tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43954062914900120252024-02-19T15:59:53.789-08:00Culinary Adventures in the Chinese HouseAnnie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-22106514841537495592012-10-17T02:51:00.004-07:002012-10-17T02:58:55.198-07:00Mousse au chocolat; or, Why the Good Lord Invented French People<br />
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One of my dear former roommates is from France, and has greatly added to my enjoyment of foods over the years. I believe she and I single-handedly fueled the entire market for imported European salamis in Utah at one point. One of the best things she makes is a <i>mousse au chocolat</i>, and so I asked her for the recipe so I could make it for a recent Young Women's activity.</div>
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Turns out she adapted the recipe from <a href="http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_charlotte-a-la-mousse-au-chocolat_28692.aspx">this one she'd found</a> at marmiton.org, which is a lot of fun and a lot of trouble if you're ever tempted to brush up on your French and/or stuff amazing things into your pie hole.<br />
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I used the online version of the recipe, making a couple alterations and tailoring it to our China circumstances. I could still get everything here, but it ended up being pretty pricey for ingredients by the time I was done. Afterwards, I was talking with a friend at church and she had the idea of getting the chocolate from Ikea. I will definitely do this if I try it again. The cheapest butter I found was at Carrefour - about 25 kuai for 250 grams of the lovely New Zealand stuff - but I'm open to cheaper alternatives for that as well if anyone knows any.</div>
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Here's the version of the recipe I ended up putting together:</div>
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- 375 grams dark chocolate (I measured it by adding up the net weights of chocolate bars)</div>
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- 150 g butter</div>
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- 6 eggs</div>
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- about 100 g sugar</div>
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- 1 pinch of salt</div>
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The chocolate I found was Hershey's Special Dark which was, in my opinion, way too sweet, but a lot of you might like it. See what else you can experiment with.</div>
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This ended up being too much sugar, I thought, but again, your milage may vary.</div>
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Separate the eggs and keep the whites in the fridge. Meanwhile, semi-melt the butter and mix it well with the 6 egg yolks and the sugar. It's beautiful but I promise you it is worth your while to avoid sticking your finger in and tasting it. Mmm, yolk!</div>
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Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or, you know, get real, we're in China - float a metal bowl in a wok full of water and just be really careful not to burn your fingers. Then, mix it into the yellow mixture until it's smooth and lovely.</div>
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The trickiest part is then to whip the egg whites with the dash of salt until they form stiff peaks. This was only tricky because I don't have an electric beater. It was indeed a bit of a workout for the forearm, but it turns out it's a lot quicker to whip egg whites by hand than to make your own whipped cream by hand. And some of us have been driven by desperation to do both, and still lived to tell the tale!</div>
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Now, gently fold the whites into the chocolate mixture. I did this by pouring them into the bowl and then using a stirring motion that went from the center of the bowl, outward to the edge and pulling the chocolate up over the middle while turning the bowl. Whatever works for you, though - incorporate the two together without stirring the daylights out of your mixture to keep the volume of the egg whites. Now refrigerate the whole thing for three hours (if you can stand the wait!) and enjoy!</div>
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Warning: eat a very small serving if you don't want to put yourself into a sugar and chocolate coma. We wouldn't blame you, though, if you decide that would be a nice way to go. It really would, wouldn't it?</div>
Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-54635483417057677132012-10-17T02:50:00.001-07:002012-10-17T02:58:43.901-07:00Meatball Madness<br />
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We are a family who enjoys our meatballs. They're a really tasty change of pace, and you can do anything you like with them. Like, for example, giving them as Valentine's Day gifts.</div>
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You can thank me for the inspiration later.<br />
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The easiest way to make meatballs here is for us to take about 1/2 pound (1/2 jin) of ground pork, mix in diced garlic and ginger at the least, and then whatever else you've got - green onions are nice - hot sauce, soy sauce, salt, kimchi (!) - whatever you like. Mix one egg in at the end to bind everything together.</div>
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Then you've just got the unenviable job of making them into little golfball-sized spheres with your hands, but you can make quick work of it.</div>
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Fry them up in shallow oil in a wok, turning them carefully with chopsticks a couple times. I like to keep the lid on whenever possible, because it takes a while for the oil to stop spitting at all the fresh vegetables it finds. When they're evenly browned you can cut one open to make sure it's cooked through, and then serve with stir fried cabbage or greens!</div>
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-37973804179726441072012-10-17T02:49:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:58:31.807-07:00Rabbit Stew<br />
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I admit, I only bought the rabbit because I could. I saw it in the store and knew it had to be done. But I actually really like it. It's mild, almost undistinguishable from chicken, and very low-fat and lean. I can credit meine lieben deutschen Mutter for introducing me to the fine world of Hasenpfeffer, and it made me a little homesick once I got it all cooked up.</div>
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Mmm… bunny! I decided to pair it with carrots and a green squash similar to zucchini, but you can add potatoes, turnips, whatever you've got.</div>
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I started out by sautéing the meat in butter and garlic, using the "low" heat on my burner. After it was well-browned, I salted and peppered it, and then added in the chopped vegetables.</div>
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When everything was browned, I added chicken broth and let it simmer on low. The vegetables softened pretty quickly, maybe 15 minutes at the most, and the meat was easy to tear apart.</div>
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I was rather excited to surprise my husband with the mystery meat but I'm afraid the guessing game was a little more fun for him than the actual eating. It's a very mild flavor, and was one that "belonged in the North Countries," I believe he said. He wanted to add hot sauce to it. Spicy rabbit? I'm not even sure how that would work but I'm sure there are plenty of Chinese people who would love to introduce us.</div>
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Final verdict: the Hausfrau loved the rabbit stew; the Mann wanted something fatty and spicy and these white people were just not getting it right. Oh well, you can't win them all.</div>
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-8600862025265275342012-10-17T02:47:00.002-07:002012-10-17T02:58:14.315-07:00Fake Noodles <br />
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You may have noticed a paucity of starchy things on here of late. It's because I have realized I'm slightly gluten intolerant and because the Husband Man is on a paleo-type diet. But don't we eat well anyway? We like to pretend so.</div>
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Well, this is just a quick advertisement for one of the best things we've found for anyone else who wants to avoid wheat/carbohydrates or simply find a high-protein alternative to traditional fried noodles - fake noodles. Specifically, a local specialty called <i>Yangzhou dou gan si</i>. (<i>Yangzhou</i> is a nearby town, <i>dou</i> is short for tofu, <i>gan</i> means dried, and <i>si </i>means strips) I've found them for the amazingly cheap price of about 4 or 5 kuai at BHG. Ask around to see where else might have them - maybe little tofu booths in the market or a Chinese market if you're in the states.<br />
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Of course, you could also use real, fresh noodles made of flour here, but wheat products make me weep bitter tears of jealousy and regret so if you're gonna do that don't tell me about it.</div>
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I usually stir fry about 1/2 pound (1/2 jin) of ground pork with diced garlic and ginger, greens (<i>qingcai</i> or <i>bocai</i>), red bell pepper, or anything you like, flavoring it with soy sauce/hot sauce/chicken broth - you know the drill, and then adding the tofu noodles towards the end. They won't really need to cook so much, just stir them up enough to get the sauce all over them - it's easiest if you stir with chopsticks. Then you drizzle a little sesame oil over them and enjoy!</div>
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-90029634292714157822012-10-17T02:47:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:57:58.241-07:00The Most Delicious Thing in the World<br />
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This is the most delicious thing in the world, you say? Like anyone could even know that, Napoleon. But to a certain palate; that is, an American who's been in China a few months now and doesn't get to eat salty/sour things according to the lifestyle she is accustomed to (Scarlet O'Hara had this problem when she got married and moved to China, I think), something Mexicany is exactly what she needs.</div>
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I was lucky enough to find taco seasoning at the import store for 5 kuai - this was a way better deal than buying the little thing of chili powder for 20 kuai and then adding cumin and salt (which are cheap & easy to find here). But whatever you can find should work. Anything with chili powder - I've seen enchilada seasoning and fajita seasoning around at import stores too.</div>
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This will also require some delicious cheese - I like this Australian brand I found, Bega. It's a white cheddar. There's a similar Australian cheddar called Coon. But of course, anything like mozzarella will work and will be slightly closer to Mexican cheese. If you can find actual Mexican cheese, like Cotija or Oaxaca, please get in touch with my people. They would like to look into me trading lives with you if that's OK.</div>
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I also bought: lettuce, cucumbers, a big ripe tomato, an onion, cilantro, a good meaty cut of pork plus a cut that's just skin and fat (I'll explain in a minute) and then some vinegar, salt, and two oranges. I had to use the oranges because there weren't any lemons at my market, but they ended up working just fine.</div>
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Dice the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, and add salt, vinegar and orange/lemon juice to taste. Throw in a spicy pepper or a bell pepper if you've got one (I forgot to buy one, but they have all kinds of nice ones in China). You've just made chismol, which is the best substance in the world and the entire reason I married into a Honduran family. Well, 80% of the reason, let's say.</div>
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After this, I chopped the meaty pork and stir fried it with taco seasoning, salt and laoganma hot sauce. (The kind with the peanuts is perfect for this) You can make it as mild or spicy as you like.</div>
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And then I took the piece of skin and fat and sliced it small - you think I'm making this up but I'm totally serious. Little pieces of skin with fat attached - toss them in a little salt and deep fry them quickly. They turn into chicharrones. It's like the pork rinds you can buy next to the chips in America, but not puffy and light - apparently you have to dry them first for them to puff out. Anyway, the flavor is nice and if you're married to a Honduran you can cook your own chicharron to make him do anything you want him to. Very handy tip!</div>
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Assemble your salads with the cheese and meat and then the chismol on top as a dressing. And there you have it - the most delicious thing in the world. Also, a husband who is putty in your hands.</div>
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-31640705464120488972012-10-17T02:45:00.003-07:002012-10-17T02:57:44.968-07:00Super Delicious Chicken Wings <br />
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We've found it's harder to cook big pieces of chicken (legs, thighs) in a wok unless you're making a soup of it, but small pieces like chicken wings (jichi gen and jichi zhong - the little drumlets and wing middle-sections, respectively) cook through relatively quickly.</div>
