My Kitchen in Shanghai

Tonight, I did something amazing. I cooked dinner. I know, I know. You are saying, cooking your own dinner, what's the big deal?

Oh, maybe because it's because I'm a guy, right? No, wrong!

It's just that I haven't had my own kitchen in the past three years. And now, living in the French Concession in Shanghai in my own apartment, I do!

I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to go to the grocery store and buy ginger, garlic, a bottle of tea oil, fresh vegetables, some meat... and then to come home and start preparing dinner. I get out my cutting board and chop garlic while the water is boiling. The pot, it's shiny and new, and almost in slow motion, I throw in the garlic and ginger, adding some soy sauce and tea oil. At the appropriate time, I throw in the mushrooms, and then later the greens, with the thinly sliced beef.

I know, I know, you are getting hungry just reading this!

And voila, dinner is ready. I even bought a small table for my kitchen so I can eat like a mensch (that's Yiddish for a real human being).

After dinner, I clean up. Rinse the cutting board and wash my bowl, my spoon, chopsticks. The countertop is littered with garlic skin, and so I grab a sponge a wash it all clean. All my dishes are drying on my new metal dish rack (from IKEA, of course).

I check my email, and when I return to the kitchen to get a drink, I stop and look with pride at my kitchen in Shanghai.

These are the simple pleasures of life.