Mei Ching sighed as she surveyed the pots and pans that littered the kitchen countertop. Her sister, Mei See plopped a dirty spoon in the sink.
“Your turn tonight,” Mei See said.
Mei Ching sighed again, and turned on the tap. Hot water poured out, steam gently wafting.
“I wish Ma and Pa would just get us a helper,” she grumbled as she squeezed a glob of dishwashing liquid onto a sponge.
“I’d settle with a dishwasher!” Mei See replied before leaving the kitchen.
Mei Ching sank into her thoughts as she began scouring the oily wok. She hoped it would all be worth it. She loved cooking with all her heart, but she absolutely detested cleaning up. Her thoughts drifted to the ingredients she would need to buy for the next day.
Her mother came bustling in.
“Mei Ching! You haven’t finished cleaning up? You are always so slow!”
As usual, Mei Ching held her tongue.
“Yes, ma, I’ll be done soon,” she mumbled.
“Your Buddha Jumps Over The Wall tonight was terrible! How much ginseng did you put in it? I couldn’t taste anything else other than the ginseng!” her mother continued.
It was times like these when Mei Ching wished she were more like her American classmates. They were always genuinely perplexed at how Mei Ching never spoke back to her mother, no matter how frustrated she was. She wished one day she could tell her mother to just shut up, to stop picking on her and to stop criticizing her, but she physically felt unable to. As a child, she had tried saucing her mother back a few dismal times, but that had always ended up with her getting a stroke of the whip. Mei Ching had long learnt that to hold her tongue meant to hold the whip.
“I will be more careful,” Mei Ching replied through gritted teeth.
“Your competition is in two weeks! You shouldn’t be making such stupid mistakes by now!”
Mei Ching fantasized throwing the soapy pot at her mother’s head, but contented herself with gripping the handle tighter.
“Yes, ma. I know the competition will be in two weeks. I’m going to make the dish again and I think I’ll get it right this time.”
“You always think one thing but you do another thing. Be careful! Be alert when you are cooking!”
Mei See poked her head into the kitchen.
“Ma, what are you saying to Mei Ching now?” she asked irritatedly.
“I’m telling your sister to wake up! She is never alert!” her mother harangued.
“Mei Ching is just fine. Maybe we will be able to concentrate better on our cooking if we didn’t have all the stress of knowing we have to wash a thousand pots after!” Mei See countered.
Their mother pursed her lips.
“You children are really spoilt nowadays. Your father and I grew up washing all the dishes when we were children. We were the youngest so we always had to wash everyone else’s dishes! You should stop complaining and start being more grateful for everything we have given you.”
As their mother turned to leave the kitchen, Mei See rolled her eyes and made a face at Mei Ching, who shrugged wearily. Mei Ching turned off the tap and put the last wet dish onto the drainer.
“Finished!”
She went to the living room, where her father was sitting. It was a tradition in their household. After dinner, the whole family would retire to the living room to spend some time together. They didn’t speak much, instead, everyone focused solely on their laptops or tablets.
Mei Ching switched her laptop on and looked again at the recipe of Buddha Jumps Over The Wall. It was a complicated dish that required over 30 ingredients and 1-3 days to prepare. It was such a tiring dish to make, because you had to wait for 3 days before finding out how it finally tasted, and with so many ingredients, Mei Ching could never be sure of which tweak made a difference. It was true that in tonight’s version, the ginseng had overpowered the dish. Mei Ching made a mental note, but felt something else was missing. She was also worried, because on the day of the competition, she would only have a day to make the dish instead of 3 days. Could she make it work?
She could see Mei See’s screen from where she was sitting. Mei See was also Googling variations of her competition dish, Beggar’s Chicken. Beggar’s Chicken was an easier dish to make, but the tricky part was that the chicken needed to be encased in clay before being baked. Mei See was attempting to make art out of the clay. She wanted to sculpt it perfectly into the shape of a big bird, and would even paint it after. Mei See had always been the more creative of the two. She was the go-getter of the family. It was Mei See who had signed them up for the Championship of Chinese Cooking and coerced Mei Ching to go as a team.
