yourself.”

“But we don’t have a wooden pestle and mortar at home!”

“Then we’ll have to visit a few more supermarkets! I’ve seen Native Americans using them, so we should be able to find one.”

Huaimin looked helpless. “You certainly come up with some strange tests for me!”

88

In the kitchen, the young couple worked together, helping each other and developing a better understanding through their interactions. However, they occasionally disagreed, and more often than not, Huaimin was the one who gave in first.

“You have to season the salted pork with mountain pepper!”

Annie objected. “Let's try sprinkling it with cumin powder. If it works with lamb, why wouldn't it work with salted pork? The salted pork sold here is all smoked and cured. Mountain pepper has a rather overpowering flavor, and it doesn't go well with the smokiness. Why not sprinkle on some cumin and treat it like barbecued lamb?”

Huaimin refused to back down. “Then why don't you buy lamb chops next time? Seasoning things this way, with ingredients that don't belong together, isn't how we traditionally cook in the Tsou community!”

“All right! Next time, we'll buy fresh lamb chops and strips of pork belly. You can marinate the pork belly, and we'll each do our own thing.” Annie made a small concession.

“Then we absolutely cannot use cumin powder in this salt-and-pepper shrimp dish!” Huaimin insisted.

“Let's just salt them and add some garlic for flavor!”

Huaimin immediately corrected her. “That's not all! My mom uses several kinds of seasonings. Let me think... Scallions, garlic cloves, chili peppers, and ground white pepper. We also need salt and two spoonfuls of rice wine.”

Annie teased him deliberately. “Ha! You really are a mama's boy!”

Huaimin was not offended. “There's nothing wrong with being a mama's boy! It's a family tradition passed down from one generation to the next!”

Annie said, “One of these days, I'll prepare a shrimp dish for you using Tibetan cooking methods!”

Huaimin burst out laughing. “Hahaha! I spent an entire year in Tibet, and I never heard of river shrimp being produced there!”

Annie replied, “That's because you're ignorant of what you haven't seen. We do have brine shrimp in Tibet! They're just a different species from Taiwan's freshwater shrimp. They're mainly used as feed for expensive ornamental fish, such as arowanas and silver arowanas.”

Huaimin laughed. “Those are fish food! How could you possibly use them to make a dish?”

Annie refused to give in. “Then I'll use sea shrimp as the ingredient. Will that do?”

Huaimin shook his index finger. “The ingredient still isn't right. Our traditional Tsou salt-and-pepper river shrimp uses freshwater shrimp that live in streams.”

Annie pretended to be angry, pouting as she challenged him. “You're really impossible, Tang Huaimin! Did I ever say I was going to make traditional Tsou salt-and-pepper river shrimp? Do you want me to rewind and play back what I just said?”

Huaimin quickly thought back, scratched his head, and gave an embarrassed grin. “I guess you didn't say that.”

89

One dish after another was brought to the dining table. The meal was a combination of Tibetan and Tsou cuisine. Li Jianhua was unfamiliar with both kinds of cooking, so he simply tried whatever was served and praised the food as he ate.

“I've never had any of these dishes in Chinatown. This millet rice parcel in particular is interesting. The filling is somewhat like that of northern-style rice dumplings, but it has a hint of lemon fragrance.”

Huaimin said proudly, “Professor, my mother adapted that dish from the traditional Tsou hunter’s rice parcel. It's the food Tsou men carry with them when they travel far from home to hunt.”

Li Jianhua recalled, “The Tsou people? I've heard of them. I believe they live in the Alishan mountains of Taiwan. More than ten years ago, when I went to Taiwan for a conference, some local friends took me to Alishan to see the cherry blossoms! Now I remember. During cherry blossom season, several different varieties of cherry trees bloom all over the mountains.”

Huaimin asked with interest, “Professor, have you ever heard of the Dabang and Tefuye communities?”

Li Jianhua spoke enthusiastically. “Not only have I heard of them, I even made a special trip to visit their traditional meeting house. If I remember correctly, it was a raised building with a thatched roof. Inside, there was a fire pit. The local people told me that the fire never went out, all year round!”

Huaimin immediately felt closer to Li Jianhua. “We Tsou people call that meeting house a kuba. My family home is in Dabang, in that row of stone houses right behind the kuba.”

Li Jianhua smiled. “I remember that row of houses! They were built by stacking stone slabs. I even went inside and looked around.”

“That's incredible!” Tang Huaimin exclaimed in delight. “Professor, you may actually have visited my home! We often have tourists coming to visit.”

Annie said, “The world isn't that big after all!”

“It's a pity I've never had the chance to visit Tibet,” Li Jianhua said. “I've traveled to many places in mainland China, as far as Ili and Tacheng in Xinjiang, but I've never been to Tibet.”

“You'll have a chance someday, Uncle!” Annie said. “Huaimin and I are planning to return to Lhasa in Tibet and settle there.”

Li Jianhua suggested, “Annie, you could actually consider staying here to teach and then returning to Tibet to conduct research as a visiting scholar.”

Huaimin thought for a moment. “Annie, what the professor suggested is a pretty good option!”

Annie nodded. “I'll give it serious consideration, Uncle.”

Li Jianhua explained, “Given your outstanding performance in the department, along with your grandmother's connections, you should have a good chance of staying at Berkeley. Many of the senior professors in the department were once Drolma's students when they were young.”

Annie reminded him, “Uncle, why don't you try the dishes first? This is the first time Huaimin and I have cooked together.”

Li Jianhua smiled, his eyes narrowing. “Ha! I've already tried several dishes. They're all distinctive and absolutely delicious!”