Foodstuffs

Understatement of the year: We love Chinese food. And now that we have had the awesome authentic, cheap stuff nearly every day for 15 weeks, make no mistake, it will be one thing we truly miss when we leave.

Over the next couple weeks, I am working to try and cook more Chinese food simply to practice some of the techniques I have seen in a vain effort to be able to try and recreate some of the dishes that we have had with our friends and family back home. I do not underestimate how hard of a task this will be. Foremost, because there are some ingredients which might be hard to find. Flavors here are very specific.

While I can take really beautiful images of ingredients up close, like this:

You should probably know that when I am buying ingredients, it looks more like this:

Not exactly what you expected, right? Each market and vendor presents their options in different ways. Above you have walnuts on the left, then mushrooms (dried, of course), and then dried red peppers. Those peppers are in just about every dish that I like, so I am worried that they will be harder to find in Indiana.

Replicating cooking techniques could also present a problem. I can have a wok, but whether I have the right size one for the job and/or the ability to heat up that baby to the temperatures used here might be troublesome. Street vendors, like the one pictured below, continue to fascinate me. Just today, we drove up to Hankou (northern part of Wuhan) and on the way home stopped at my newest favorite food stall for a bowl of awesome noodles.  Nine RMB for a bowl of tasty, spicy noodles cooked right in front of you in about 3 minutes.

This is one of my favorite breakfast foods from street markets. It is rice with egg and tofu, sold by the square. Hudson gobbles this one up too. I am sure you don't *have* to have a wok that big, but ...

I can not allow a food blog to pass and I not mention this fried bread once again. It is the bomb. It is sold by total weight, so you can get any quantity that you wish. I buy a bagful which is 10 RMB and the kids and I can eat until we are just stuffed. The husband/wife team that operate this foodstall start cutting it when they see me coming; check out that knife!

When we go out to eat, it is always an adventure. When we are part of a tour, or an organized dinner, or have a more seasoned China veteran with us, the ordering is done by them. Here is an example of some dishes from our trip with the Citadines to the orange picking island. These dishes represent very local and traditional food for the Yangtze River valley.
This first one is pork belly wrapped in a lotus leaf which was described perfectly in the book I just read, The Last Chinese Chef.

This is a tofu dish with mild spice. (Can we just note my biggest pet peeve about Chinese restaurants which is pictured here? Plastic wrapped covered tables. Ew. Ew. Ew.)

Garlic finds itself into most dishes. At our local grocery store, I get frustrated because I can only buy big bag when I really only need a couple heads. But that big bag is 6 RMB or $1 USD, so it is silly to complain; I just hate being wasteful! This dish has garlic, pork fat, soybean paste, and peppers.

Much to my husband's dismay, this is how fish is served in China. While it looks appetizing for all, we just can not serve this to the kids. Bones are present throughout. Chinese people are masters of eating this quickly and getting the bones out, but I always feel like I am a total mess when I try, so I have given up on dishes like this one.

As pictured previously, Tucker gobbled up these whole fish bones and all without flinching. To be fair, they tasted like fried oil and nothing more.

Going to restaurants we are usually picking blind the first time. Then when we return we get the dishes that we liked along with something new. We ordered this dish --or more correctly, our friends ordered it for us-- our very first Sunday lunch after church three months ago. We get it every time we visit this place. Like most dishes, if I tell you the list of ingredients it does not sound appetizing, but together (with the sauce) it is fantastic.

I am not crazy about this dish, but Josh likes it and it can be found on most menus: I'd call it scrambled eggs and tomato.

The hours of preparation starts early in the morning. As early as 8 a.m. I will see the restaurants around our apartment beginning to prepare the cut vegetables for the dishes of the day. In back alleys and outside their front doors, owners are scrubbing and cleaning and sorting. At the market they are buying huge quantities and pushing their purchases away in huge bags on two wheel carts. While some food stalls cut to order, most have a good quantity of staples like carrot, cucumber, peppers (red, green, hot, mild), onion (white and green), cabbage, garlic and ginger already chopped and diced. Restaurants have their prepared vegetables separated in huge pastel colored plastic bins. When recreating dishes at home, it takes me far more time to prep than actually cook.