Upon hearing of their entry of the competition, their parents had decided they would approach their daughters’ new goal the same way they approached their daughters’ school grades – with intense pressure.
Sometimes, Mei Ching wished Mei See hadn’t entered the competition, but then her love of cooking won out. She wanted to see what professionals thought of her and Mei See’s dishes. Could they win? She secretly thought they were amazing cooks, but no one had ever confirmed this belief. They had only ever cooked for their family, and their parents constantly told them they had over or under salted their dishes. Mei Ching wanted another opinion, and the opinion of a professional would validate her own judgment of her cooking skill.
She hoped they would win. She prayed to be cool, collected and calm during the day of the competition and that she wouldn’t forget anything.
2 weeks later
Competition Day
Panicked, Mei Ching rooted through the bags where her ingredients were. Besides her, Mei See was watching her anxiously.
“Mei Ching, relax! Relax! Stop stressing and look slowly!”
“Where are the mushrooms! I know I bought the shiitake mushrooms!” she squeaked as she scrabbled through the bag.
But try as she might, there were just no mushrooms in the bag. Mei Ching felt tears filling up her eyes.
“Mei Ching! Look, it’s okay. Fine, no mushrooms. We’ll just have to make do without the mushrooms. Just cook your dish and forget the mushrooms! Don’t fall into pieces now!” Mei See said, grabbing onto Mei Ching’s arms.
“But my dish will be aww-w-w-f-u-“ Mei Ching bawled, and two seconds later, received a big slap from Mei See.
Shocked, she looked at Mei See.
“We have no time for your tears and dramatics now! We have to cook! It’s not the end of the world not to have mushrooms, you dolt! You stop crying, and start cooking now! It will be okay!” Mei See shouted into Mei Ching’s face.
Despite the shock of the slap and Mei See’s loud yelling, Mei Ching felt slightly comforted. She looked at her sister’s face, etched with worry for her and also nerves for the competition.
“Okay. I’m sorry. I’ll pull myself together. We can do this.”
At the end of the day, they both looked at their handiwork. Mei See’s dish looked incredible, a baked clay bird painted in brown with a yellow clay beak. It was by far the most impressive dish in the room. Mei Ching’s dish looked exactly like how it should look, other than the absence of the mushrooms. It tasted amazing too, but it lacked the depth of the mushroom flavor. Mei Ching hoped the other competitors’ had made mistakes in their dishes.
“Ladies and gentlemen! It is now time to announce the winners of the Annual Championship of Chinese Cooking!”
Mei Ching looked up to see three judges in the front of the room, surrounded by Chinese dishes. The first judge, Wang Xie, was a renowned chef in Shanghai. The second chef, Marion Chen, owned the newest, hottest Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles, called simply Chen. The third chef, Robert Michaels, was an American who had his own cooking show called ‘Robbing the Kitchen’.
Mei Ching had heard of the first two judges, but was absolutely hooked to Robert Michaels. She loved ‘Robbing the Kitchen’, which she had watched since she was a child. It was that show that had piqued her interested in cooking, so to see him judging a competition that she had entered was mindblowing and terrifying at the same time.
She stole a glance around the room. Her parents, predictably, were seated right in front as close as they could get to the judges. Her mother caught her eye, and stared at her pointedly. She looked away, to the other competitors. Everyone looked tired and worn out, and kept looking at their dishes worriedly.
“There have been many amazing dishes served tonight. I am truly impressed by the level and standard of Chinese cooking in this room, and I applaud each and everyone one of you!” Wang Xie said.
“There are so many talents here tonight! If any of you are ever interested to work for Chen, do let me know!” Marion Chen trilled with a charming little laugh.
“So without further ado, let’s get to announcing the winners!” Robert Michaels said.
“In third place….”
“Karen Chi and Conran James, with Peking Roasted Duck and Winter Melon Soup!”
A handsome looking coupled hurried onto the front and beamed at the audience.
“In second place, Tang Mei Ching and Tang Mei See, with Buddha Jumps Over The Wall and Beggar’s Chicken!”
