You are learning seasonal eating: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (seasonal vocabulary & time-bound expressions), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Shanghai's philosophy of eating by the season — hairy crab in autumn, bamboo shoots in spring, watermelon in summer. At 老吉士 Jesse Restaurant, every dish follows the calendar.
It is October. Mei sends a single message: 「蟹来了。」 The crab has arrived. In Shanghai, this is a season announcement — as significant as the first snow in the north.
They go to 老吉士 Jesse Restaurant on Tianping Road. The server brings a steamer of hairy crab — still alive twenty minutes ago, now bright orange, legs curled, the roe golden beneath the shell.
「现在是吃大闸蟹最好的时候，」 Mei explains. 「阳澄湖的蟹，只有九月到十一月才有。过了季节就没有了。」 Yangcheng Lake crab, September to November only. Miss it and wait a year.
The stranger picks up the crab. Mei shows him: twist the legs, open the shell, find the roe. Dip in vinegar and ginger. 「你觉得怎么样？」
「我终于明白为什么上海人等一整年了。」 I finally understand why Shanghai people wait an entire year for this.