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If you want a Chinese-style, softer chicken wing (the skin makes them soft and fatty but the flavor is great), make small slices along the meat, going down to the bone - just 3 or 4 small cuts on each side of the wing. Then, stir fry as you like, adding whatever vegetables and sauces you like (they're great in soy sauce). But if you're looking for something in which the skin isn't soft and gooey (admit it - you're a foreigner and it gets old), try this preparation and deep-fry the wings.<br />
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I like to season them with a mixture of salt, cumin and five-spice powder. About this much of each.</div>
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I usually use that many spices for about 10 wing segments. Coat the wings lightly - you can do this earlier and leave them in the fridge if you need to.</div>
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If you like a crispy breading, add about an equal amount of corn starch to your spices here. It's also fun to dip them in egg right after the corn starch - but you have to do this quickly, one at a time, and put them straight into the oil if you do it that way, otherwise the corn starch gets gluey and nasty.</div>
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Now, heat just a couple inches of oil in your wok and drop the wings in, turning them with chopsticks just 2 or 3 times. You'll be able to tell when they're done because the muscle pulls away from the bone a little - cut into one down to the bone and make sure no pink blood comes out if you need to check.</div>
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Enjoy your lovely, salty crispy little wings! This same method works well for little pieces of pork or beef.<br />
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-30412797510156140272012-10-17T02:44:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:57:27.910-07:00Quick & Delicious Tomato and Cauliflower Dish <br />
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This is great and easy and a little change from the typical Chinesey stuff. You will need:</div>
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1 head cauliflower</div>
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2 large tomatoes</div>
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Diced garlic</div>
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1/2 pound (1/2 jin) rou si (thin-sliced pork)</div>
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Salt, chicken bouillon, laoganma hot sauce (substitute this with flavorings of your choice)</div>
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Chop up the cauliflower and tomatoes, stir fry starting with the garlic & cauliflower first. </div>
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After the cauliflower is fried up pretty well, add the meat, seasonings and tomatoes. Your seasoning doesn't have to be very liquid here - the tomato has a lot of juice.</div>
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Cook with the lid on just a little while until the cauliflower is tender enough to bite. It goes quickly.</div>
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Enjoy!</div>
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Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-70562167221844253682012-08-30T02:20:00.001-07:002012-10-17T02:59:13.706-07:00Culinary Adventures in China<br />
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Subtitle: Stirfry for Fun and Profit</div>
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Culinary Adventures in the Chinese House, after a long and unnoticed absence, now rejoins the adventures of our trusty heroine and throws in a hero to make the commentary more interesting. We are living in Nanjing, China for the year and eating things that make us feel brave. Not the live hedgehogs they sell in the market. No one needs to eat the hedgehogs to feel brave.</div>
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The trick about living and cooking in China for many of my homegirls is this: they don't sell food that you recognize.</div>
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We shall overcome this small inconvenience as I show you what we've managed to discover using the types of things they do sell. Except for the hedgehogs. And the entire pig's face. I'm, um, not really sure the entire pig's face would fit in my wok. Thank you. It was very kind of you to offer, though.</div>
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The nice thing about stirfry for fun and profit is that it is rather affordable. I have set a budget of 50 RMB (about $7.50 US) to feed my husband and I for three meals a day and find that I can do it deliciously if I shop at the street markets. I think I'll make a separate post sometime about buying things at the street markets. Today we'll just talk about cooking them.</div>
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To create the following meal, you will require:</div>
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• some meat</div>
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• some vegetables.</div>
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Oh, and you should also round up the usual suspects.</div>
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I should mention here that my husband is trying to eat no sugars and no white carbs, so our usual suspects do not include sugar. But you might like having it on hand to use in meat and vegetable dishes. Lots of Chinese people do. 1.3 billion people can't be wrong! But everything we make will be free of sugar.</div>
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Also, no rice. I do like rice and I have a glorious little rice cooker and have lovely little bowls of rice on my own, but when the man is here we eat man style. Big boy style. So, basically giant plates of meat and vegetables for two big boy style appetites, or three or four normal appetites if you also have rice or other dishes. We do not have other dishes because I'm really sophisticated and like to eat like Gandhi. Not really. It's because I only have one burner on my stove. Moving ahead!</div>
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Today's dish is chicken (jīròu,鸡肉) and green beans (sìjìdòu, 四季豆). You can buy the meat in many forms, like a big slab or cut up in little cubes. Or, you know, shaped like a pig face. There's a booth in my market where they sell diced meats for slightly more than giant slabs of meat. That's where I get ground pork, finely sliced pork or, in this case, diced chicken. It's a few cents more per pound but it's call being lazy and that's what my people are good at.<br />
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The green beans I bought because they were big and clean and lovely and they were still cheap. Other vegetables are awesome as well, though - try kong xin cai (kōngxīncài, 空心菜), which is a stemmy sort of spinachy thing, or broccoli (xīlánhuā, 西兰花), cauliflower (huācài, 花采), the giant green gourd you see everywhere (dōngguā, 冬瓜), or whatever looks freshest and in-season. I've realized that vegetables in the street markets are always better quality AND cheaper than vegetables in the supermarkets. Especially the garlic (dàsuàn, 大蒜) and ginger (jiāng, 姜).</div>
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Very important side note! Go buy yourself lots of garlic and ginger! They make your life awesome. And to enhance the awesomeness that is now your life, find a garlic press and a very sharp, lovely kitchen cleaver. They are the only tools you will really need, and the garlic press saves all sorts of prep time.</div>
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So what I did here today was used about this much garlic and this much ginger. This is a good amount for two big boy servings, but really, you can't go wrong. I should have added a little more garlic here probably. Garlic fixes everything that is wrong with mankind. I've also prepared a little bowl with chicken bouillon (about this much). I'll add water to it and mix it up for later - this is my "sauce" for today's dish. We can do other sauces. I'll talk about that later.<br />
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OK, now here is the secret to effective stirfy: you can do anything and get away with it as long as you start with garlic and ginger in your oil. Also, not cooking the garlic and ginger very long because you don't really want it to brown. Also, cut everything up beforehand because this will go very fast. Also, that was three secrets but I think I'm pretty much done with the secrets now.</div>
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You can use a lot of oil (yóu, 油). I know that seems like it's not good for you but it is. ("If you think oil makes you fat, write me a five page paper citing peer-reviewed scientific journals. Sugar makes you fat." -Erick) Especially if you use a good oil like canola (haven't really found it yet in China but they probably have it if you pay enough) or sunflower. Basically, anything that nature intended to be a liquid at room temperature is happy in your body. Stay away from hydrogenated oils like palm kernel oil or Crisco-type things. Most cooking oil you buy in China (middle-of-the road priced oil, not super cheap but not expensive) should be fine.<br />
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Oh, one more note on oils: you may have noticed that Chinese stove burners are exceedingly hot. Like the heat of a thousand suns. So you have to cook with oil that has a high temperature threshold (smoking point). Olive oil doesn't work well here. Nor does sesame oil (zhīmayóu, 芝麻油 / xiāngyóu, 香油). Why do we have sesame oil in the photo of usual suspects, then? Because it is for flavor - always drizzle (a small amount) of sesame oil on at the end - don't cook in it.</div>
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Anyway, with about this much oil:</div>
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I heat up the garlic and ginger. Not long after, just when they've had a little time to sizzle in there, I throw in my chicken. I stir it around a lot, browning it. Depending on which vegetables you're using and the size of your meat, you can change which order you add them. I like to brown chopped chicken first because it gets a weird white goo if I add it in together with really wet vegetables. It's all still edible, though. Other cases when you might want to add the meat first are chicken wings, other big pieces, or fatty big chunks of pork - just give them a head start. But really, they're going to be fine, and since it's cooking so hot, things will cook through a lot faster than you think.</div>
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I add the vegetables in and let them get good and fried up for a good texture before I add the sauce. (My sauce this time is just chicken broth.) The liquid in the sauce is going to steam out, cooking our vegetables and meat all the way through. I like to use the lid for a little while to let it work its magic. If your sauce ever boils all the way out and your vegetables aren't bitable yet or your meat's not done all the way through, simply drizzle just a quarter or third of cup of water in the wok and let it keep cooking. Stir it often, giving everything a chance to cook through.</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Yay! Big boy portions!</span></i></div>
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In this case, the final dish has one of my favorite lighter flavors: ginger/garlic with chicken. This is also a fabulous time to add some chopped green onions (cōng, 葱) or Chinese chives (jiǔcài, 韭菜). And drizzle a slight amount of sesame oil on it before your final stir.</div>
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Other sauces, though, can be darker and stronger in flavor - try mixing just a quarter cup of soy sauce with some Chinese vinegar and diluting it with a bit of water. Some people like Hoisin (Hǎixiānjiàng, 海鲜酱) - a fish-based Cantonese sauce. You can just do salt water. You can use chili or black bean sauces (there's a great line of spicy sauces in a jar called Laoganma) for a spicy dish. Add some sugar to a soy sauce/water sauce for a southern Chinese flavor.</div>
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When I want to make something extra pungent, I mix up the sauce and garlic early and marinate the meat in it for a couple hours before I cook.</div>
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Do you see how flexible and fun this is, though? Take whatever meat you like, add whatever vegetables you like, and flavor it the way you like. Play around with different dishes and see what suits your tastes. And report back when you discover something good!</div>
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In my next post: I'll explain all the deep profound mysteries I've learned about soy sauce. </div>
Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-17219863468917336912012-08-30T00:03:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:59:28.326-07:00Romantic Adventures in the Chinese House<br />
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<i>When we last spoke with the defendant, she was in Taiwan. "Eating fruit," she alleges. There is then a suspicious gap in her culinary adventures. Are we to assume, then, that no such adventures were occurring?</i></div>
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No, sir. There were adventures occurring. </div>
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<i>Were there culinary adventures?</i></div>
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Of course. There are always culinary adventures.<br />
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<i>Were they embarrassing?</i></div>
