JuliaFor a long time, we had a Chinese family living next door.<br> <br> Their house was open for gatherings of their church and occasionally they would invite us, too. We didn’t know a word in Mandarin — tīng bú dǒng came to us later — but we definitely enjoyed their potluck dinners.<br> <br> On our Russian-Chinese border, they installed an old gutted grill refurbished with the high BTU burner where they cooked Chinese — a real deal — all year round.<br> <br> Linda, the woman of the house, was open and eager to share her food and one of us — mostly me but not always — was hanging around that grill watching her in action.<br> <br> If I was not around, Linda would later knock on the door and bring a sample of her cooking. Boy, I miss her so much!<br> <br> Once they came from Philly where they travel to for a particular special tofu and Linda brought me a plate with a white block in which she made a dent scooping out the middle. The dent was filled with a deep red oily grainy mush spilling artistically all over. It is now I know this mush as chili oil, then it was new.<br> <br> — Try. It’s good, — was her usual insensitive. Another thing that united Linda and me was our brusk Russian-Chinese English without “please-&amp;-thankyous.”<br> <br> And good it was. Excellent!<br> <br> Linda moved, we traveled to China. I fell in love with the food, people, and country. And my every Chinese cookbook has a version of Linda’s spicy tofu — a simple excellent dinner for a heat wave.<br> <br> FOR THE MIX OVER A TOFU BLOCK<br> —&nbsp;3-4 Tbsp soy sauce<br> — 1 tsp rice vinegar<br> — 1 tsp sesame oil<br> — some chile oil/crisp<br> — 1 tsp something sweet: sugar, maple syrup <br> <br> TO GARNISH <br> — toasted sesame seeds<br> — scallions<br> — cilantro <br> — mint<br> — basil<br> <br> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/food?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#food</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/cooking?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#cooking</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/chinesefood?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chinesefood</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/tofu?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#tofu</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/chilioil?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#chilioil</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/heatwave?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#heatwave</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/dinner?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#dinner</a> <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/homemade?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#homemade</a>