Mei Ching and Mei See stared at each other and squealed. Second place! They had won second place! They ran up to the front. Mei Ching couldn’t believe she was standing right next to Robert Michaels. It felt surreal, seeing him from television to real life.
“And in first place, Jessica and Jennifer Walker, with Samsui Ginger Chicken and Double Boiled Dried Scallop with Black Chicken Soup!”
A pair of the blondest girls Mei Ching had ever seen screamed and hugged each other. They were very pretty, Mei Ching realized, and they were twins!
“No way!” one yelled.
“Shut up!” the other yelled in response.
Prizes were dispensed, and people started mingling. Mei Ching approached Robert Michaels slowly.
“Excuse me,” she said shyly.
“Hello! Young lady, you’re very talented!” he smiled at her.
“Thank you! I wanted to let you know that I’ve been watching ‘Robbing the Kitchen’ since I was a child and I love it!” she said.
“Oh thank you-“
“And she would also like to know what went wrong with her dish!” a new voice chimed in.
Mei Ching blinked and looked around. Her parents were suddenly next to her, with Mei See nearby.
“Ma-“ Mei See hissed.
“Ah! There was nothing wrong with your daughter’s dishes! The Beggar’s Chicken was cooked to perfection, and a treat for sore eyes! The Buddha Jumps Over The Wall – that was very good too! But young lady, I think you missed one little ingredient?” he winked at her.
Mei Ching felt her face flush and turn red.
“I forgot the mushrooms,” she mumbled.
“Oh, don’t take this badly! It’s a mistake that can happen to anyone! In my first cooking competition, I didn’t even finish my dish on time! You both, in my opinion, are excellent cooks and have so much potential! You are both much better than what I was when I first started cooking!” he grinned at them, and turned to their parents.
“Mr and Mrs. Tang, you must be very proud to have such accomplished daughters!”
Her mother smiled thinly.
“Yes, they work hard,” she said.
“And can always improve,” Mei Ching’s father said.
Mei See looked at Mei Ching and rolled her eyes.
“Now if you excuse me, I must make a move!” Robert Michaels said with a cheerful smile.
When they were alone, Mei Ching’s mother rounded in on them.
“Are you not ashamed of yourselves?”
“Ashamed?” Mei See blinked.
“How can American girls beat you, who are true blue Chinese, in a Chinese cooking competition?” their mother hissed.
Their father was shaking his head.
“I cannot tell any of my friends about this. I will be laughed at for losing to a non Chinese!”
“We just worked our butts off and won second place!” Mei See said angrily.
“And maybe if you didn’t forget your mushrooms, you might have won!” their mother hissed back.
Mei Ching felt immensely small. She had cost her sister a chance at the first prize, and all due to her stupidity.
“I always tell you to be alert, and you never listen to me!” their mother glared at Mei Ching.
“Goddamn it ma, anyone could have made that stupid mushroom mistake,” Mei See said, her voice becoming lower and her face redder.
“Don’t USE those type of words on me!” their mother said, her face turning puce.
“Enough. I don’t want to hear this fighting anymore. Your mother is right. Mei Ching, you need to learn to be much more alert. Mei See, don’t even think about trying to be so rude. I am fed up of your attitude!”
Mei See was silent. Her face was a mask of anger, and then abruptly, it turned calm.
“Let’s go home.”
The next few days were terrible for Mei Ching. Coupled with the guilt of having lost the competition for her sister, and the constant reminder and nagging of her parents, she felt like giving up on cooking. Mei See on the other hand, was plain angry.
“I can’t believe you lost to non Chinese!” her mother often spluttered.
At one point, Mei See lost it.
“What’s WRONG with you, ma? In today’s day and age you’re still so incredibly wrapped up with race! Are you crazy?”
“This is about having pride in your own culture and tradition!”
“This is about you being a bigoted racist! I suppose you’ll soon be talking about pure bloods and half bloods next!” Mei See bellowed back.
“You shut your mouth! If you want to be so rude, you should just get out of the house! Get out!”
“Empty threat, ma. Would you really let me walk out of the house unsupervised?” Mei See sneered.
Their mother turned to Mei Ching, who was watching the scene, frozen.