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What do you mean?</div>
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<i>Is that why you have not reported nearly two years of culinary adventures? Do they embarrass you? Did you cook nasty things?</i></div>
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Everyone cooks nasty things.</div>
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<i>Don't over-generalize, Madam.</i></div>
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I mean, sometimes. It happens. But that's not why. It's just that… that…</div>
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<i>Please be honest.</i></div>
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They were romantic adventures.</div>
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<i>I think the jury needs to hear the story behind such a claim. Please be brief, but thorough.</i></div>
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OK. I apologize if the culinary nature of these comments offends anyone's sensibilities. You see, I was in Taiwan, eating weird fruit, and beef noodles, and Domino's Pizza with curry chicken on it, and then all the sudden I found myself back in the United States, starting school again in the middle of the winter. It was disorienting. I didn't know what was going on. I moved back into the Chinese House (please reference earlier adventures for tales of the Chinese House) and found myself once again cooking dinner once every couple weeks for four charming girls and six ravenous boys. Only this time, one of the boys in particular was really ravenous. By that, I mean I cooked him chicken feet and he liked it.</div>
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Exhibit A. (The tricky thing about trying to cook chicken feet is that they grab your tongs <i>back</i> when you try to turn them. You only wish I was making that up.)</div>
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<i>And what became of these chicken feet?</i></div>
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The boy in question - we'll call him Erick because that's his name - ate some. And his roommate Yao Ming (real name? You decide.) ate some because he's actually Chinese and that's how he rolls. And everyone else played with them and tapped each other on the shoulder with them and somehow … they ended up on the doorstep of the Japanese House? I don't go in for politics myself.</div>
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<i>And you're saying the young man in question enjoys this type of thing?</i></div>
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He does go in for politics, yes.</div>
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<i>And how are people supposed to survive when you feed them chicken feet?</i></div>
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Well, that's what the beef noodles* were for. Exhibit B.</div>
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<i>Alright. Continue.</i></div>
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Well, he liked the chicken feet and he liked the beef noodles and so then I tried some chashaobao* on him at a Chinese New Year party. Chashaobao was super effective. And then at some point the culinary adventure turned into a romantic adventure and I found myself eating pupusas with him at the El Salvadorian restaurant on Center Street. Turns out pupusas are also super effective.</div>
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So the next culinary adventure was for his birthday. We told the three Chinese House guys who had birthdays coming up that we would make them cakes and asked which kind of cake they preferred. "I like tres leches cake," Erick said. "You are so in luck! I will totally make you a tres leches cake for your birthday!" I said, having never made a tres leches cake in my life.</div>
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But that's what the internet is for (lying to love interests), as we can tell from Exhibit C and Exhibit D, tres leches cake* was super effective. I added strawberries before the whipped cream on top, which I thought was a particularly tasty touch.</div>
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<i>So you bribed this young man into a romantic relationship, using food?</i></div>
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Using Cous Cous and Chorba*, yes. (Exhibit E) And marshmallows covered in chocolate shaped like Domo Kun that I learned from <a href="http://www.annathered.com/2009/04/16/non-bento14-domo-kun/">Anna the Red's blog</a>, but are marshmallows really a "food?" Be honest with yourself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArBkLfF7zUhtUq6fERV0r0CKOvuQwRrY-JgWJGLJqyiNB889g12g2muN1u9nbhiibszIrXIc7ve5vjcSOX4DTs2h5QOWRHeO4Gp0fCnAmbEgeZ6OUW7A-NOGoji-JPInfZA7yRgUEEIvM/s1600/chorba.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArBkLfF7zUhtUq6fERV0r0CKOvuQwRrY-JgWJGLJqyiNB889g12g2muN1u9nbhiibszIrXIc7ve5vjcSOX4DTs2h5QOWRHeO4Gp0fCnAmbEgeZ6OUW7A-NOGoji-JPInfZA7yRgUEEIvM/s320/chorba.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Regardless; no one suggested this might be a bad idea?</i></div>
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They might have, but their mouths were full.</div>
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<i>And what was the outcome of this elaborate scheme of yours? This plot to entwine a poor young Chinese House student into your web of marshmallows and lies?</i></div>
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The outcome of Chinese House? It was super effective. He married me.<br />
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*email me for recipies. Oh, that I had the space to include them all!</div>
Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-66558179308306605912010-09-18T02:26:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:59:41.154-07:00Adventures in FruitHave there been no adventures of late? I think not. I think if there is ever a lack in adventures being reported it cannot mean an actual lack of adventure, but merely a lack of man's ability to report adventures and still do all the educational research that is due and that doesn't, frustratingly, write itself.<br />
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One of the many adventures in which our brave explorers have been engaged of late is the adventure, that great sweet adventure, the adventure of Fruit.<br />
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The world is full of much delicious fruit. It is all rather good for you, and even the mediocre among the fruits are able to make one happy. However, some fruits are particularly sweet and delectable and have the added advantages of being among the weirdest freaky things that grow on this planet. Here is a quick tour:<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Sugar Apple</span><br />
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First of all, I think the sugar apple needs a new name. Wikipedia says I can also call it a sweetsop, which I think I will, because this is nothing like an apple and I want to support people who show creativity in their naming of fruits.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">The Sweetsop</span><br />
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The sweetsop does not look appetizing. It looks, in fact, rather like the egg sac of a particularly large and creepy insect.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApAVqa6N3_UMbk516ImortI6SQkMa0jLaRpTBcRQCGjUwz256ckaFdYPELV4TRznxy5J5WzuT7HcgvMrCNFJ5xYS1W0dOVaoimBLnvVAqtktVIQtyePFLp9NKpaL29vI8OUsZ5dfMFjM9/s1600/P9030038.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518187505572397522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhApAVqa6N3_UMbk516ImortI6SQkMa0jLaRpTBcRQCGjUwz256ckaFdYPELV4TRznxy5J5WzuT7HcgvMrCNFJ5xYS1W0dOVaoimBLnvVAqtktVIQtyePFLp9NKpaL29vI8OUsZ5dfMFjM9/s400/P9030038.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
But if you are socially pressured enough to try one, you shall not be disappointed. So suck it up, smile, and put one in your bowl! If it's sufficiently ripe, upon landing in the bowl it will fall open into a pile of white flesh. This may also disconcert you, but just keep eating. You'll be just fine. The taste is magnificent - very very sweet and almost floral. It almost tastes like jasmine flowers. You eat the little sections one at a time - sucking off everything but the skin and the seeds. Like a durian, it's actually a little too sweet to eat a large amount at once. One whole fruit is pushing it. But it is a lovely experience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZIN0bMbLR4hEueUJbF6Ih6wFmuj3YF1LeM09b3SpyRsTHkjyE7vbKPh3mGMKipPa8fwqbAMNmdI9Ko7uMEVDlQ2o3Wtvzr9K7muXHE1y_4phSrG0rj6jaR6AZ5BiA8pGpTk4R4JrPDTzI/s1600/P9030039.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518186632361460242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZIN0bMbLR4hEueUJbF6Ih6wFmuj3YF1LeM09b3SpyRsTHkjyE7vbKPh3mGMKipPa8fwqbAMNmdI9Ko7uMEVDlQ2o3Wtvzr9K7muXHE1y_4phSrG0rj6jaR6AZ5BiA8pGpTk4R4JrPDTzI/s400/P9030039.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">¡Aye Carambola!</span><br />
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A carambola is better known as a star fruit. I have no idea why.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirOfvnCdX08B5EeziEzWeXIzsqCiPM97uiQRU098K8p0xwfinPAiCG7gBNGzkH6Pdvr6L62K_UwdA6gdRANxeH5qdmOXdJobaeVbWb80LVfN5bQPuAEt83AP6_MMUoaBbX2-s8J6z_x_T9/s1600/P9100048.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518186623801485698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirOfvnCdX08B5EeziEzWeXIzsqCiPM97uiQRU098K8p0xwfinPAiCG7gBNGzkH6Pdvr6L62K_UwdA6gdRANxeH5qdmOXdJobaeVbWb80LVfN5bQPuAEt83AP6_MMUoaBbX2-s8J6z_x_T9/s400/P9100048.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This one was particularly lovely while I was slicing it up for my breakfast, but unfortunately not very sweet. The texture is very fun to eat, and occasionally if you get a sweet one it is quite tasty.<br />
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Maybe the star fruit isn't exotic enough to be very interesting, but sometimes if you're lucky enough to have a red cutting board it can at least be a fun little political exercise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9QzlnKZS4wLtXjRY8OfUK1VekW_0a3i_48z1DNcovfZQi20o8RgRppaUQtoWMO33zl7FpQXwp2bQXLasRBN-4NTE1QyrLBYTUd1K9BcIiLZgeN5km2OAmP6zuGj-Gfwciuc1ugToTUdy/s1600/P9100050.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518186619301123410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI9QzlnKZS4wLtXjRY8OfUK1VekW_0a3i_48z1DNcovfZQi20o8RgRppaUQtoWMO33zl7FpQXwp2bQXLasRBN-4NTE1QyrLBYTUd1K9BcIiLZgeN5km2OAmP6zuGj-Gfwciuc1ugToTUdy/s400/P9100050.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Fruit Buffet</span><br />
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I accidentally ate at a steak restaurant the other day. I say accidentally because I was standing outside trying to read the menu and I happen to be very very slow at reading and I was standing there long enough and the waitress looking at me long enough that I started to feel awkward and would have felt like a jerk if I then walked away. Having odd social compunctions can really cost a lot of money sometimes.<br />
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The steak was expensive by Taiwan terms - I think I spent about $9 on my dinner, which is astronomical here. But it was from a real American cow. I know this because the icon on the menu was a little cartoon cow with an American flag on its butt. So I ordered it in the hopes that maybe it grew up on my sister's ranch in Lewistown. It probably did. Thanks, guys! It was tasty!<br />
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But the best part of the steak restaurant was the all-you-can-eat salad bar, fruit and ice cream. The salad was DANG good, which doesn't happen often here, and the fruit... well, it was just an assortment of everything that's in season now which is, you know. Dragonfruit, passion fruit, star fruit and pomelo. Let me tell you about passion fruit - it's that little cup of yellow jewels in the photo. It's fragrant - you can smell it across the room. And then you eat it and BAM! It's sour and aromatic and smacks you between the eyes. And the black seeds are crunchy and it's just all-around pleasant to eat. Plus, the inside of the shell was holding on to the seeds with these little fleshy stems and I'm just totally sure this is an alien lifeform that accidentally got dropped on earth. Too bad suckers! We totally stole your extraterrestrial fruit and we're gonna eat it all, thank you very much.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVgCOvubsEMmSn6oREHDvTw7yOqnAZrjeGtVYRjeXiHk186BwDcaHRGaAF4jbpZkhFXk2KKKgyVvg7G0B1_b7hk-dlUK0DE2Fj8IoFOTv0PCKiyv6LbeC5ccKsSefzW8PgQhTBDxapuIW/s1600/P9160004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518186613122983522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWVgCOvubsEMmSn6oREHDvTw7yOqnAZrjeGtVYRjeXiHk186BwDcaHRGaAF4jbpZkhFXk2KKKgyVvg7G0B1_b7hk-dlUK0DE2Fj8IoFOTv0PCKiyv6LbeC5ccKsSefzW8PgQhTBDxapuIW/s400/P9160004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Pomelo</span><br />
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And now we're to the pomelo. (I like how all of these things have English names as if any native speaker would have the foggiest idea what you're talking about.)<br />
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This is a specialty at Mid-Autumn Festival, and this is how you eat it:<br />
