Autumn Chicken

I've known Mac since freshman year. We've spent hundreds of hours in lab, in class, in Thorne, and even more doing problem sets; and though we've discussed the Red Sox through despair, bewilderment, and now downright cockiness, I never expected to some day be eating dim sum with him, even if I've been craving to yum cha for months now. So when he shot me an email this week saying that Vannie wanted to go, I was a little suspicious. Sure this was a great idea, but would we eat real Chinese food? I'd been burned before, even in Chinatown, forced to order noodles and fat dumplings when I wanted fried intestines and bouncy meatballs.

To brace myself, I started out cautious and grilled Vannie and her friend on their eating habits. I had to know what I was getting into. But lunch today was like a little Yom Kippur bonus from God, as if he said, "Now that your sins have been atoned, take the long weekend off, and here, hang out with these folks for a few hours." They had all the right answers. None of us spoke Cantonese but we could order all that we wanted in Cantonese. We were agressive flaggers of waitresses. Knowledgeable of Asian cuisine. And every food we liked was fair game- ha gao, siu mai, pai gwut... even turnip cakes? Yes. ... even... chicken feet?

Uh oh. Mac said that he wouldn't. Vannie was nonjudgmental but noncommittal. But her friend Lena? "I love chicken feet!" "Oh, thank God." "I think I found my soul mate."

And so it was. Though I'm sure I was invited to lunch just so Mac would have someone to talk baseball with while Vannie caught up with Lena, we had an awesome morning of eating and talking about eating. Satisfying our stomachs and nostalgia while the sun beamed outside, then afterwards, going to Footlocker where we ran our covetous little hands through rows of Chucks and Air Jordans we can't afford (while reminiscing the days when we all had funky sneakers paid by parental dollars)-- doing all that made me think that maybe I don't need to run for the West coast just yet. My friends here are all right.