A Duck + Two Girls

Los Angeles, California

Every so often, though not often enough, my friend, Lynnette, comes to stay. There was a very short period of time when I was upset with her for abandoning me so shortly after we became, what she calls, official friends. We had begun walking together at the large recreational space near my home. And she dropped by often, bringing baked goods during my bathroom rehab. She was very popular with Kevin, my contractor, and the workers who all coveted her lemon bars. But shortly after, she and her husband, Jim, moved from a few miles away from me, to an Orange County beach community. I forgave her when she started coming to stay with me.

Last month she came for car repairs and then somehow ended up recaulking my kitchen sink. We had each run in different directions that day, and at my local Ace Hardware store, I inquired about tools to remove the old caulking as well as buying the tube of material to recaulk. Lynnette has a Nike personality. Not much for talking endlessly about getting stuff done, but likes to just do it. Or, as she says, you have to have a plan.

This time she had planned to spend the night after attending to an appointment in my area. But I convinced her to come the night before. So she spent two nights with me. The first night, Lynnette picked up take-out from a very good middle-eastern restaurant. Afterward, she helped me clean up (by way of saying, she did the dishes, as she always seems to do...) and then we commenced playing my new favorite game. We played for an hour or two, then took a break to shower and put on pjs, then back at it. We have to set a time to stop, otherwise we might continue to play until one of us cries uncle and drops to sleep like a pre-teenager at a slumber party.

The next day we again ran in different directions, meeting back in the late afternoon. She was returning home the next day for her own birthday celebration at her home, and needed to bring home ducks from the local Asian market, 99 Ranch. Or possibly from the Chinese restaurant next door to the market, Sam Woo's. She wasn't sure, so she suggested that we make a run there. We had planned to get Indian take-out that night (no time to cook -- gotta get to the game). But now our plans changed. Did we want to get take-out Chinese instead? So off we went...

The Asian market was amazing. Joel has introduced me to Latino markets, and I love shopping with him and treasure-hunting all the aisles. Lynnette is someone who moves with purpose and intention, but I told her I had to go up and down every aisle, and she slowed her pace and pointed out different things. Some enticing, some looking strange to my eyes.

At first I was put off by the sight of the ducks hanging by their necks, although I'd seen them before at restaurants in San Francisco's Chinatown. But I like duck. So I got over it. Lynnette's sister had advised her to buy the ducks at the market, but she was thinking the duck at the restaurant next-door was better. So an idea emerged: Should we get a half-duck at each place for tonight's dinner? We ordered at the restaurant and I waited for our number to be called for pick up. Lynnette ran back to the market and purchased the half-duck from there. She also got shrimp: whole shrimp fried and crustily salted, which you eat shell and all. At the restaurant I carried out duck, rice, and Chinese broccoli. And home we went.

The restaurant duck was mahogany-dark and the glazed sauce permeated the meat. We thought we would like this one the best, as it looked the prettiest (so to speak). But the lighter-sauced duck from the market was the most delicious. We never even got to the rice. We sat at my counter, in my kitchen (my kitchen table taken over by the game and my dining room table unapproachable due to all of my living room furniture and art currently stored there since the recent flood). Did we two girls get through a whole duck? Well, no. But I now have duck stored in my freezer which, hopefully, Joel will utilize into tamales at Christmas. I have duck stock and duck fat (french fries), also in freezer for holiday use.

We cleaned up (Lynnette Does Dishes), each took off for our respective quarters, showered and finished off the night playing the game well into the early hours of the morning. Lynnette left the next morning, picking up four ducks at the market and heading south for her birthday celebration. I enjoyed leftovers from the kabobs and the duck for three days, even sending some duck home with Joel before freezing the remainder.

Two girls, a duck and a board game. And a good time was had by all (well... not by the duck, but that's just a figure of speech, after all).

Thank you for reading my blog!