Steamed Fish Heaped with Scallions and Ginger

When I was living in downtown Taipei, once a week for nearly nine months I would travel by bus far out into a suburban neighborhood to attend a class in Shanghai cooking. It was held in the basement of a church and attended by thirty to forty women who lived in the neighborhood. I never saw another man in the class, but that didn’t seem to matter to anyone there.

The recipes and techniques demonstrated were for the most part quite elaborate. Meats and vegetables would often be light