Street Food #2
My favorite 羊肉串 (yang rou chuar – lamb kabobs) place in Tianjin is owned by a Uyghur family from the autonomous region of Xinjiang in NorthWest China. I’ve always enjoyed meeting Uyghur’s (a Turkic ethnic group) in my travels in China because they look nothing like the Chinese and stick out about as much as a tall skinny androgynous (<–another story.) white girl does in any Chinese city. Yes, we have this in common.
Oh, and it’s also because they always seem to be running the best street food stalls, which endears them to my heart. But that just about goes without saying…
Anyway… as you can guess, I’ve been frequenting their restaurant while I’ve been in Tianjin. Yesterday, my last day in Tianjin, I went up there for one last meal with camera in hand. They were kind enough to let me photograph while they cooked and prepared for the evening rush. I loved getting the freedom to shoot at will and equally enjoyed chatting with the son of the owner, learning how to make the marvelous 羊肉串 so that I can cook some for my dad when I get home. He even gave me some of the spices so I can make the most authentic one…
My dinner.
The group that works there was so nice to me, that I wanted to return the favor by dropping off some prints of the photos I took for them to have. This leads me to another story…
So It Goes…
One thing that makes life overseas completely unique is the extra effort it takes to get even a simple task completed. Some find this completely infuriating. I find it exciting. At times.
So I wanted to print these photos… Kim Smith gave me directions over the phone to a place that might print them while I waited that was about a 20 minute bike ride from the office. I felt pretty good about myself for navigating myself to the intersection of mention and looked around for the promised Fuji sign… Nothing. I went in the most likely building to look around… Nothing. 看不见. I called Patrick to ask for Kim’s number, since I’d used his phone earlier and he told me he’d text it my way. A 5 minutes wait and… Nothing. I called back, he texted it again… Nada. Didn’t come through. Slightly frustrated by my constantly inadequate cell phone and my inability to find this place, I decided to bike back and just forget it.
About 5 to 10 minutes back, feeling incredibly frustrated and sad I didn’t have time print these photos for my friends at the 羊肉串 place, I saw this the symbol for printing (印) on a sign and thought I might give it one more try…
I went in to ask the owner if they printed pictures. “Well, we don’t, but the school next door does”, he told me.
I went to the school next door and they said, “We don’t have a place to print pictures, but the street next to us does…”
So I go to the street next to the school and, low and behold, there’s a Kodak place just around the corner. The friendly owners not only print my photos on the spot at any size I wish, but they can speak English and serve me tea while I wait the 5 minutes for printing. Success!
Well, I felt pretty good at having accomplished my task, but when I got to the 羊肉串 place my spirits got lifted even higher. The wife of the owner, who I’d met only briefly the day before, was the only one around and took the photos with a quizzical look. Then she saw a photo her son and husband working side by side at their restaurant, she exclaimed with pride, “This is my son and my husband! Working together!”.
It felt good to have my work appreciated for the moments captured. It felt good to give them a gift. It was good to have met them. They have enriched my life.
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One Response to “Street Food #2”
By Stephen Huey on Oct 31, 2009 | Reply
Wow, I really need to check out your site more often!