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First, you pick one whose skin is starting to get old and dry and saggy. Because older means sweeter and more satisfying. This is also true for cute 29-year-old girls you pick to take out on dates. The smooth green ones are always distracting but don't fall for it!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8jhWndK_OvTRkUyadOWjjAo3S0CsXVNiDwx0uoCj4zn3ZjaJ4S1jhQnf8Y9_k4YXOI-cON5C1bWrohAhl8GFPNcSh37ztii6hcyiviuXROzIWakROz_UMkC6N10T5P4vxCAfbzB-Ln3dN/s1600/P9170008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518186605853095954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8jhWndK_OvTRkUyadOWjjAo3S0CsXVNiDwx0uoCj4zn3ZjaJ4S1jhQnf8Y9_k4YXOI-cON5C1bWrohAhl8GFPNcSh37ztii6hcyiviuXROzIWakROz_UMkC6N10T5P4vxCAfbzB-Ln3dN/s400/P9170008.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Then you decapitate them. (Um, the cute girl analogy ended at the last picture) I messed up and cut through some flesh. I don't know how you can tell where the flesh starts and where is just thick white peel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkz6XaZq6_kVyfnzTwx-TOW3HcHAB_l_9JG-EWSW8aMN4pQMP8WqAniuswg1Y7jKH1LhiCh7HAzpyBPVbbZsT6jXBKw0KLk8C24W3vLuthRG45krQK7U2S7wnrqR9qax8mR47aWMt9qM7Q/s1600/P9170009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518184186543376690" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkz6XaZq6_kVyfnzTwx-TOW3HcHAB_l_9JG-EWSW8aMN4pQMP8WqAniuswg1Y7jKH1LhiCh7HAzpyBPVbbZsT6jXBKw0KLk8C24W3vLuthRG45krQK7U2S7wnrqR9qax8mR47aWMt9qM7Q/s400/P9170009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Then, you make a series of vertical cuts around the side from which you peel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2DokxzRqhF0LKQ5ZhkWFhjMjq2Hez00-810dsAgYrPVZfTKLw1eOt326i8pPMOUNPZ7LpdFuSgwQEcrKT9Qqlp5TBMsByQgErTMN61C4gYgcshaKBq9_faXK7XpeO2ZdJ0Eououmu7dM/s1600/P9170010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518184181729309922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ2DokxzRqhF0LKQ5ZhkWFhjMjq2Hez00-810dsAgYrPVZfTKLw1eOt326i8pPMOUNPZ7LpdFuSgwQEcrKT9Qqlp5TBMsByQgErTMN61C4gYgcshaKBq9_faXK7XpeO2ZdJ0Eououmu7dM/s400/P9170010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
You have to peel it in one piece. To prove your man/womanhood and dexterity.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8htTV0O37gGDqDOCrOPo26WNyGIKQVG6jda2etzP2Joza3KHZJBruSPWJdX858Zkthmzr46lgIE3mqogv2SCger7BjtsI1nrWz9uJ23_KU9jBSXfh0T-B6ca639BScLQK1vHRXPr2eNWm/s1600/P9170011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518184177235902434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8htTV0O37gGDqDOCrOPo26WNyGIKQVG6jda2etzP2Joza3KHZJBruSPWJdX858Zkthmzr46lgIE3mqogv2SCger7BjtsI1nrWz9uJ23_KU9jBSXfh0T-B6ca639BScLQK1vHRXPr2eNWm/s400/P9170011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Why do you need to remove it in one piece? So you can put it on your head of course. I'm not kidding! I'm being a dang cultural anthropologist here! This is what actual Chinese people do at the mid-autumn festival. They wear fruit peels on their heads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEmsL2ArRSOT5pkKN9gCoYSY8j_qeGECACmfy4g-SANwXbekxA5YiuNPxVH_00i3_iZdP8zd7IDeLzFS8WXsBmDYf_uC7lOJjNcnOckRY-t4yp9sqOgm1Lrz23_5BUzpvPLfB7uPluwPX/s1600/P9170013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518184157057278434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTEmsL2ArRSOT5pkKN9gCoYSY8j_qeGECACmfy4g-SANwXbekxA5YiuNPxVH_00i3_iZdP8zd7IDeLzFS8WXsBmDYf_uC7lOJjNcnOckRY-t4yp9sqOgm1Lrz23_5BUzpvPLfB7uPluwPX/s400/P9170013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
See?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHZJdYY7qSAHmCh6vDebjkAARXWG2SfVkzo39Fao5oIY-7uKIVDKJTHVfpfz1ux9BFUbHiIXS7WdzgDMmMm8dIADtWIFWWKNa1QTtSGsr4zMTSaIO9satgc6N418X8_bb380f3TAh3-RY/s1600/limecat.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518197029532998866" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHZJdYY7qSAHmCh6vDebjkAARXWG2SfVkzo39Fao5oIY-7uKIVDKJTHVfpfz1ux9BFUbHiIXS7WdzgDMmMm8dIADtWIFWWKNa1QTtSGsr4zMTSaIO9satgc6N418X8_bb380f3TAh3-RY/s400/limecat.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 340px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And even better than the pomelo hat (though you must admit, it's hard to get better than the pomelo hat) is the fruit that you get to eat. It's like grapefruit's older, more responsible sister. Sweet, drier and firm, without the juice everywhere. (Um, I don't know whether that analogy is actually going anywhere. Just eat the fruit and pretend I didn't say anything.)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOGb5z4Eho75yy9WMdiXcOFy_w44LOAmCylqtD_ah9DzW3NQLApD5IdO2BrOBPv64hi9GWu-IL5JuSfUrTLGuZ94A3CI3ktV5a58XVBVkNDvTxwdgzKrRqk3YgtJR3aL-kWflnibDo2zj/s1600/P9170027.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518184163698291826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVOGb5z4Eho75yy9WMdiXcOFy_w44LOAmCylqtD_ah9DzW3NQLApD5IdO2BrOBPv64hi9GWu-IL5JuSfUrTLGuZ94A3CI3ktV5a58XVBVkNDvTxwdgzKrRqk3YgtJR3aL-kWflnibDo2zj/s400/P9170027.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Another successful culinary adventure!Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-54501853636390867892010-06-29T23:29:00.000-07:002012-10-17T02:59:54.234-07:00Culinary Adventures in Hong Kong, Part 3Monday morning, the sun shone in Hong Kong for at least six and a half minutes. I have photographic evidence:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatCXJnfyhmEX5SoNvQHpaPe0PmWQoqklUeq6j6oD4tONWg60kKWJvZk7YLh40a-hMyGInKi_-faJads4z0T4CqXdpi1kzymHNPoZAxbbx2sJaj7AGG4NdP7Jy0o1whn0vn81u7sVuYIac/s1600/P6270072.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488451052237500850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatCXJnfyhmEX5SoNvQHpaPe0PmWQoqklUeq6j6oD4tONWg60kKWJvZk7YLh40a-hMyGInKi_-faJads4z0T4CqXdpi1kzymHNPoZAxbbx2sJaj7AGG4NdP7Jy0o1whn0vn81u7sVuYIac/s400/P6270072.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
It was glorious. But then we were back to the monsoons. I realize now, however, that mysterious powers were at work. Powers that would combine to bring us the best culinary adventure we had ever been privy to. And the rain was all part of the magic.<br />
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Among food bloggers, I am quite the scallawag. I am too snobbish to be a snob, I think continental cuisine is mostly pretentious, and I don't even own my own lemon zester. Neither did I think I'd ever be reporting on my adventures in a restaurant given a star by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide">Michelin Guide</a>. Those sorts of adventures are a little too lofty for me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsI3yWgh-mHCSu89dVxxTCJhXBFbq6uHXLYQclqAAHz0xzrY1mJLWjjPqlr6iXMZ77wvUOrh0TEUuu07auxFUzrCYzIcsQV3Y9rvcJ9UXzbj4QCe2BwhLCGxv6D65qXANFyGfmnwGSmpCa/s1600/P6270084.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488450883295303730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsI3yWgh-mHCSu89dVxxTCJhXBFbq6uHXLYQclqAAHz0xzrY1mJLWjjPqlr6iXMZ77wvUOrh0TEUuu07auxFUzrCYzIcsQV3Y9rvcJ9UXzbj4QCe2BwhLCGxv6D65qXANFyGfmnwGSmpCa/s400/P6270084.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And it was pure winds of fortune that blew us to <a href="http://www.chefdb.com/pl/18092/">Tim Ho Wan</a>. I didn't want to leave Hong Kong without eating real dim sum, and so I'd been searching online for something that was legitimate without emptying the coffers, if you know what I mean. These coffers are rather modest. I had asked the concierge at our hotel if he had a list of dim sum restaurants. "3rd floor," he said. "No, I mean, famous in Hong Kong." "Oh," he chirped, while scribbling on my map. "Across the street, at the food court in the mall."<br />
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Nevermind. Thank you. So I read all I could online and I heard about Tim Ho Wan, which is apparently the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. Cheap snobby restaurant? Verily? However, they also say that you can expect to wait three hours to get in. Well, that doesn't quite work for two buccaneers whose ship leaves port this evening. Sad... what a great opportunity it would have been.<br />
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This is where the typhoon rains intervene in our favor. Who wants to wait in line for fancy dim sum on a Monday morning? Well, a couple hundred people. How about a Monday morning dumping buckets of rain? That's right. Only the hardy few. And after 20 minutes of persistence, we managed to work our way in to the tiny little galley.<br />
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This is about the width of the entire restaurant.<br />
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But pretty soon, the bounty starts coming. Buns with barbecued pork, and glutinous rice steamed in a banana leaf. I was hesitant, because the Dragon Boat Festival wasn't that long ago and my stomach is still reeling from far too many <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zong_zi">zongzi</a>, but this thing was <span style="font-style: italic;">delicious</span>. It had some sort of meat that I could swear was turkey, but could have been just a very smoky chicken creation. But we managed to finish the whole thing, which was good because the rest of the restaurant was on its way to our table.<br />
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Shrimp dumplings and a light steamed cake... never quite caught what was in the cake.<br />
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These steamed vegetable and beef dumplings were THE most delicious thing. I. have. ever. put in my mouth. I <span style="font-style: italic;">know</span> I say that about something new every three days or so, but this time I am in earnest.<br />
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These little dumplings are made with a glutinous rice flour (mochiko) and filled with barbecued pork, then quickly deep fried. I'm more a fan of the more savory creations, but these were still delightful. And I'm glad we ordered the "braised vegetable" which ended up just being lettuce. But who knew lettuce could be cooked to deliciousness? Michelin, I suppose. He knew.<br />
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These rice skins were filled with beef. Tim Ho Wan's specialty are the ones filled with pork liver, but we averted that quickly before we ordered. We're not quite that fearless. These were nice, though - the flavor was very subtle.<br />
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What I didn't manage to get a picture of were the beef meatballs with tofu skin (inari - sorry, the only real names I know for these things are their Japanese names). They were absolutely sublime. Neither I nor my digestive tract are big fans of beef, but these were just lovely. They had some sort of flavor - I swear it might have been mint leaves - that sends you right off the starboard bow.<br />
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It was a little embarrassing how much we ordered - we had to keep stacking it up. But it was curiosity! I mean, the spirit of adventure! I mean, we were pillaging. Arrrgh!<br />
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I bet real pillagers never ate this well. This dessert was a dainty agar gelatin with some sort of herbs and flowers. Like Spring Meadow Jell-o. Jell-o never made Spring Meadow a flavor, which is probably because they didn't want it bad enough.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTrdt3HLyCw3ypRW2EoILlx7T05327DuVWDTwpMESiXKMPojdbh_TMnQYNbg5o9I3xn1gemrUryGrLcX85tsw2NoweroiaVyS5kwxmh4TFispsf6MkoXAwVJr6qdS3nOdf-1rErMGh0ey7/s1600/P6280101.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488450471889432290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTrdt3HLyCw3ypRW2EoILlx7T05327DuVWDTwpMESiXKMPojdbh_TMnQYNbg5o9I3xn1gemrUryGrLcX85tsw2NoweroiaVyS5kwxmh4TFispsf6MkoXAwVJr6qdS3nOdf-1rErMGh0ey7/s400/P6280101.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And we finished off with the most expensive item on the menu, at 32 Hong Kong dollars (about $4 US), which is a little unbelievably cheap for a Michelin starred restaurant. Black truffle pudding. I think it was also coconut flavored? I don't know. The flavors all hit you at once like a plank across the forehead. And they leave you lying in a blissful stupor on the deck. It was no trouble at all to stagger out into the pouring rain and slowly make our way back to the airport. And definitely an adventure in the South Seas worth the toil.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-18649608220656035132010-06-29T23:14:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:00:13.772-07:00Culinary Adventures in Hong Kong, Part 2We next set out to plunder the local markets. The foodstuffs were plentiful, and not just barrels full of hardtack!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTPuMXe0HFK0KFpt0fOZ5swpasaxLIFijyoVvESAvg_JQ16MNSOE82GzGW2czsoD5Let3AG3-Qtb42bsOVkvl3k7AXf2WlbZ5bg3dYFLe1JqUyesxYWfz09_p2GYuT_Y4l1qbai2Mf35j/s1600/P6260025.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446718588514898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXTPuMXe0HFK0KFpt0fOZ5swpasaxLIFijyoVvESAvg_JQ16MNSOE82GzGW2czsoD5Let3AG3-Qtb42bsOVkvl3k7AXf2WlbZ5bg3dYFLe1JqUyesxYWfz09_p2GYuT_Y4l1qbai2Mf35j/s400/P6260025.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuIIzOeqOIkWIZVeCfywjA9ZsnsUyzJ-opFlwKvrl8ANkIDDZs4ey3Yfh1TlZwQ41PzT7fH8Dfa6MYUUlKhQ56Dv9waLbso1VxiPCltHQao32u8IDR7RudeU4V9MDV-r10VUGZ1COC2d9/s1600/P6260026.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446716772138898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuIIzOeqOIkWIZVeCfywjA9ZsnsUyzJ-opFlwKvrl8ANkIDDZs4ey3Yfh1TlZwQ41PzT7fH8Dfa6MYUUlKhQ56Dv9waLbso1VxiPCltHQao32u8IDR7RudeU4V9MDV-r10VUGZ1COC2d9/s400/P6260026.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
