Chapter 75: A longing heart
"Let the young people order. Mind you, I mean you young people-order whatever you like. We don't mind." After Tang Wu asked his opinion, Sun Changjie, clearly pleased by her intelligence and good manners, handed the menu back to her.
Tang Wu opened the menu without demurring and called over a server. "One Chilled Beef with Two Peppers, Brine-Braised Meat, Fish Maw Braised with Three Mushrooms, Lion Fish Head..." Tang Zongyuan liked beef, especially cooked beef sliced and sprinkled with salt and Chili Powder. It was his favorite. Sometimes, when business dinners left him hungry, he would come home and prepare a plate of dressed beef to go with a bottle of Lao Yao, a thoroughly enjoyable combination. Tang Wu also knew from her parents that Sun Changjie liked brined dishes. As for her mother, Mu Xuan, she loved fish; the Silver Carp Head Hotpot restaurants in Xiahai and Rongcheng had been frequent haunts of their family.
Tang Wu's thoughtfulness showed in every dish she chose, and her voice was lovely too. Both her Sichuan dialect and her Mandarin had a distinctive charm. Su Can particularly liked hearing her speak Mandarin in Sichuan: it was crisp and pleasing to the ear. By contrast, in a place like Shanghai, where they studied, everyone spoke either Mandarin or the local Shanghai dialect, and after hearing it enough, there was nothing particularly special about it. On occasions like this, Tang Wu generally spoke Mandarin as well.
Su Can found the feeling immensely enjoyable.
Only after ordering those first few dishes, each precisely suited to someone's tastes, did Tang Wu turn her gently shimmering eyes toward Sun Lei and ask, "What would you like?"
Sun Lei hurriedly said that some Wild Mushrooms would do; something vegetarian would be good.