“If there is one thing you should learn from your sister, it is to never be like her,” her mother said angrily. Mei See glared at her.
“Maybe you can learn to grow a backbone, Mei Ching, rather than act like a dumb person all the time! God, don’t you even have an opinion at all?” she yelled, before stomping upstairs.
Their mother looked at Mei Ching, and said in a loud, carrying voice :
“Don’t worry, Mei Ching. The emptiest cans often make the loudest noise.”
“BITCH!”
Mei Ching’s eyes opened wide. Her mother turned to look at Mei See.
“What did you call me?” she asked softly.
Their father, who had been silent, stood up and walked up the stairs till he was nose to nose to his daughter.
“What did you call your mother?”
Mei See glared defiantly at both parents, but Mei Ching could see a quiver of uncertainty go through her sister’s body.
“I called her a bitch, because that’s what she’s behaving like,” Mei See said obstinately.
“It’s not an insult if it’s true,” Mei See continued in a louder voice, as if to justify herself.
A loud noise, and then a gasp. Her father had slapped her hard across her face, and Mei See now had a cut lip. She couldn’t believe her eyes. No matter how strict her parents were, they had never hit any of them before.
“You will never call your mother that again!” her father thundered at Mei See, who now had tears of pain streaking down her face.
“I HATE you both,” she gurgled, and ran downstairs and then out of the house.
Mei Ching thought the past few days had been stressful, but the next 3 days were tension personified. Mei See didn’t come home, and Mei Ching couldn’t get in touch with her. She wondered worriedly where Mei See would stay. Her parents were both quiet and tetchy. Mei Ching didn’t dare say much. She sighed. Sometimes, she wished she wasn’t such a coward and she could just do something. She almost envied Mei See, who had the courage to stand up to her parents. Wasn’t it a gift, to be able to be brave and face your biggest demons?
The phone rang, and Mei Ching jumped to pick it up.
“Hello?”
“It’s me,” Mei See said.
“Where have you been? I’ve been so worried!”
“Relax. I’ve been with Aunt Jen. She let me stay with her and she’s been very nice about the whole situation. I feel better now. Calmer.”
“Okay, are you coming home anytime soon?”
“Tonight. I think Aunt Jen will probably talk to Ma and Pa too before I come home,” Mei See said.
“Okay. I missed you. I’m glad you’re okay,” Mei Ching said softly.
“I’ll see you soon, lil sis,” Mei See said.
Mei Ching hung up, relieved. She was glad Aunt Jen was going to call their parents. Aunt Jen had been brought up in the States her whole life, and was about six thousand times more open-minded than her parents. She hoped Aunt Jen would help diffuse the situation.
The phone rang again, and Mei Ching ignored the ringing. She heard her mother pick up the phone and exclaim, “Jen!”
That evening, Mei See came home. It was after dinner, and Mei Ching was in the hall with her parents when the door opened. Mei See awkwardly walked in and faced her parents.
“Ma and Pa, I have something to say to you.”
Frosty, expectant eyes everywhere.
“After the cooking competition, I was very angry, and I said some things that I shouldn’t have said. I would like to make it up to you. Ma, I would like to take you shopping tomorrow, and maybe we can have some quality bonding time. After that, perhaps Mei Ching and I can cook dinner for you.”
Both their father and mother looked surprised.
“I’m sorry about how I behaved. I spoke to Aunt Jen and she said I should never disrespect my parents this way. I know no matter how angry I was, it was no excuse to speak to you like this,” Mei See continued softly, her head hanging.
“Is that all?” her mother asked.
“Ma!” Mei Ching interjected, and cut her eyes down when her mother stared at her.
“Ma, she’s trying. I think it might be nice if you both went shopping,” she ventured.
“Yes, that will be very nice,” their father said.
Their mother paused for a moment.
“We are happy you have seen the error of your ways,” their mother pronounced.
There was a heavy pause in the air.
“And I’ll be happy to help you cook,” Mei Ching said shyly, her words cutting through the thick air like a sharp knife.
“Great. And we will not cook Chinese dishes tomorrow. We will make you a Western meal. I think we have had enough Chinese food for a while.”