After an afternoon of bargaining for necessary plunder (scabbards, anchors, peglegs and the like) in the rain, we sought refuge in another local tavern.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_yXMn6ayxqTVYiPGEQ_rp5tombj0NRH__6d5BO-B61KQwJq6hGt8GPGIYdv6NVFXU9sCfhYMj-GJW_3F3SvT43cqfdZGNZAjEoW2a8NDSh7o0QhV0gZJa8Y-X-5A-fIeUQkE3KiKnfkTj/s1600/P6260034.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446564849249090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_yXMn6ayxqTVYiPGEQ_rp5tombj0NRH__6d5BO-B61KQwJq6hGt8GPGIYdv6NVFXU9sCfhYMj-GJW_3F3SvT43cqfdZGNZAjEoW2a8NDSh7o0QhV0gZJa8Y-X-5A-fIeUQkE3KiKnfkTj/s400/P6260034.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The fair lass contemplates her plunder<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S7y8pS3D_pELU90EevayH-81AdkvwIC2NtjzQQ3kxMRU_UzmdrskVRoN3F5FxqCvc117pNquKXx8pfxyhOkiYQJB-XR-irLXAW4YFo4n1ZlOUcDfnzBwuCIb_4RbI3Fsp1c-QiwGfswZ/s1600/P6260036.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446559623712002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S7y8pS3D_pELU90EevayH-81AdkvwIC2NtjzQQ3kxMRU_UzmdrskVRoN3F5FxqCvc117pNquKXx8pfxyhOkiYQJB-XR-irLXAW4YFo4n1ZlOUcDfnzBwuCIb_4RbI3Fsp1c-QiwGfswZ/s400/P6260036.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
We ended up commandeering a novel creation that shivered my timbers something fierce. It's called a 綿綿冰, and is something akin to a giant block of frozen milk shaved into a shivering tower, drizzled with a sauce of your choice and garnished with star-shaped jellies and fruit-filled "pearls" of exploding flavor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWttdv8NhKLGVjtnV8phAPwBDupqwd4Gb5KBMDD1DAs9xP7xgBROZxLNnfGZG2LzsRQIEblfeB9OKB1gTA2kvaBAncst3_l68UOgB00IVYDMR8DAVfGv_50ZrOUTgteR5qaXvQjsbmzjVn/s1600/P6260037.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446553244895618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWttdv8NhKLGVjtnV8phAPwBDupqwd4Gb5KBMDD1DAs9xP7xgBROZxLNnfGZG2LzsRQIEblfeB9OKB1gTA2kvaBAncst3_l68UOgB00IVYDMR8DAVfGv_50ZrOUTgteR5qaXvQjsbmzjVn/s400/P6260037.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Coconut flavor, with sweetened condensed milk, mango and lychee jellies and orange and pineapple pearls. You think I'm pulling your chain here, me hearties, but I tell ye the truth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQ2SBWWOROUZ3Cgz1vO2mvh4iZFEs0py_HLwtHz4TyriUoyGI45COPjxzEB5LlN21wbjd8o8iVPn4ZLA54k_IIog8ruk-myttbuPV3cb_7c0FP5G9YEEsxJ9Nf-BDrujUKee50R9mKmcY/s1600/P6260038.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446547339900354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEQ2SBWWOROUZ3Cgz1vO2mvh4iZFEs0py_HLwtHz4TyriUoyGI45COPjxzEB5LlN21wbjd8o8iVPn4ZLA54k_IIog8ruk-myttbuPV3cb_7c0FP5G9YEEsxJ9Nf-BDrujUKee50R9mKmcY/s400/P6260038.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
The fair lass ordered taro flavor. Ah, I told ye these south seas were full of worthy plunder.<br />
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The next day being Sunday, I stopped at a local canteen to stock up on some food to eat. I'm afraid to say my adventurous spirit had flagged a bit and I wasn't feeling quite up to experimenting with Chinese food preparation in a hotel. But I found a British grocery store that had quite the booty - crusty bread, smoked cheese, and vegetables with hummus dip. Aye, hummus has come to the Far East. The culinary balance of the cosmos may be nearing perfection.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXg6O9Xmme-nNWIwnmQinwzT9G2jQwF8mWnE37Ge1usjMm8__HJeHaG2mTQEMNnC0J9qa7_9j7XJsjRmteFxFVfxYvnWckwN5SXPgFRZpFdncUPAsmRAN7_gkso30-OJYSAUV_10qf6VMK/s1600/P6260049.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488446539214247250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXg6O9Xmme-nNWIwnmQinwzT9G2jQwF8mWnE37Ge1usjMm8__HJeHaG2mTQEMNnC0J9qa7_9j7XJsjRmteFxFVfxYvnWckwN5SXPgFRZpFdncUPAsmRAN7_gkso30-OJYSAUV_10qf6VMK/s400/P6260049.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Cold, wet and bedraggled, we holed up in the hull to wait out the rest of the storm . . .Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-7660443194718286582010-06-29T21:57:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:00:32.636-07:00Culinary Adventures in Hong Kong, Part 1Culinary adventures have been few and far between of late. Not because life is any less adventurous, but because life is a lot busier and cameras less handy. Also, there are only so many times your friends will let you sing the praises of cong you bing before they run you out of town.<br />
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But do not despair, for I am pleased to bring you some new adventures. This weekend the fair lass Josephine and I went on a pillaging raid upon the high seas. In our sights? The opulent port city of Hong Kong.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtlH2iZlIkmP7oR16XIGkZT-UTEfrpz09IpkKRsiypfvFvGUnuEmaV97XDgpC-GobPGrRW2DxIrtwoDHt33m_BCYKxgC77-Hb8W6AvWzQWhi1U-ecqUtcAlL6ODAu5DfE9UzowyYRYwCu/s1600/aa.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438454393654850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxtlH2iZlIkmP7oR16XIGkZT-UTEfrpz09IpkKRsiypfvFvGUnuEmaV97XDgpC-GobPGrRW2DxIrtwoDHt33m_BCYKxgC77-Hb8W6AvWzQWhi1U-ecqUtcAlL6ODAu5DfE9UzowyYRYwCu/s400/aa.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 336px;" /></a><br />
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Those scurvy British dogs sat pretty on this dainty little Pacific jewel for a hundred years, but now it is in our sights. The succulent booty is ours for the taking.<br />
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We got there on a rainy day, and carried all of our earthly goods in rucksacks slung across our weary shoulders. Climbing up the riggin' and riding trains and buses and all sorts of laborious efforts. We arrived at the hotel too early to check in, so we sought shelter in a humble tavern off the port bow. It was a Shanghai-style restaurant in the food court at the mall.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpFIxofMrGpCyW9Z2FlJEXJm-u3K-KT69_eeQscfNTv31TlWWbAYCupDDrYuk2I8oczWpirT9-JtzFm9R6eD0v9wvUfZ5YJjYuEyP5tLKBy3yq_doOmGZToGwGfQx6ed9y8sMtg4BgDIEG/s1600/P6260007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438312574594258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpFIxofMrGpCyW9Z2FlJEXJm-u3K-KT69_eeQscfNTv31TlWWbAYCupDDrYuk2I8oczWpirT9-JtzFm9R6eD0v9wvUfZ5YJjYuEyP5tLKBy3yq_doOmGZToGwGfQx6ed9y8sMtg4BgDIEG/s400/P6260007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
It had exceedingly cute fat Chinese babies painted all over the walls. Awww... I mean... avast!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIy6wzjv4EOVMe9ulWTwaJjN8rFC2kyutWBtZUk3YY9Q18J6Cg8pvHFvqZFwYBRVtoQGRW47djxjpHqlFYU8U_Pb72dly6gjofGA5A3ucPVb3seUsopqMSEOCB2fcTojDbrMieD-Bl7dtR/s1600/P6260011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438302173287730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIy6wzjv4EOVMe9ulWTwaJjN8rFC2kyutWBtZUk3YY9Q18J6Cg8pvHFvqZFwYBRVtoQGRW47djxjpHqlFYU8U_Pb72dly6gjofGA5A3ucPVb3seUsopqMSEOCB2fcTojDbrMieD-Bl7dtR/s400/P6260011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I ordered the one thing on the menu I could find that had vegetables. I wasn't in a greasy meat mood and I also didn't want to spend a bajillionty dollars. Not spending a bajillionty dollars turned out to be one of the hardest feats to accomplish in Hong Kong. Aye, they love their gold, the scallawags. Well, the "noodles with vegetables" turned out to be a very bland soup. I remembered that Shanghai cuisine was supposed to be "light and fresh." Maybe it wasn't bland, maybe it was light and fresh.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLk3BCQ3__oi2N0GM2N5qw_yfo5iTqU_WD2JXwZR9biJ0FcwZvabaKyAI9uTONw_JW4iQZrUDmBHpbU009ZKMxaWGopSaPkf3a57EYJb9jjzAkuiPn84Lhc-bmolnkDf-pRPLGu5GHubz_/s1600/P6260012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438297461126290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLk3BCQ3__oi2N0GM2N5qw_yfo5iTqU_WD2JXwZR9biJ0FcwZvabaKyAI9uTONw_JW4iQZrUDmBHpbU009ZKMxaWGopSaPkf3a57EYJb9jjzAkuiPn84Lhc-bmolnkDf-pRPLGu5GHubz_/s400/P6260012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
So I ordered the guotier (potstickers). Because this is Hong Kong, birthplace of dim sum, land where wee babes suck on potstickers for pacifiers. They had to be good.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRmTfkyH9BobnhtN6wm2RziwzjKxef8Bho1gRLCeS66laQzYaK-itnlTx_9pGKFAOogL-042hMPnzoHVjiQoxXt8d6fiZ3zUqoqLczUn5OX_6rm8J67BpIEL1trKeQ6dreWU5qj-xEJi1Y/s1600/P6260013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438290386517906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRmTfkyH9BobnhtN6wm2RziwzjKxef8Bho1gRLCeS66laQzYaK-itnlTx_9pGKFAOogL-042hMPnzoHVjiQoxXt8d6fiZ3zUqoqLczUn5OX_6rm8J67BpIEL1trKeQ6dreWU5qj-xEJi1Y/s400/P6260013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Instead, I got the <span style="font-style: italic;">worst potstickers man has ever known</span>. I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just reporting the facts. These are the worst potstickers man has ever known. Look how thick the skin is - the skin is not supposed to be that thick. It was like bread. And on the bottom, where they had touched the pan, it was like a thick bread crust. And the inside was bland. I cursed the scurvy cur who gave it to me. Actually, I didn't, I just asked for some white rice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9Z4PXqY6MZyqyo5oPhFAh1rSRmVioqDjcNpoqTbaj-vDrMgSachaMD4Kur96V-MrJ1h7o0_CklpOSFfACvumQIw22QeWrqu_JFRLe9Gbcabwpa6SPjpxPIIizPFYavj4q8fPFJ01p1ZA/s1600/P6260015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488438280890823330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP9Z4PXqY6MZyqyo5oPhFAh1rSRmVioqDjcNpoqTbaj-vDrMgSachaMD4Kur96V-MrJ1h7o0_CklpOSFfACvumQIw22QeWrqu_JFRLe9Gbcabwpa6SPjpxPIIizPFYavj4q8fPFJ01p1ZA/s400/P6260015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The fair lass Josephine fared better. She ordered the fish, not realizing she was ordering The Fish. As in, THE fish. It was steamed, with a lightly pickled green vegetable diced on top, sliced fragrant mushrooms (which are very nice to taste, as compared to the dried ones which are still hard for me to eat while smiling politely) and some sort of ham. I helped her convey the poor fishy soul to its demise, and we were surprised how much of it we ate. Normally I'm used to having all sorts of fish scraps, but this whole fish was so soft it just kind of melted into little chopstick-fulls and pretty soon all that was left was a lonely little skeleton and a lonely little head. Sorry, ye pitiful little picaroon. I'll convey ye respects to the little Fish Missus and sprats you left at the bottom of the harbor.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-7750492799550457132010-06-06T05:43:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:00:48.186-07:00Going out to lunch... ON JAPANESE TV!Demi took Hui Lian and I out to lunch a few days ago. It was a restaurant owned by one of our student's parents so she worked the connections to get us a discount. Because that's what you do when you're Chinese - you work your connections. It was amazing.<br />
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But let's not go for everyday run-of-the-mill amazing food narration. That gets old. Let's instead describe this meal like we would on JAPANESE TV!<br />
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(Imagine, if you will, a 10-second clip of a very grand European orchestral theme. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ride of the Valkyries</span>, perhaps. Yes, that will do nicely. Now, play that intermittently throughout the narration - always the same 10 second clip. Ah, yes, that will set the mood. Thanks for your help - remember... I can only be so multimedia here.)<br />
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Now let's start out with our introduction:<br />
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TRADITIONAL TAIWANESE FOOD. IS IT DELICIOUS?<br />
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(Audience: collective gasp)<br />
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We're here at a beef noodles restaurant in Xinfeng, wondering if the Taiwanese food they sell is delicious.<br />
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(<span style="font-style: italic;">Ride of the Valkyries</span>) IS IT DELICIOUS?<br />
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These are the little cold vegetable appetizers. Pickled papaya, wild greens salad with mayonnaise and peanut powder, pickled cucumbers and <span style="font-style: italic;">pao cai</span> - pickled cabbage.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeAM_pOQpRqXj18gF0euYoEQV0dXPH5G8Ko8z9_kxuuZHVQd_2fS8obPBcZA4o7_mxoHX-rY_e1qwk6DU-7aRzH-NSq18bfgopYvLvJ9vJKEogb023386Hz_EQE6tXMUv1opC_8LM45nI/s1600/P5190018.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479649246414606146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmeAM_pOQpRqXj18gF0euYoEQV0dXPH5G8Ko8z9_kxuuZHVQd_2fS8obPBcZA4o7_mxoHX-rY_e1qwk6DU-7aRzH-NSq18bfgopYvLvJ9vJKEogb023386Hz_EQE6tXMUv1opC_8LM45nI/s400/P5190018.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
What do we think, hosts? Are they delicious? They're looking pretty delicious!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEriiE4NtCP64PnfmQGBRJrT5cvGj5NHDYMYA9niboGv8opDmzvqBqdYoHoDhcQm2e2a4q1ClWHG1mhraRLN_O7tjaOg7I4fZdcpVGqNEKEOC7GBdtLxpqFSLBNLvT6rrRLd5wfpso-lK/s1600/P5190019.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479648713158641698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEriiE4NtCP64PnfmQGBRJrT5cvGj5NHDYMYA9niboGv8opDmzvqBqdYoHoDhcQm2e2a4q1ClWHG1mhraRLN_O7tjaOg7I4fZdcpVGqNEKEOC7GBdtLxpqFSLBNLvT6rrRLd5wfpso-lK/s400/P5190019.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And this: this is a very special Taiwan specialty. (Because you know how Asians love our regional specialties!) This is what they call 「豆花」. It's a tofu custard in a sweet ginger broth. What do you think. DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE DELICIOUS?<br />
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(<span style="font-style: italic;">Ride of the Valkyries</span>)<br />
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Female host: It looks pretty delicious.<br />
