European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Living today supreme lobster for anything its Best you go to Taiwan by Sharon Hudgins special to stripes Magazine it was the worst place we had Ever a dismal room made of Concrete painted grungy with Black mildew growing on the Walls and hanging in sinister threads from the outside the dirty a Brick typhoon Wall obscured the View of vibrant purple bougainvillea and 12foottall our local Gecko did his Best to Battle the hordes of flying does this sound familiar anyone who has Ever been condemned to live in military transient billets in Okinawa will surely recognize the i could accept the uncomfortable twin Beds and the Dingy but the so called cooking facilities in the room were below no no no nothing but a supposedly efficient Kitchen i had never seen anything like it a Waist High refrigerator whose top was divided in the with a minuscule sink on the and two electric cooking eyes on the the sink was too Small to hold even one dinner and there want enough stove top surface to set a Salt Shaker when we discovered that turning on the stove caused All the ice to melt in the we knew that Home cooking was not going to be part of our life in thank goodness we stayed there Only two lacking a car at we had to find some place within walking distance where we could Only the base snack bar met this and the Only things we could stand to eat there were Fried Rice and Fried my Waistline suffered even More than my not Long after our arrival in a colleague who had survived similar culinary indignities suggested that we sign up for chinese cooking offered twice a week during the two hours just before turn the chinese cooking class was one of the few places nearby where decent food could be after the teacher demonstrated the preparation of two or three chinese the students ate and critiqued All the it sounded like such a Good Deal that both my husband and i signed up the classes were taught by a very vivacious chinese woman from i was especially impressed by her ability to speak English particularly since my entire chinese vocabulary consisted of won ton and Moo goo Gai after i figured out that whenever Liu said Blac fast she actually meant i was Able to understand everything else she taiwanese nationalist that she Lui always had the same answer for those students who asked where to buy chinese ingredients and chinese cooking utensils better you go in her Hong and Naha Okinawa All were inferior places to Purchase the tools of her so often did Liu reply better you go Taiwan that the phrase entered the vocabulary of All her repeated in jest whenever anyone started to where can this was the first cooking course that my husband and i had Ever taken and we soon discovered Why so Many people prefer to learn cooking from a qualified teacher instead of merely from Lui was a living compendium of chinese cooking in certain that Many of the culinary tricks she taught us cant be found in any published most of them had been handed from chinese great grandmother to grandmother to Mother to my notes from the class were soon filled with culinary and All of which i referred to As mrs Luis chinese cooking in sure she  object if i shared some of them with lius chinese cooking tips in old style chinese we never How do we know How much to put in smell the Only cutting tools you need in a chinese Machen Are two cleavers a heavy a thin one for if you break or Chip a porcelain dont throw it save it to use for sharpening your rub the cutting Edge of the Cleaver several in one direction Only Over the broken Edge of the porcelain who needs a whisk when you can mix everything with eight or 10 chopsticks held together in one hand if you dont own a steaming pot or Steamer improvise by cutting the tops and Bottoms off three tuna fish Wash then set them in the Bottom of a place the food to be steamed on a Platter set on top of the tuna to take the bitterness out of the Cut off one rub the two Cut surfaces together note Liu Learned this trick from her and my husband insists that it does indeed All i can say is that since taking chinese cooking he has never served me a bitter Sprinkle 1 Tablespoon Vodka or Gin Over raw fish or shellfish to eliminate any fishy Aroma before let the marinate in the Gin or Vodka while you prepare the other ingredients for the pork and shrimp can be mixed but never beef and when a recipe Calls for a dash of something Chile a dash is the amount you can balance on one when a recipe Calls for sesame seed add it to the wok just before you finish stir frying the tug St ims