The next day, Mei See and her mother left to go shopping at noon. Mei Ching felt a little hurt that she wasn’t invited in the bonding activity but decided that maybe they needed time on their own.
Mei See came home at six, bearing groceries in large brown bags.
“Where’s ma?” Mei Ching asked.
“We were coming home when she bumped into Aunt Jen, who’s leaving to go to Thailand so they decided to catch up while we cook! She’ll be here for dinner.”
“How was your day out together?” Mei Ching asked.
Mei See paused.
“It was good. I managed to tell her a lot of the things I have been feeling, and how frustrated I was. I think in the end, she understood how I felt, so I’m happy.”
“Okay, that’s good. What do you want to cook tonight?”
“I’m thinking of a little salad, a roast and some ice cream for dessert. Can you help me with the salad? I got a special dressing that I want to try out! I’ll do the roast and the ice cream,” Mei See said.
“Okay, that’s easy,” Mei Ching said.
Ten minutes later, Mei Ching had finished putting vegetables into a bowl. Mei See was still putting the groceries away.
“Do you need any more help?” she asked.
“No, it’s okay. I’ll finish up here. Maybe you can do the dishes then!”
“Urgh, okay,” Mei Ching said.
Dinner was served at 8pm. Mei See was in a state of excitement.
“Okay, Pa, I have a very special meal tonight!”
“That’s good, where’s Ma?”
“She just texted me, she is going to eat with Aunt Jen.” Mei See looked a little annoyed.
“Oh! But didn’t she know we were going to have a family dinner?” Mei Ching asked.
Mei See rolled her eyes.
“I guess, dear sis, she has different priorities in life! Anyway, forget her. We’re going to have an amazing dinner.”
Mei Ching and her father sat at the table and surveyed the food. It looked delicious. There were large slabs of roasted meat, with little bowls of salad with a dark dressing on top.
“Can you taste the meat just to make sure it’s okay?” Mei See asked her father.
He cut up a little piece, chewed on it and swallowed.
“This is delicious! What is this?”
“I went to a new grocer with ma! They had a special offer on a very rare meat,” she said.
Her father tucked into the meat. Mei Ching cut out a small piece.
“This is really amazing,” Mei Ching said. The meat was tender and juicy, roasted to perfection on the outside. They were silent, as they polished off the meat.
Her father tried the salad, and a strange expression crossed his face.
“What is this dressing? It is very strange.”
Mei Ching tasted it.
“Yeah, this is just weird, what is it?”
Mei See looked at them.
“Okay, if you don’t like the salad, maybe you can try the dessert instead.” She got up and pulled out three bowls out of the freezer. Each bowl had a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it, and honey was drizzled over it. However, two bowls had a little decoration to each of them, while was one plain. Mei See set the ones with decoration in front of Mei Ching and her father.
That’s when Mei Ching screamed. And then her father screamed.
“What is this!” he shouted.
Mei See smiled very calmly at them.
“Sorry, I lied earlier. Turns out Ma is with us for dinner!”
On top of Mei Ching and her father’s ice creams was a blood smeared eyeball each, torn ligaments hanging limply off the eyeball.
Mei Ching couldn’t think. Her brain couldn’t comprehend what was going on.
Her father had a look of fear and terror in his eyes.
“I hope you enjoyed dinner tonight!” Mei See smiled at them.
“The meat-“ Mei Ching whispered.
“How do you enjoy eating your roasted wife, Pa?” Mei See smirked at her father.
“You’re crazy,” Mei Ching screamed.
“Oh, just shut up, Mei Ching. You’re such a goody-goody all the time, it’s so annoying. Aren’t you happy I finally did something about Ma? God, she’s so fucking annoying all the time!”
“You…cooked Ma,” Mei Ching gasped, unable to believe it.
“Don’t forget, blood dressing for the salad,” Mei See winked at Mei Ching.
“What kind of a sick, depraved person are you?” Mei Ching croaked.
“Ma deserved it,” Mei See said obstinately.
There was silence in the kitchen. Heavy silence, while both Mei Ching and her father stared at Mei See, horror stricken and shocked beyond belief. And then, they stared at their empty plates.