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Male host: I don't know. It might be OK, but I'm not quite sure it will be delicious. Sometimes you find things that look delicious but aren't.<br />
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Audience: EEEEEEeeeee?<br />
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Female host: Well, there's only one way to find out. (Tastes it. Her eyes get huge) DELICIOUS!<br />
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Male host: (Tastes) Pretty delicious<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPeFXUATHF0AGnrh3iwlOCh_xHc_pQeItUio5wljMKTw5rgJOmtjxI83BV26o3xmLvqPhgaMT4nJClAqqaiiiQxplfug2WR5jpFiIlelYahGJhkFO3_ickfazwwMUCYqjXxviX2pJTR4G/s1600/P5190021.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479648714109156850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPeFXUATHF0AGnrh3iwlOCh_xHc_pQeItUio5wljMKTw5rgJOmtjxI83BV26o3xmLvqPhgaMT4nJClAqqaiiiQxplfug2WR5jpFiIlelYahGJhkFO3_ickfazwwMUCYqjXxviX2pJTR4G/s400/P5190021.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
American guest eaters: TOTALLY DELICIOUS!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJjpodDX1ssHtXX87uS-QUJvtiWj-Zt2zyfBy6GX9bOnp_xImUBaQQ6l5a96EbFhfyY0kpHCVKx7R8M3EPklViun5eyGVRFdoh83yzGsGjIJNBVfVUNlwo3Dl0Q8rnJVYMhE7XS820tdI/s1600/%E3%82%84%E3%81%B0%E3%81%84.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479648729733044130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJjpodDX1ssHtXX87uS-QUJvtiWj-Zt2zyfBy6GX9bOnp_xImUBaQQ6l5a96EbFhfyY0kpHCVKx7R8M3EPklViun5eyGVRFdoh83yzGsGjIJNBVfVUNlwo3Dl0Q8rnJVYMhE7XS820tdI/s400/%E3%82%84%E3%81%B0%E3%81%84.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Demi and I give the douhua a try. Bright red letters flash on the screen: RISKY! RISKY! (<span style="font-style: italic;">Ride of the Valkyries</span>)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_vp9_d04WZxzwetbXPdu5G0359ER0cTHRsttS8S-e_q5AEmRsNVeEVFzEFpQFcDfor9-KhIlSOIvw_tBVG59uNdajhx4qjDobC6MSea2TLHjBGUd6DJpHwZMxwZm-jKmWcWpzNI5GYA_/s1600/P5190020.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479648719888153810" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4_vp9_d04WZxzwetbXPdu5G0359ER0cTHRsttS8S-e_q5AEmRsNVeEVFzEFpQFcDfor9-KhIlSOIvw_tBVG59uNdajhx4qjDobC6MSea2TLHjBGUd6DJpHwZMxwZm-jKmWcWpzNI5GYA_/s400/P5190020.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
But we're saved by the cute tofu icons that pop on screen with a charming little sound effect: "Boing!"<br />
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And guess what? IT'S DELICIOUS!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZ4lSn0nwfDik5N_LkNrkAe0Qyr8rOWYGVpb8wXRCd5s6plrxHOhcmYGz3xas0JKtI0-j4ZK6ZnWeJ3pIw8TzefXMSZtCPdiytoeUllfii_k4UuvkiucgFrJNZh13F0ZC2q0N_TeILR2Y/s1600/P5190022.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479648734206560482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZ4lSn0nwfDik5N_LkNrkAe0Qyr8rOWYGVpb8wXRCd5s6plrxHOhcmYGz3xas0JKtI0-j4ZK6ZnWeJ3pIw8TzefXMSZtCPdiytoeUllfii_k4UuvkiucgFrJNZh13F0ZC2q0N_TeILR2Y/s400/P5190022.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The last dish is the pièce de résistance. Mung bean (綠豆) noodles with beef. Cooked with some tender greens, bean sprouts and scallions. I'm not even exaggerating when I say it was....<br />
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<div style="color: #ff6666; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 180%;"><span style="color: red;">DELICIOUS!</span></span></div>
Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-9341766510151053052010-05-24T05:24:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:01:13.891-07:00Green Onion Pancakes: a love storyDivided by fate and longitude, these two lovers grew up in different worlds. She, a wild, independent spirit from the untamed American West; he, a silent, strong but tender warrior from the rugged shores of Formosa. But fate could not long separate two souls whose heartflames had been kindled in the same primordial love furnace.<br />
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And so it was that Montana Rose crossed an ocean, embarking on a new life for herself and destiny threw her in the path of Cong Zhua Bing, the passionate mute warrior of the Far East.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeU-O2YLqRzat2DWPgePMZ-18V2yGqNZpwsQJFSw0NCR379O7rzXEZUQZe9pD_Oa1aRRMDXQD_tiB0o_ocQvribZh0RN84_byUTBIWOibThgurcWQd0kqNSayF-GRCu1Cdn6nk6Vy5jY6/s1600/P5170001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812304750229954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeU-O2YLqRzat2DWPgePMZ-18V2yGqNZpwsQJFSw0NCR379O7rzXEZUQZe9pD_Oa1aRRMDXQD_tiB0o_ocQvribZh0RN84_byUTBIWOibThgurcWQd0kqNSayF-GRCu1Cdn6nk6Vy5jY6/s400/P5170001.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
He met her that first fateful day, unknowing, untrusting. His two cups of flour, pinch of sea salt and a cup of warm water were about to be transformed into nothing he had ever dared believe in; all with the touch of her tender hands. And some sesame oil.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhim2p1ARLf1_Knv7M3WMZ-k12OPDLv0P-uddE_yzxXwaLjp553nr5eESYGsEVL3gy94X4yyamUbFuHqDMO25idVnAmAzL7hkaLwD5_r-oU_z-MSbHLijf4riiDmKClySm2A0Ku6Q1kAMHN/s1600/P5170003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812300251358002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhim2p1ARLf1_Knv7M3WMZ-k12OPDLv0P-uddE_yzxXwaLjp553nr5eESYGsEVL3gy94X4yyamUbFuHqDMO25idVnAmAzL7hkaLwD5_r-oU_z-MSbHLijf4riiDmKClySm2A0Ku6Q1kAMHN/s400/P5170003.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Kneaded into a tender dough and slathered in oil...<br />
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um... you know what? The trashy romance novel* narrative was really funny for about 30 seconds but I think I'm gonna just stop right there.<br />
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On that note, let's dice some green onions.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXk_IkvCP5sD1jMNpR2cMcg3n7rPX6EfEzGnYzmXaM7-LxO4bGwWf9COCcJMd_r3dOWHy6Jj1XghbstlrICZyDXhlAY5T6QYFxf3vBhkYtcrZtv-yLpfE7iWb8ceTB912jT5HLOgq6VEC/s1600/P5170004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812207624685122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUXk_IkvCP5sD1jMNpR2cMcg3n7rPX6EfEzGnYzmXaM7-LxO4bGwWf9COCcJMd_r3dOWHy6Jj1XghbstlrICZyDXhlAY5T6QYFxf3vBhkYtcrZtv-yLpfE7iWb8ceTB912jT5HLOgq6VEC/s400/P5170004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
These aren't quite green onions; they're one of the other green onion cousins that hang out here in Asia but you know what? I think they're just dandy. Also, for this recipe there are too many of them. Even if they are your rugged soulmate you really only need so many.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgZOl8Kgl7xhpX-3AERAk88mi-4DENPf3g-Ckq11A4kFTnbT-HkmG_Y4NJMqgfKFYjZj5sNv00dvjVF5Ly-fNx_kG7yHeFyaM7gBZrUuihhqne2XaqwNR3JXheMTTQDpBeVwTnz1qDpD8/s1600/P5170005.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812204692649362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfgZOl8Kgl7xhpX-3AERAk88mi-4DENPf3g-Ckq11A4kFTnbT-HkmG_Y4NJMqgfKFYjZj5sNv00dvjVF5Ly-fNx_kG7yHeFyaM7gBZrUuihhqne2XaqwNR3JXheMTTQDpBeVwTnz1qDpD8/s400/P5170005.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This is my tiny little kitchen that I love.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwBJqcwP4lG4xArRZHS-OH7tu7ZAN0eD3QL5fTzmbnitohDm5SjCmsbcyLmuyfND6WMsexwQHCKaFEbqAJqXtRQrHLdZvSe3j70iRqBlLo0QUMT1XWByMxeWvrW5-GMBJjhjS9eZKqmM7w/s1600/P5170006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812201232208274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwBJqcwP4lG4xArRZHS-OH7tu7ZAN0eD3QL5fTzmbnitohDm5SjCmsbcyLmuyfND6WMsexwQHCKaFEbqAJqXtRQrHLdZvSe3j70iRqBlLo0QUMT1XWByMxeWvrW5-GMBJjhjS9eZKqmM7w/s400/P5170006.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I rolled the dough out into a 10" log<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjONTUMXswXh5lds9HQp8W-CNEIyO5GcrR1m2EbaotwrL6zWarwGrxVkdqrmLjPGE076zPhquREPOFs4PdPb-q4c7U7IWIPkykQ87pESJp6G-BS-bMKKnpV_dRE7c5PFNrK2YVkzVizLyFr/s1600/P5170007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812197224999586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjONTUMXswXh5lds9HQp8W-CNEIyO5GcrR1m2EbaotwrL6zWarwGrxVkdqrmLjPGE076zPhquREPOFs4PdPb-q4c7U7IWIPkykQ87pESJp6G-BS-bMKKnpV_dRE7c5PFNrK2YVkzVizLyFr/s400/P5170007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And sliced it into six pieces<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-iNvmOsY79C-oRuavOsIBJ_gMlKKt4rFzKwXAndsUtyJ-lEiy54HSikANjTyXMdcGlU8DGklzuKwENhcCNlsMkRLHdrWnpFI02f8OOHjAG5vQ-VbQtl1KQUtgIuD6of1tpagMG9rv2Qpk/s1600/P5170009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474812185442327570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-iNvmOsY79C-oRuavOsIBJ_gMlKKt4rFzKwXAndsUtyJ-lEiy54HSikANjTyXMdcGlU8DGklzuKwENhcCNlsMkRLHdrWnpFI02f8OOHjAG5vQ-VbQtl1KQUtgIuD6of1tpagMG9rv2Qpk/s400/P5170009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Then roll each slice into a rectangle and brush it with sesame oil (not too much!) and sprinkle it with 1/6 of your green onions. Loverboy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BiINl3-Cjwx67Gtp3xk-0BoU4qK7jC90JdMbHtdPmQGydZyauAqeY6LLcDIe3fMAG4IDVfHH0dgw65_DpAUTUYPH4kuDwCPeYa73ZwF4Ba4zhBBOjhggZ7I4Y3LgtgbAet1Lgk5_Ps9a/s1600/P5170010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474811738349670402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-BiINl3-Cjwx67Gtp3xk-0BoU4qK7jC90JdMbHtdPmQGydZyauAqeY6LLcDIe3fMAG4IDVfHH0dgw65_DpAUTUYPH4kuDwCPeYa73ZwF4Ba4zhBBOjhggZ7I4Y3LgtgbAet1Lgk5_Ps9a/s400/P5170010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Roll it all up as tight as you can,<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmPLvkw1mWl561aEGn_qC1iyxD1UIKCum64xrc32j-U7HJ9Sk-0zuBnKbYVS0mcOyZXWMqjBPjptk05x2iM1e2K7ip5I_-Xl-4Plo8MD99mDOMpqgIaADUG1hoIVUMcshoroMaDld1YY74/s1600/P5170012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474811729188709010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmPLvkw1mWl561aEGn_qC1iyxD1UIKCum64xrc32j-U7HJ9Sk-0zuBnKbYVS0mcOyZXWMqjBPjptk05x2iM1e2K7ip5I_-Xl-4Plo8MD99mDOMpqgIaADUG1hoIVUMcshoroMaDld1YY74/s400/P5170012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And then roll the whole tube into a spiral. Then you roll this out as flat as you can get it. If you have some measure of skill you won't bust open all the dough and get the green onions spilling out and the excess oil squirting all over your rolling surface and generally making your life hard. I, of course, have all sorts of measures of skill. No doubt.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTM-fiL3BLrlISsls3e7o8W-9F0q23ln_o51caAamCRy9eEsUsWwIclzbbx4NZEh5zSNOIznCb2tAevJic1WC34N0gcQe6u94UvKR5_KqWU_X9PTZX4VmblsV328YalBPWRyJJET7wtjIB/s1600/P5170013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474811722491871442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTM-fiL3BLrlISsls3e7o8W-9F0q23ln_o51caAamCRy9eEsUsWwIclzbbx4NZEh5zSNOIznCb2tAevJic1WC34N0gcQe6u94UvKR5_KqWU_X9PTZX4VmblsV328YalBPWRyJJET7wtjIB/s400/P5170013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I stacked them on plastic wrap to freeze four of them because I could only eat two for breakfast that day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gp7JFwREc3yj74k_3Y4OvhdRJdniLFAh5v82g2YAUMoN2oM4rfFUlzylHHc8VTwGs1Um1Mh9K3dWkp7Qh6PtqaePX6ZyUIuYjsCkYDyeu3pdKOOxS_oz3WB5h7srYXRHMw1txiRz9ob1/s1600/P5170015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474811719685768946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gp7JFwREc3yj74k_3Y4OvhdRJdniLFAh5v82g2YAUMoN2oM4rfFUlzylHHc8VTwGs1Um1Mh9K3dWkp7Qh6PtqaePX6ZyUIuYjsCkYDyeu3pdKOOxS_oz3WB5h7srYXRHMw1txiRz9ob1/s400/P5170015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Fry them up in a little vegetable oil until they're lovely, tan and ready to do whatever you ask of them. At this point it's also quite lovely to fry an egg on top.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0U8SxJqRszsgCaNs9uQyg_tebavfeFpCoymUMxjNBH-GmLlcoIujUMI-h7CPgsN-TVu8e6PASo95moxw8KWkwx9BDbspDhK7WAKtJNbLW7col2UdPf7FTu4NGJJSnZHASuJdk0bKTnVja/s1600/P5170016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474811712740663714" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0U8SxJqRszsgCaNs9uQyg_tebavfeFpCoymUMxjNBH-GmLlcoIujUMI-h7CPgsN-TVu8e6PASo95moxw8KWkwx9BDbspDhK7WAKtJNbLW7col2UdPf7FTu4NGJJSnZHASuJdk0bKTnVja/s400/P5170016.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Drizzle them with some soy sauce paste (it's like soy sauce, but he <span style="font-style: italic;">means</span> it.)<br />
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And all those years of waiting, yearning for your one true love will have been worth it as he takes you in his muscular arms and . . . shoves a piece of green onion pancake in your mouth.<br />
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* <span style="font-size: 85%;">I do NOT read trashy romance novels. However, I had a friend in high school who did and I perfected the art of stealing them off her desk and reading the synopsis off the back in a very dramatic voice. There's quite the formula to success: name your heroine after a flower or a semi-precious gemstone, make her live somewhere exotic and forbidding (the Mojave desert, the wind-whipped Scottish highlands, the murky rivers of Abyssinia, Queens) and give her a wild independent temperament, never to be tamed. Also, her eyes should be the color of a semi-precious gemstone NOT the same as her first name. The guy has to be stoic and silent, unwilling to settle down until he is tamed by that one wild heart with the tender hands and topaz eyes of fire. Also, use the word <span style="font-style: italic;">rogue</span> at least once. Magic! Heart-pounding literary magic!</span>Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-39350249361073822162010-05-24T04:20:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:01:25.529-07:00Taiwan BirthdayThere are different love languages. Maybe you've heard of these - you know. Some people show their love with words of affirmation, some with quality time, some with physical affection. Some people show their love with giant mountains of food.<br />
