First, you get a fish!

I took several friends to Wal-Mart last Friday night for food shopping. I noticed that Tracy and Hua purchased two whole catfish and I made a remark about how they would cook them. They invited me to watch the "Chinese" way of cooking fish and, of course, I showed up with my trusty camera. After pan-frying it in some oil, Tracy added a mixture of chopped green onion, soy sauce, Chinese vinegar, salt, sugar and some garlic salt. Then you add water and cook it some more. Very, very tasty. I kept remembering my mother's voice saying, "Watch out for those fish bones. They can get stuck in your throat and you could die!" :) Earlier, Hua had set out a bowl of plump, green grapes and said that Tracy could not have grapes because some medication she was taking prohibited it. Really? I said, "Can I see the medical information about the medicine. I can’t imagine why grapes would interfere with your medication." I read the information and smiled. It did indeed say that Tracy should be cautioned against eating a certain fruit while taking this medication. However, the word was grapefruit and even though there was no space between grape and fruit, they thought it meant grapes. We had a nice little laugh after I explained their mistake and Tracy laughed and began popping grapes in her mouth. I did, however, warn them about the actual "grapefruit", explaining that it is a totally different type of fruit and that I'd show them one on our next shopping trip. When you are living in a foreign country as Tracy and Hua are, it is important to be able to laugh about such mistakes. It is also, however, important to seek native help with such things as medications so that proper instructions can be followed. It's funny. An act we consider so basic and easy to understand is not always so easy to understand when you're not American or from a "western" country. I remember asking Liyin, in China, which way I was supposed to face when "utilizing" (nice word for "squatting") the Chinese toilets. Some things are just funny. You laugh and move on.