Aunt Ruth always lived an easy walk to Chinese carryout. It was one of her rules. She always had a dog, generally a small, curly sort with good manners. She always insisted on good design, toothbrush to TV. Once, we spent a Chinatown afternoon prowling for packages, clueless to their contents. We liked the way they looked.
Ruth looked for a living. She was a photographer, a curator, an art dealer and author. “Look at that,” she’d gasp. That might be a fleeting chipmunk, a sleek table, a neatly folded wonton. She was often astonished.
Ruth collected photographs, tin boxes, birds’ nests and friends.
After diagnoses, she cast her curator’s eye across her house, determined to deaccession. First, she cataloged, shooting each find, arranging the images into grids (dog tag, dog bowl, dog book) and printing the grids into posters. Then she sorted, assigning each item each a new home. I suspect that Quinn, the itinerant calico who had settled into Ruth’s garden, wore a sticky note for years.
The last time I picked up carryout, our order came with six pairs of chopsticks. We worked our way through many white cartons and looked over many of her things.
She sent me her girlhood ragdoll, a college collage, a kaftan from her travels, each wrapped and tied and annotated. She sent a pen-and-ink chicken, a modernist peppermill, a pair of teardrop earrings. She sent a timer — all wooden legs, fine sand.
Finally, she sent back the tiny black-and-white of us, together. She didn’t need it — or any thing — any more. She was done looking. Leaving us all, in her immense absence, astonished.
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Find all your favorite stories and recipes in Leah Eskin’s memoir, “Slices of Life: A Food Writer Cooks Through Many a Conundrum.” Available wherever books are sold.
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Spring rolls
Prep: 1 hour
Cook: 2 minutes per batch
Makes: 16 rolls
2 cups shredded (not too fine) green cabbage
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
8 large shrimp, peeled, deveined
1 clove garlic, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 cups chopped Chinese barbequed pork*
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup finely chopped green onion
16 spring-roll wrappers, defrosted
1 egg whisked with 1 teaspoon water
Peanut oil
1 Blanch: Heat a large pot of salted water to a boil. Tumble in cabbage; stir until bright green and wilted, about 30 seconds. Drain and rinse under cool water. Roll up in a clean kitchen towel; wring dry.
2 Sizzle: Heat butter in a skillet over medium. Add shrimp and garlic. Cook, turning once, until pink, curled and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Chop (none too finely).
3 Zap: Briefly microwave peanut butter to soften it. Stir in sugar, soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
4 Mix: Toss together cabbage, shrimp, pork, carrots, green onion and peanut sauce.
5 Fill: Set 1 wrapper on a work surface, oriented like a baseball-diamond. Brush edges lightly with egg wash. Spread 3 tablespoons filling across the pitcher’s mound, stretching almost from first base to third, stopping an inch or two from the bases. Fold home plate up, and the bases in. Roll spring roll up toward second base, forming a compact 5-inch long log.
6 Crisp: Fry rolls, a few at a time, at 350 degrees (use a deep-fryer or a cast-iron skillet filled with oil to a depth of 1 inch) until golden, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining rolls. Slice in half on the diagonal. Munch while hot.
*Leftover takeout. Or stop by the Asian market.
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Provenance: Adapted from a recipe by Chicago foodie Howard Levinson.