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Taiwanese people and I speak the same language.<br />
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Clark and Claudie and I put together a birthday party for me this weekend. By "put together" I mean that they took me to Costco and refused to let me pay for things and then when I had cooked a giant mountain of food they went out and bought some more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_4ppqnDUxaT3_d-T4Ljayq2VBYB-PyJeXbtGqT5AeM5TqBW7jna2LHetRwviipJTX3g0gFku5XWWUf7mTkhl0f16P_K3PJIZvTzjpbKg0uQXY_tqW6gWDWrXQcYTBdqij0N3AbQYoWm98/s1600/P5220018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795364720228978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_4ppqnDUxaT3_d-T4Ljayq2VBYB-PyJeXbtGqT5AeM5TqBW7jna2LHetRwviipJTX3g0gFku5XWWUf7mTkhl0f16P_K3PJIZvTzjpbKg0uQXY_tqW6gWDWrXQcYTBdqij0N3AbQYoWm98/s400/P5220018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
One of the tastiest mountains of food were the sweet potato fries. I used these Taiwanese di gua, sliced them into thin wedges, and did the <a href="http://culinaryadventuresinthechinesehouse.blogspot.com/2010/02/chipper.html">fry twice trick</a>. They came out <span style="font-style: italic;">amazing</span>. Soft in the middle - crispy and even puffy on the outside - the outer layer puffed into a little skin. All it was was sweet potatoes, oil and a little salt.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZ-RbsloENzWh_1iy2GfZhfURO07ORvGD6EA-HRkqDD1emaGgEuJWKyq6CURbY2atwTEdsVkzHQ6xa8zUmLz6EnAci2haTKr24XZi__xJLeLJa_TJS1elTlfoEIAOVMzZ7bf98cajEjQN/s1600/P5220019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795361128645986" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmZ-RbsloENzWh_1iy2GfZhfURO07ORvGD6EA-HRkqDD1emaGgEuJWKyq6CURbY2atwTEdsVkzHQ6xa8zUmLz6EnAci2haTKr24XZi__xJLeLJa_TJS1elTlfoEIAOVMzZ7bf98cajEjQN/s400/P5220019.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here's the beginnings of the food, including the fruits of Costco. In the distance you might notice little squares of wheat toast with chevre cheese. For the record, Asians are not particularly fond of chevre. And I now own like a kilogram of it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD54SOIjjU2t-JwivsCdvc0ur5Sk7-DvahpSIcVA2VU9-D9iAfd1S-VEGoVlVaT6ytBvcgwZPpX9uAgDezpS4w7Gy47BuA0FyMp6myjvfkazWm73wOuedw9F7EWbYO46EDUaBBTIOgI7Uv/s1600/P5220021.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795355158382178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD54SOIjjU2t-JwivsCdvc0ur5Sk7-DvahpSIcVA2VU9-D9iAfd1S-VEGoVlVaT6ytBvcgwZPpX9uAgDezpS4w7Gy47BuA0FyMp6myjvfkazWm73wOuedw9F7EWbYO46EDUaBBTIOgI7Uv/s400/P5220021.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Peking duck! Not even kidding (that's those two plates in the upper right). The sliced meat you roll up in the little flour skins with a spring of green onion - the rest of the duck is all diced up for you to eat.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBGRnkUH4y2858eNF6Z7O4deHmf43sOaRuOheR3SBKFANv7Ii9gyqklxqj6_nWqAF7ZGDsXqnInIYSn7MhmrlgJ6rW8jKWqsXznkGfIZaG4Dqeb6Y66JI30DDlvoiZyRtokw1rMbgAZHU/s1600/P5220022.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795128310201570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBGRnkUH4y2858eNF6Z7O4deHmf43sOaRuOheR3SBKFANv7Ii9gyqklxqj6_nWqAF7ZGDsXqnInIYSn7MhmrlgJ6rW8jKWqsXznkGfIZaG4Dqeb6Y66JI30DDlvoiZyRtokw1rMbgAZHU/s400/P5220022.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Clark and Claudie had watched me dice the <a href="http://culinaryadventuresinthechinesehouse.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-post.html">kinpira gobo</a> and were just sure I was going to cut my fingers off. "Don't they sell it already sliced?" Probably somewhere. But then I would lose my street cred.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpQL480QrX4egU3qFpHHxu7Oub-48LEhEAQRkOv9N0l-W5Hb4T9NHRl3GDO0N4iszJIN-NwTnrSQEO49BrCnhv5QuaEVToVXQJXGwS5j0MT56nvwjLO4-DEtpXl5mDE0JFxLsPmE1lY_h/s1600/P5220023.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795123063232610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpQL480QrX4egU3qFpHHxu7Oub-48LEhEAQRkOv9N0l-W5Hb4T9NHRl3GDO0N4iszJIN-NwTnrSQEO49BrCnhv5QuaEVToVXQJXGwS5j0MT56nvwjLO4-DEtpXl5mDE0JFxLsPmE1lY_h/s400/P5220023.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here we are with the gloves that come with the karaage chicken. OK, it's not karaage, that's a Japanese thing, but whatever they called it sounded exactly like that and I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I asked my boss the specifics today and she said it's also called Shui Tong Chicken. Shui Tong means "bucket." Because you . . . cook it in a bucket? The specifics are evading me here. But you pull it apart and eat it with your hands and dip it in a sauce with some spices. I think it was five spice. The smell of five spice might be one of the most magical things in the world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLYmdD0DF3kETWZd83Z5Lo2ICP-l4v6t_I4UYg_7f6jNpbPPUbG2JtuMqCk_HW0eKqw09Sl3KNhnIZcboOgddebantJvODvUqwdUBrQP3yM-m1PgPHlqMGdQOyLNu2mmmWjE0A62Z38KY/s1600/P5220025.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795115293214898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGLYmdD0DF3kETWZd83Z5Lo2ICP-l4v6t_I4UYg_7f6jNpbPPUbG2JtuMqCk_HW0eKqw09Sl3KNhnIZcboOgddebantJvODvUqwdUBrQP3yM-m1PgPHlqMGdQOyLNu2mmmWjE0A62Z38KY/s400/P5220025.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here we are, after not having been able to eat everything.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmA1H5xCaA4tb0Zu-PcjY7a0SgX9Qv2KS2myGk2AcRJ_meNdnY19uPWpmSCg02DDz1SC6ibxU2kNruQyDHAYgX2hVgvWez7GGNUUAtgaC1xx5tVkYcyfqDkvRIzijY9FoyG2KIXieIO2ks/s1600/P5220027.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795109186447122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmA1H5xCaA4tb0Zu-PcjY7a0SgX9Qv2KS2myGk2AcRJ_meNdnY19uPWpmSCg02DDz1SC6ibxU2kNruQyDHAYgX2hVgvWez7GGNUUAtgaC1xx5tVkYcyfqDkvRIzijY9FoyG2KIXieIO2ks/s400/P5220027.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Jessica came later and brought me a cake with a mercifully ambiguous candle atop.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz-0XV19T0_zUt1ZpFM3Ojy34LlIUSe6j_P-RSrTVWhig07hF9lKlV-BbWVu7K7vdbm9xP-HTzXOuE7IcX4gFZthihPdIBAzkTWHjhmN6048_5UTqSsn1fgDN9m9q-vN0Wkbhc3_BJYZN/s1600/P5220028.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474795106578293970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaz-0XV19T0_zUt1ZpFM3Ojy34LlIUSe6j_P-RSrTVWhig07hF9lKlV-BbWVu7K7vdbm9xP-HTzXOuE7IcX4gFZthihPdIBAzkTWHjhmN6048_5UTqSsn1fgDN9m9q-vN0Wkbhc3_BJYZN/s400/P5220028.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Lovely, fine people who speak my language fluently.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-76124940157561779242010-05-16T04:52:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:01:47.364-07:00Banana-Cacao Heavy Mushipan Torte with Okinawan Black Sugar GlazeDoesn't it sound totally exquisite when I call it that? Actually what it was was something I made up because I bought too many bananas and they were ripening faster than I could use them. The title is just to be pretentious.<br />
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Friday morning I made crêpes for Clark and Claudie (with chopsticks! They don't have a whisk so I used chopsticks! I'm rather proud of myself) and brought some to school for Demi to repay all three of them for various kindnesses. Demi had taken me shopping the night before to buy the stuff and we were in downtown Zhubei where there is a giant Carrefour grocery store. Imagine a huge, extravagant grocery store, as big or bigger as any you'll find in America, but this one is full of <span style="font-style: italic;">Asian</span> food. I know. Be still my soul, right? Anyway - the problem with the Carrefour is that they had all kinds of delicious fresh Taiwanese fruit, but it was all in very large quantities. But I bought the bananas thinking "I can eat a lot of bananas, right?" Well, I can, but they were sneaky and had progeny overnight when I wasn't looking.<br />
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I also bought three Ghana chocolate bars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqaiSItE8itZHzhn6_LTU3KAPsxpR86OsAdG5CO_n9_3tyWoaB9K_4KaheMrhTdTmhIrO8TLaekrWl_zJBmKMRzyNf6eGH44YA3huXL2W5IYC-xSwU-mAgvosKmT1A2fiHhxTJO1AoE0a/s1600/ghana_blackSM.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471836874382909474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCqaiSItE8itZHzhn6_LTU3KAPsxpR86OsAdG5CO_n9_3tyWoaB9K_4KaheMrhTdTmhIrO8TLaekrWl_zJBmKMRzyNf6eGH44YA3huXL2W5IYC-xSwU-mAgvosKmT1A2fiHhxTJO1AoE0a/s400/ghana_blackSM.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 183px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The Japanese don't mess around with their candy. It's not just <span style="font-style: italic;">dark</span> chocolate, it's <span style="font-style: italic;">black</span> chocolate. This makes me exceedingly happy. Finding Japanese chocolate in Taiwan also makes me exceedingly happy. So far, I haven't seen as much Taiwanese candy as I have imported stuff from Japan, but I see no reason to complain about this.<br />
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Anyway, this side note is getting way too long. Suffice it to say that I ended up with leftover melted chocolate in a double boiler I had cobbled together and knew I had to wash before Clark and Claudie got home from Gaoxiong this evening, and that and the three remaining bananas were pricking at my heart.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12WqHix0v6QIj0Qys4pKGdWK__M3irOnwbJ7D9qsQuMZa54dksmyenQf4d7eL56PkJgy5z42Xe6epVQbCRI2jRvOjx6ylJ30EDM1q9K-yawtb-_DQ_R2_cf05W3Gho3Q0md7fSkrGnpRo/s1600/P5160045.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471835081283358610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12WqHix0v6QIj0Qys4pKGdWK__M3irOnwbJ7D9qsQuMZa54dksmyenQf4d7eL56PkJgy5z42Xe6epVQbCRI2jRvOjx6ylJ30EDM1q9K-yawtb-_DQ_R2_cf05W3Gho3Q0md7fSkrGnpRo/s400/P5160045.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxm4nPsTLsotANpxGR5y8zVd0nQdB5ik3P1el1_OhqyHmROe8wX5cPSv8zw4dbf3mQCfeH2_DgGqKwfa3ScYy0dxqtjHWhhkZRzT4Z6HPkIATEDfWCfGvtfHfETvs2l4Q2lFlzneCL8sS/s1600/P5160048.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471835072071520642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxm4nPsTLsotANpxGR5y8zVd0nQdB5ik3P1el1_OhqyHmROe8wX5cPSv8zw4dbf3mQCfeH2_DgGqKwfa3ScYy0dxqtjHWhhkZRzT4Z6HPkIATEDfWCfGvtfHfETvs2l4Q2lFlzneCL8sS/s400/P5160048.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
"Use me! Be frugal! Don't be a food waster! Where are your principles?" I hate it when your food talks to you.<br />
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So, the leftover chocolate was probably one bar's worth, and I had one remaining bar in the fridge, so two bars of chocolate. How big are those bars? 75 grams? OK, you do the math. So I melted them again and added the three bananas, mashed up but still with some big chunks. I then stirred in two eggs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlX_v83Oy7QMdsgD1wbTXebLvwWM1MUJPhjaiKkQjzpvaBz29XufbnY_DkuXh0kkC5zTPx710gcyG0zsQLqOQINBJBtGxLQ2la9knEmYn6uES6rA39LZ-CZwdzUwZ7YIONhghFk8rdqQLu/s1600/P5160051.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471835056547100226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlX_v83Oy7QMdsgD1wbTXebLvwWM1MUJPhjaiKkQjzpvaBz29XufbnY_DkuXh0kkC5zTPx710gcyG0zsQLqOQINBJBtGxLQ2la9knEmYn6uES6rA39LZ-CZwdzUwZ7YIONhghFk8rdqQLu/s400/P5160051.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Then, remember how we don't have ovens here? So I decided to make a mushipan. Mushipan means "steamed bread," but it sounds really pretentious if I don't translate it. You can cook cakes with steam too. They're lovely and moist. This was going to be a lovely moist steamed cake. Except remember how no one bakes here? So I scoured the kitchen and didn't find a trace of baking powder or baking soda. (Do you know the difference between baking powder and baking soda? Baking powder is 25% baking soda, 25% cream of tartar and 50% corn starch. The Baking soda is a base and the cream of tartar is an acid and the corn starch is to keep them from reacting with each other until they get wet. If you use baking soda, then you should add something acidic. The fruit would have probably been sufficient. OK, that's your kitchen lesson for the day.) So that's why this became a heavy mushipan torte - because I didn't have any leavening, so I pretended the denseness was on purpose. Like a cooked custard, sort of. See how being gourmet works? You just make up titles for your failures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikiZ-N4JVZ4Dj8aTkuuFCJDmSmQND-qqOF8mwTh7Wr7F8L9NkXPT4ZUM7kK2ngoKrheROoTFeuTA_xL0Va9XOppm0d7Q_VwEdVLS9xUJGFQvEKwBXGbwMJ7MQoS1SjwSgWcJHMvNPf_hxQ/s1600/P5160050.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471835065372304306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikiZ-N4JVZ4Dj8aTkuuFCJDmSmQND-qqOF8mwTh7Wr7F8L9NkXPT4ZUM7kK2ngoKrheROoTFeuTA_xL0Va9XOppm0d7Q_VwEdVLS9xUJGFQvEKwBXGbwMJ7MQoS1SjwSgWcJHMvNPf_hxQ/s400/P5160050.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Anyway, I used this little bowl - hopefully you can tell the scale by looking at this dainty little stick of New Zealand butter next to it.<br />
