The Joy of Cooking
Thursday, June 30th, 2005After a rigorous workout at my ballet school, I went home looking forward to a soak in a nice warm bubble bath. I got to my apartment lobby and stood by the elevator with four, young, Chinese guys. They all wore either ill-fitted suits or ill-fitted khakis. I’m not one to comment on fashion (remember those denim overalls I used to wear in college??) but it was pretty hard not to notice.
Anyways, two of the four guys were carrying rice cookers. And as we waited for the elevator to come, the two guys without rice cookers kept asking questions about the rice cookers that seemed to have been shipped from China- how many cups of rice can it cook? can you boil vegetables and meat in the four cup rice cooker? etc. etc. What was even more fascinating than the fact these were four young guys discussing rice cookers was that these four guys were discussing it with the eagerness usually reserved for when men discuss women that they had just met at a bar or a fancy new car that they saw parked alongside the road.
We got in the elevator and the conversation continued until there were only the two guys without the rice cookers left. Then all conversation ceased for the next three floors. They exited the elevator, leaving me alone to contemplate what had just occurred. When I got home I decided to make me a cup of rice and some stir fry.