Desserts are a rarity. Most menus don't really list them separately, but dishes like this are sugary enough to qualify. Caramelized sweet potatoes, bananas, and other staples are a sweet end to a meal and FUN to play with as they are served ridiculously hot. However, order them at the beginning of your meal because often you will find the hostess/waitress/cook (which are often the same person) running out to the closest market mid-meal to pick up missing the produce ingredient!

This is more my style for dessert anyway! Lotus "fries" whipped up with (obviously) a ton of chopped dried red peppers. But the surprise here is that this dish is also sugared, so it is ridiculously sweet too. Sweet and spicy lotus fries: what is not to love?!?!

Previous food blog found here.

Part II: Field Trip

Tucker has blossomed socially over the past few months. He is quick to find friends his own size when the opportunity presents itself. On our boat ride back from the Mandarin orange picking island, he found a pair of kids to "talk" with. Naturally, the eclectic trio caught the attention of everyone on the boat's upper deck. The little girl and Tucker played with each other by mirroring the hand gestures of the other. Then the little boy just rambled on to T in Chinese and he looked up at me perplexed. Then the little boy loudly said, "Ting bu dong" (meaning you don't understand) and everyone laughed.

I just assumed that once we crossed back over the lake we would leave. It was a happy surprise that we were within walking distance of a little interactive village and temple. I will save you from some of my very favorite "touristy" pictures from our time with just a handful of ones with us in them (for the most part). It was a fantastic free day. 

Ring three times making a wish.

Too bad. I really like this one.

Holly and I working the China ware.

Mandarin Orange Pickin'

A couple weekends ago our apartment'hotel had a free field trip for the long term residents of the building. We were excited to see what our day would have in store for us.  Like all other outings in China, it was an adventure!

We started out our day with an hour bus ride that did not disappoint. At one moment in a teeny village's one-lane road, we went from 40 mph to 0 as we met an oncoming bus. I took this shot out my open window. The driver of the other bus and I could have high-fived!

The first half of the day featured a boat trip to a small island where we would be able to mandarin orange pick, have lunch, and enjoy the free park-like activities. Upon arrival, the signs did their best to tell us that we would not have a fun time. These just crack me up!

This was the same weekend that it seemed like everyone back home was at the apple orchard in flannel and knit hats picking fruit and getting their Halloween pumpkins. We were seven thousand miles away in shorts sweating and picking citrus fruit...crazy!

The island provided for a very enjoyable afternoon. The boys loved orange picking.

Although, oranges are harder to spot than you would think. Like we had seen previously at our local market, the oranges are predominately green. But the fruit inside was perfect. I bet Tucker ate six oranges alone before lunch.

Lunch was a very nice parade of dishes that we would never had ordered had we had the choice. It is a great way to try new things though! Tucker ate some whole fish and Josh shot himself in the eye trying to open a beer on the edge of the table.
Then there is this picture which is now a legend in its own time (within our family) of Tucker eating a whole fish:

After lunch we wandered around for about an hour listening to people sing karaoke, play in the "sand" of the "beach" and try their balance at a variety of activities like this one. This was an obstacle course of sorts, where failing would land you in a lake of dirty water. It is hard convincing the boys --especially my kids who are less than sure-footed-- that this is probably not their best laid plan.

The boat ride back was gorgeous. Or as gorgeous as it gets around these parts. This is a boat just like ours headed to pick people on the island up.

Never miss an opportunity for someone else to take a picture of the four of us!

Raindrops on Roses

Scooter street. Where Josh just about lost his mind.

Tap. Tap. Is this thing still on? Anyone still checking in on us? I get it that we are probably old news by now. But, we are just hitting our stride! I did (I am sorry, Lolo) count how many more weeks we have left and it turns out we are over half way done with our China life. I decided that a little self-induced gratitude status check would be a good exercise. So I made this list of things that I like about China or about our China life. No quota to reach, just a free response list. I might even need to add to this later as I remember additional things. (Edited: I already got up in the middle of the night to add some more!) The pictures here are mostly superfluous, but they might help illustrate a point or help Hudson and Tucker remember something about our time here.

