Their presence on our settees, in our halls, puts a part of us there, too. Our home remembers us through them, while the windows wait for our return. An excellent something that can be doing something for you while you're doing something else, plus you get to eat it afterwards, is marinade. Marinade is a method of treating food before it's served, often before it's cooked. Although marinades can be dry, such as a spice rub, most often they're wet enough to splash around in, or at the very least clingy.
Marinades serve different purposes.
Chinese restaurants often soak fish in club soda to neutralize the flavor, while in American restaurants raw chicken frequently waits in a bowl of milk, so the cooked breast has a moist interior. Acidic marinades, made with vinegar, wine or citrus juice, can be used to tenderize tough meats or, as with seviche, a scallop dish marinated in lime juice, to 'cook' the food by transforming its texture. Probably the most common use for marinades, though, is to add flavor. The original recipe, plus many other excellent ones, is available in Classic Deem Sum, written by Henry Chan and Yukio and Bob Haydock, published in 1985 by Holt Rinehart Winston. The dish itself is not difficult to prepare, but it does require buying a number of items you probably don't have at hand, and probably won't be using afterwards.