In the midst of Christmas meals and baking, I learned to make Ma Po Tofu, a common and delicious Chinese dish of tofu in chili sauce - an ideal quick supper, I found, and a good contrast with the other things we were eating these past weeks - and found some interesting writing on Chinese food and guanxi. Here’s an essay, “Where Food and Words Meet: A Literary Sub-School of Chinese Cuisine Survives against the Odds” by Nicole Mones, with a description of the sidewalk calligraphy that my son Tom captured in this photograph.