I bartended for my parents' infrequent parties
also from a very young age. I believe no serious
damage was done by that, in contrast to a lot of
age-inappropriate things they made me do, some
of which caused at least a bit of trouble.

Gail talks of similar with her folks card game parties. She would

Oh, yes, I also filled in as a 4th when there was one
short for a bridge table. Eventually I was figured in as
a regular member - I was far better at it than my father
(the chemist) but perhaps not so good as my mother (the
mathematician). I thought I was pretty decent by the time
I went to college, but when playing with some of the real
whiz kids, including one or two who had had articles
about their play in the Goren or New York Times columns,
my clock got cleaned fairly regularly.

sometimes sample the partially filled glasses as she took them out to be

But of course. Surprise that didn't put her off all
booze for all time.

washed. In my house, the only alcoholic beverage was a bottle of Mogen
David pushed way back in the fridge, so I did not have my first beer
until teen years.

So I might have had my first beer well before you
(mine was in 1953 or 1954).

BTW, tonight only had two messages from you -- #246, #247.

If people don't talk to me, I don't talk to them.
In that case, I wanted to put in a word or two but
didn't feel like cobbling together a full batch of
5 without any content. So in the subject line of my
message to Daniel, I put "end of batch," which
referred to the mail, not the sauerkraut. I have
also been known to abbreviate this as "eob" (end of
batch) or "lib" (last in batch). But thanks for
noticing.

I'm not at all sure that these two proteins go together in one dish.
Title: Beef and Scallop Saute

I think they'd go fine; the Asians often mix seafood
with landfood, and sometimes it works well.

Dragon and phoenix longevity noodles
categories: Aussie, Chinese, poultry, shellfish, pasta, main
servings: 6 as part of a feast

500 g fresh Hokkien noodles
6 prawns, peeled and deveined
2 chicken thigh fillets, sliced
1 Tb cornflour
1/4 c vegetable oil
2 sl (thick) ginger, bruised
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 sm carrot, julienne
6 thin scallions, white and green, cut 5 cm
1 c beansprouts
1/2 ts cornflour mixed with 2 Tb cold water
1/4 c coriander leaves, to serve
2 Tb fried shallots, to serve
h - Sauce
1 c chicken stock
2 Tb dark soy sauce
1/4 c oyster sauce [M says halve it]
1/4 ts ground white pepper

Pour warm water over the noodles and loosen them with
your fingers. Drain and set aside.

Cut through the back of the prawns almost all the way
through and press down on the cut to butterfly. Toss
the prawns and chicken thighs in the cornflour.

Combine the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl.

Heat the oil in a wok over high heat and add the ginger
and garlic, frying until fragrant. Add the chicken and
prawns and fry 2 min. Add the carrot and scallion and
toss for 1 min. Add the sauce ingredients and bring to
the boil. Add the noodles and toss to coat in the sauce.
Allow to cook for about 3 min until the noodles are
tender. Stir through the beansprouts and the cornflour
mixture until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and
serve scattered with the coriander and fried shallots.

after Adam Liaw, goodfood.com.au
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