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT CHINA OR LIVING HERE:
1. Items for sale are organized in areas of town together. Coffee street, scooter street, tea street, snack street, tool market, electric bike street, fabric market, and so on.
2. You can have clothes made to your specific measurements for cheap. So far we have had Josh's suit made, my Chinese dress, and a silk top.

Disney buddy.

3. We walk to the grocery store, fruit store, to dinner, to the mall, to church, and many other places. We don't have a choice either. Taxis won't take us less than a mile, so we walk often.
4. Houseplants here are super cheap. Therefore, our apartment has several!

5. I love our driver, Song. He has been a real gift to us. I really wish that I could talk to him more! The kids love him and I think he likes them too.

Buddies.

6. There is no sales tax.

7. The boys have learned some genuine street smarts. 

8. This bread. It is the bomb. Like amazing. Like I could (and maybe did) eat a pound of it this week alone. #whyIgained20poundsinChina

 9. We will have been in China for 21 weeks and our teeny tiny apartment has a tool drawer. (Of course it does.) Just because we are in China does not mean that we have changed who we are!
10. Our apartment has really hot water in every fawcet seconds after turning it on.
11. My kids have learned to live with less toys.
12. We do not have utility bills.
13. When they open a new store here (which happens all the stinking time) they have a whole celebration with music and drums and dancers.

These dancers and drummers walked around out block with loud music to let us know
a new business had opened up. This is our main walkway to the grocery.

14. When we see people that we know from our apartment building out and about, it is like a holiday.
15. The people who work at the front desk and at the breakfast room love our kids. Like really love them.

More on this trip later, but the woman on the left is our friend Jenny who works for our apartment hotel.

15. My washing machine plays "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" when the cycle is done.

What a fun day.

16. I like that the people in this country are scared of their government. I believe that the United States has developed into too litigious of a society. Yes, I get that they are Communist, but there is more respect for the government which actually is helpful.
17. I like speaking a new language.
18. I like that when I see their staring faces and I smile and say, "Zou shang hao" they get all disarmed and embarrassed and smile at me.

 19. I like that the women here are more girlish. They dress extremely feminine. They love lace and pink. They play jumprope in public and dance in the streets. They are silly. They hold hands walking down the streets. You rarely see two women walking together and not touching in some way. Sisters or mother/daughters or just best friends...it is really interesting.

 20. I love our church. It is such a sacred place to me. People back home are having qualms about 25 minute sermons. Our services are 2 hours long and frankly, they could be longer. I think when people are really thirsty for the Lord, they don't watch their clocks. That-- and we have absolutely nothing else we need to do (no yard to mow, gutters to clean, school projects to finish).
21. I love that I get to hold the kids in the car. And there are no car seats. And they still are well-behaved.
22. Although parks don't have playgrounds, I like that their parks have physical activity stuff for free. This one park we went to on Sunday had several obstacles courses, like this one where you went (without a harness) across a pond. AND it was not like the parks department is worried that someone is going to sue them if they hurt themselves because...they are not sue happy like Americans (see #16).

23. Right outside our building we have a corner store which we LOVE to visit and do just about everyday. Instead of things being more expensive based on convenience here, they are all very reasonable. (Hence why I now drink a 3 RMB drink --as do my kids-- every day! Hudson wants me to add he likes the tea in China.)
24. (Hudson's addition) Hudson likes that his favorite restaurant--a Japanese one-- is just a couple steps from our front door too.
25. I love that good, bad, or ugly, my entire China life has been based on the health and happiness of my little family bubble. We have really learned a lot about each other:

26. We bought a bike! And it does this:

 27. Our expat shipment is coming TOMORROW! This is a miracle! I have a new toothbrush almost here! New clothes! Do you realize that we have all been wearing the same handful of clothes for 12 weeks now!!! Thank goodness it is nearly Halloween and still in the 80s.

Found on WeChat: picture of our receptionist and our 3 year old making duck lips. Hilarious.

28. We have a gym downstairs.
29. Fruit and vegetable markets (aka normal shopping) are so interesting and always an adventure. Produce does NOT LAST LONG here. At first I was annoyed. Now I am just completely freaked out by what is happening to the fruit & vegetables back home that they do not rot.
30. This is our bedroom. When else would I allow Hudson's art to decorate an entire wall in my home?!?!

 31. I love that when Tucker sees a white person (French or American) he says, "Hello" without prompting. And when he sees an Asian (Chinese or Japanese) he says, "Nihao!"

32. We do crazy things like eat chips and popcorn in MY BED. We also watch movies and hang out in there all the time (because our Barbie and Ken-sized couch is too small).
33. Most days I feel like I am going to lose my marbles because of all of our togetherness, but I still miss those little ones when they go to bed.

34. We have had some really cool adventures. And survived some terrorizing taxi rides.

35. People don't understand me when I speak in rapid fire English. Therefore, I can do this when they make me mad. Or when they tell me what to do. This is happening frequently lately since, even though it is still 80 degrees, everyone is now wearing fleece and jeans and closed-toe shoes. Grandmas come up to me and indicate (with gestures and touching) that my boys are freezing. To which I now respond, "No granny, they are just fine. It is the same temperature it was last month when everyone was wearing tank tops and sandals. Just because you look like you are ready to head off to the Arctic with that down coat and hose on, does not mean that it is the proper clothes for the occasion. Thank you so much for your interest in my child's welfare. Why don't you go out and regulate the traffic flow and leave me be. Mmmmmkay? Thanks." If I do this while nodding and smiling they think that I on board with their reprimand. It is awesome!

It IS a small world after all.

36. No sirens. I have yet to hear a fire truck, ambulance, or police siren while in Wuhan. I think I saw one in Beijing once. But that is all. Hmmm...
37. We have learned so much about the qualities of a good friend and loved one. I am continually appreciative for those who have made time to keep us in their thoughts and prayers. I love getting emails from you!

Dave is here! Dave is here!

38. Fast food, like the lunch Holly and I grabbed today outside the mall, was absolutely the most amazing Chinese food I have ever had. (McDonalds tastes even more disgusting now.) And it was 12 RMB for both of us to eat a bowl of noodles that burned our face off. ($2 total) And I can not tell you the name of what I ate. But the guy making it was having a great time!
39. We continue to see stuff every day that blows my mind.

40. Several local restaurants know us and our exact order like Gee Cafe (which I can see from my bedroom window!) knows we want the Thai fried rice and two orders of jaozi with their special amazing spicy sauce.
41. I get to write and edit at my window desk just like some sort of displaced Carrie Bradshaw character.
42. I can speak another language. Kinda. Sorta. A little bit. Well, I can DEFINITELY sing you Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Oh and I can read Chinese menus.
43. Lots of escalators.
44. Very few chain stores.
45. My friend Holly and I play this game where we monumentalize a moment by stating out loud, to each other, "Remember that day in China when..." which is usually followed by something absolutely crazy we are witnessing. Like the time when we told a shop owner that I was American and she was French and the clerk grabbed her heart in sheer joy to have such foreigners in her scarf shop.
46. I know how little I can live on. I know exactly what beauty products I need. And exactly how many pairs of shoes are necessary. I just might purge everything in my life when I return to the states. Maybe.
47. My three year olds closest friend does not speak English.
48. I know what real Chinese food tastes like. I know that Chinese do not even know what fortune cookies ARE. And that they don't eat egg rolls. And that we have been exposed to so many new flavors. Did I mention all the amazing food they have here?!?
49. Mr. Mai's Coffe Shop/Foreign Language Club next door: their cinnamon cake is heavenly and they have free check out of little kid books!
50. Weighing yourself in kg is MUCH better than lbs! When is the last time you saw a number less than 100?!?

Lotus fries. Get ya some.