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I then added some flour but I forgot to take a picture of how much. Maybe... 2 cups? At the most. Somewhere between 1 and 2 cups. Until it's this consistency:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKPmHMZsBbzUbuoa9Z6hpwu7zhPngV7PxQcC-vp2bjvqcZBWgTj7IA1h0Q-mz6y7Nk65Y2XeI0nRI-4hgWA6Dvga1xqMo4tvGhyphenhyphencHJxTyrL4u9LNQ2ccNkEqMoB0wYWa8YKtQEJosPPvQ/s1600/P5160053.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471835054883745266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheKPmHMZsBbzUbuoa9Z6hpwu7zhPngV7PxQcC-vp2bjvqcZBWgTj7IA1h0Q-mz6y7Nk65Y2XeI0nRI-4hgWA6Dvga1xqMo4tvGhyphenhyphencHJxTyrL4u9LNQ2ccNkEqMoB0wYWa8YKtQEJosPPvQ/s400/P5160053.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
(I had buttered the little bowl but it turned out to be a little hard to get out, so if I were doing it again I would butter and flour it.) Then I put it on this rack in the wok with water up to right below the rack. Then I turned it on to as low as the stoves here go, which isn't very low. I put the lid on it and let it boil its little heart out.<br />
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I added some more water a couple times and I cooked it for probably 20 minutes total - until I stuck a fork in its firm little belly and it came out clean.<br />
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This is what the finished cake looked like:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJSp4BSCSCCHz300mEmulaoPlN5iR3S_5BYRG25XzH9E5bUHV4dSA9XCSarSoNoXO8zlKe87SwVjoQTIkYtLD1JBqMfDtngb4ye8VCqCONDDkVTyNuKbvrNwNVl64wrUJB8ZC35oF7byt/s1600/P5160065.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471834751889385474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuJSp4BSCSCCHz300mEmulaoPlN5iR3S_5BYRG25XzH9E5bUHV4dSA9XCSarSoNoXO8zlKe87SwVjoQTIkYtLD1JBqMfDtngb4ye8VCqCONDDkVTyNuKbvrNwNVl64wrUJB8ZC35oF7byt/s400/P5160065.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I was actually surprised at how pretty it looked when I took it out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUaMLSVySp1XbOKhyphenhyphenx9yq7CRpgyP9TUjW1TE98Ug6OPufuXYnya9HywHfMK4Ub5E3U1DVS-QzzqsazCX6T4FUAgTgzy_8TDIV-MQuNBkklsC935RC0zLRO-rpFEejDRkLGUbi-xSussDA9/s1600/P5160067.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471834746519075458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUaMLSVySp1XbOKhyphenhyphenx9yq7CRpgyP9TUjW1TE98Ug6OPufuXYnya9HywHfMK4Ub5E3U1DVS-QzzqsazCX6T4FUAgTgzy_8TDIV-MQuNBkklsC935RC0zLRO-rpFEejDRkLGUbi-xSussDA9/s400/P5160067.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The chocolate and bananas were all the sweetening I added, and it was the subtle sweet that Asians (and I) love, but I decided it could use just a tad more sweetness. Which is where I thought of the Okinawan Black Sugar glaze.<br />
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I can't figure out what's the difference between black sugar and our brown sugar except that black sugar is probably more molassesy - more raw. I wonder if you can get anything like it in the States. It's exquisite.<br />
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So I just took this much black sugar and quickly melted it in the bottom of a saucepan:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjO7G2CR3MA4JUdb00UFomUdwEXPex95e_bwxYO6uNe9wvG9jLcdCekk36x1Q9WyKZLPBCcrUHawwGATQueVuQXyZHblIz5fXOThnW4eUQXl4ZCABu-3Lc3l3B4IkNOc2z6mmI5HIiZdY/s1600/P5160071.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471834738348320514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpjO7G2CR3MA4JUdb00UFomUdwEXPex95e_bwxYO6uNe9wvG9jLcdCekk36x1Q9WyKZLPBCcrUHawwGATQueVuQXyZHblIz5fXOThnW4eUQXl4ZCABu-3Lc3l3B4IkNOc2z6mmI5HIiZdY/s400/P5160071.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I added a little pat of butter and a splash of milk, but you gotta work really fast, just until the sugar is dissolved. It actually made a little crunchy hunk of candy on the back of the spoon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpww02gPl0QSNVOSZLppDRoR6NoF0RYXh-clvGPSTwBgOl_fI2l0GaRoqiTpLmLGGeetLs64XfCxGVIf84heReLnzSO8RZGVgJK9AmcK7GLqoTa3SK3xhSH-kp5Ml2wBCNTE-4y3fu9T-2/s1600/P5160072.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471834736417508242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpww02gPl0QSNVOSZLppDRoR6NoF0RYXh-clvGPSTwBgOl_fI2l0GaRoqiTpLmLGGeetLs64XfCxGVIf84heReLnzSO8RZGVgJK9AmcK7GLqoTa3SK3xhSH-kp5Ml2wBCNTE-4y3fu9T-2/s400/P5160072.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
It was just enough to pour on the top of the little cake. Lovely! And then Demi came and picked me up and took me to Zhang Jiemei's house where she cooked unearthly Chinese food for dinner and the three of us sat around and chatted while their little boys played in the living room. The two of them told me stories of boyfriends and marriage and both told me how to decide who to marry but they disagreed with each other. And at the end we ate a little slice of Banana-Cacao Heavy Mushipan Torte with Okinawan Black Sugar Glaze and they really liked it. A lovely end to a lovely Sabbath day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVq6WyX4Gsmn6iL-ySZvhBU8fARcScEL21X6shYJ-bEoFZuK0vlTWaPws0gxTCPhZ0cvfwBbwK0W3oL8bBMSiUrZ-yP_qgmodEjAvpr1krQMb-X8klF7-cCGODp7dxb7xIgHib3hyTK6e/s1600/P5160075.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471834723337905778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVq6WyX4Gsmn6iL-ySZvhBU8fARcScEL21X6shYJ-bEoFZuK0vlTWaPws0gxTCPhZ0cvfwBbwK0W3oL8bBMSiUrZ-yP_qgmodEjAvpr1krQMb-X8klF7-cCGODp7dxb7xIgHib3hyTK6e/s400/P5160075.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-88604314601216192032010-05-12T04:51:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:02:21.933-07:00Adventures in Processed FoodI'm a very healthy eater. Right? Yes. I'm very 養身, which is a word that Clark and Claudie taught me on the way to school yesterday when I was asking them about whether or not Taiwanese people eat whole wheat bread. They told me that 養身 people do, and then explained what that meant, and then asked how we say that in English and the closest I could come up with was "health nut." I told them that I like to be pretty 養身 myself. And then I went shopping when I got home that afternoon and decided that it was time to try all of the weird processed food I could find.<br />
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(How do you say "hypocrite" in Chinese?)<br />
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Here are the fruits of my discovery so far:<br />
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"Seaweed sushi" flavored Lay's. Yes!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNb1evheLrh14A1e_yZOxlVUqcMb20KvED_OU3QRXTwTVifyJTmwL7X1mKsi7XekYKffoo2rzG1wZFCGcA31I27Gys8iinJzoPn7L-v9XEQrJAMJCnztf3GW0XzB-UGExdNQyOJ_fOwDC2/s1600/P5100004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350616701736466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNb1evheLrh14A1e_yZOxlVUqcMb20KvED_OU3QRXTwTVifyJTmwL7X1mKsi7XekYKffoo2rzG1wZFCGcA31I27Gys8iinJzoPn7L-v9XEQrJAMJCnztf3GW0XzB-UGExdNQyOJ_fOwDC2/s400/P5100004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
I bought these because I really had to. "Lonely God potato twists." I mean, I at least wanted to know how lonely gods eat. I guess they graduated from angel food cake.<br />
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Let me tell you, though, if I'm ever a god I hope I have lots of friends because being a lonely god is <span style="font-style: italic;">disgusting</span>!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbv3nFw2-r7Qhq6Bt900QQoR9qWH43rD-mRW2jTkwBYKDxZpaCmkzw3GuCnZJBc5t6NadBANQqz0rGvp3Rfh_xlLchKp_qaUkt0Zx0iw1bQ0Uk97PnPBMiL3JWIkZB9AdSrNNyJq-3Jbj2/s1600/P5100005.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350609315848834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbv3nFw2-r7Qhq6Bt900QQoR9qWH43rD-mRW2jTkwBYKDxZpaCmkzw3GuCnZJBc5t6NadBANQqz0rGvp3Rfh_xlLchKp_qaUkt0Zx0iw1bQ0Uk97PnPBMiL3JWIkZB9AdSrNNyJq-3Jbj2/s400/P5100005.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
I bought these not because they were extremely novel, but because their name was so awesome. "Qi duo-" sounds like "Cheeto," but it also means "really weird." I actually like how they taste, though; they're like American Cheetos with half the flavor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiMVKJbgpE6smdfkzg-tSX3FXfdS7EcT4ZPxmVD2BQa_rv8KSP1-FehVMxV5ejE-8OFLJxbgBiqnhtA_M8Qv13402mtk3Xib5N-9_cbmmzbYP2AMuAk0PNdOQO507yOqftlbcDRvIz1eO/s1600/P5100006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350478471334114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZiMVKJbgpE6smdfkzg-tSX3FXfdS7EcT4ZPxmVD2BQa_rv8KSP1-FehVMxV5ejE-8OFLJxbgBiqnhtA_M8Qv13402mtk3Xib5N-9_cbmmzbYP2AMuAk0PNdOQO507yOqftlbcDRvIz1eO/s400/P5100006.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
I bought these next to the coughdrops. They're gummies, covered in crystally sugar, but they taste kind of minty... not like mint, more like ginseng, but with something that makes your mouth cold like mint. Would you like to know <a href="http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/52885">why mint makes your mouth feel cold</a>? I thought so.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EqY-2TdrElMOPpoDQcJeV5NJiar3De84zM9B-0ccHAhrvldgNPdbccH-lmiy5rQBUQZZLdqEMeo02W2wiGsCkS7yMIrimGlEHXK7sE8skjyz2ufHnSvvelwJ7DbqYJ-9yslVf8wIjFGp/s1600/P5100009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350470132717058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9EqY-2TdrElMOPpoDQcJeV5NJiar3De84zM9B-0ccHAhrvldgNPdbccH-lmiy5rQBUQZZLdqEMeo02W2wiGsCkS7yMIrimGlEHXK7sE8skjyz2ufHnSvvelwJ7DbqYJ-9yslVf8wIjFGp/s400/P5100009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
And some chewy fruit candies (yay for Asia and chewy fruit candies!) that are so sour they make your face cute.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh127oB3A2L97iv9C-6GjuXXQcRnYetFL8ihjwEhITsr0GL28lJ7ckg0rDRJP-yvi5AAjRKnDhxnpZgjclwsgPnneeznaJYMtYS_glFK4TRzz6DKU5SC4ofgXZgwcsavJ40n8bRnAHPboym/s1600/P5100010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350462340943426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh127oB3A2L97iv9C-6GjuXXQcRnYetFL8ihjwEhITsr0GL28lJ7ckg0rDRJP-yvi5AAjRKnDhxnpZgjclwsgPnneeznaJYMtYS_glFK4TRzz6DKU5SC4ofgXZgwcsavJ40n8bRnAHPboym/s400/P5100010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Now this, my friends, is what we call "Don't go shopping if you're illiterate." Or at least hold out for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_baby">items whose contents are clearly illustrated on the label</a>. Because you think since you're in the candy section you're buying milk candy (huzzah for milk candy!) but instead you come home with calcium tablets. Oh well. I could probably use the calcium anyway. Sometimes I suck on them to remind myself of the ability of my mouth detect really weird tastes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLt4zo4bh2R5zZhcGxduOzvWOGz6gkxkA1uruV2Zpb2AGPvU9sW0yHw0PxfFak9X-QrDHZ3XOV6V0Xx_HxsHaPSqewozI46f5WRFNkBpVWErKOlH0IiGgmGy8Tr_H-TManA0pBqdBvX93/s1600/P5100011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350453175967554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLt4zo4bh2R5zZhcGxduOzvWOGz6gkxkA1uruV2Zpb2AGPvU9sW0yHw0PxfFak9X-QrDHZ3XOV6V0Xx_HxsHaPSqewozI46f5WRFNkBpVWErKOlH0IiGgmGy8Tr_H-TManA0pBqdBvX93/s400/P5100011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Truth in labeling... what do we think of this entry? If it contained actual offal, I actually wouldn't be all that surprised. (Let's just say one thing about Taiwanesse cuisine: It's a good thing I have 13 year olds who teach me the meaning of words like 大腸 before I go out to get lunch at the side of the road.) Turns out it only contains too-sweet chocolate, something crispy and the ubiquitous peanut cream.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_NeqmSLsg5rxZCVVrks2nd4U-aHJRxKYQLmLG11e91eI5LWIa3MWyNlJ-QkEpzTtwpXPWjWdCPbj6WmOlCo7LuQI5ziVSgEtEUx_HN11r_cDQiSc3dUukJ4Uzj6T0zEfcG-R12WwjuSu/s1600/P5110012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350447326189234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN_NeqmSLsg5rxZCVVrks2nd4U-aHJRxKYQLmLG11e91eI5LWIa3MWyNlJ-QkEpzTtwpXPWjWdCPbj6WmOlCo7LuQI5ziVSgEtEUx_HN11r_cDQiSc3dUukJ4Uzj6T0zEfcG-R12WwjuSu/s400/P5110012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
OK, I'm sorry for ruining the nice Whole Foods Karma you had swirling around you. Let's take you back to some nice, wholesome whole foods to re-center your qi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUkTMRS8hWMq2N9j4EPvMU1ETkAdj54IFfwyZl5mSolxcF27dfZKEcfhUNNLbNcA3xiUa4eQU6U9zhSBXESLvb6wLvB5Nosogu76thfk3n8AV5CPxNqTKGli_d9hsQ6GfN32J1Qv_lHffa/s1600/P5110014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350182174117890" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUkTMRS8hWMq2N9j4EPvMU1ETkAdj54IFfwyZl5mSolxcF27dfZKEcfhUNNLbNcA3xiUa4eQU6U9zhSBXESLvb6wLvB5Nosogu76thfk3n8AV5CPxNqTKGli_d9hsQ6GfN32J1Qv_lHffa/s400/P5110014.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
"We use everything but the cluck!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83SIMbSE-afyjxb9xJdeLR5wMc7qr2A3JnuWlxVEEvjPV_MD_JVew8PN__7Dn0bmTCwNk0ReTyp5LApjB4WlemsvJZTpTQMW0AHznXkA0sZRaPA_Jo_YbXtMrUh9Gg4suFLSjS4zJEEfP/s1600/P5110015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350172375148370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83SIMbSE-afyjxb9xJdeLR5wMc7qr2A3JnuWlxVEEvjPV_MD_JVew8PN__7Dn0bmTCwNk0ReTyp5LApjB4WlemsvJZTpTQMW0AHznXkA0sZRaPA_Jo_YbXtMrUh9Gg4suFLSjS4zJEEfP/s400/P5110015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And we'll cap things off with my dinner tonight, which was created from things I had in the fridge. Things I had in the fridge included day-old rice, green onions, eggs and Hokkaido Cream Stew roux. (I rejoice in Japanese things and I buy them out of sheer nostalgia)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8r8rs1wqc4oS5wfiawmshle2vkrXhb_0YLiB9daffVX_DRFFL20DU049MVMEyodpSoNAwiJUmbIzEEurMnBHziZUEELRDuSVr-UFD5MVVQ-wxLgU0i_uscMkUOpAdPWSvBnFmN_I4umb/s1600/P5120019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350167559116802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8r8rs1wqc4oS5wfiawmshle2vkrXhb_0YLiB9daffVX_DRFFL20DU049MVMEyodpSoNAwiJUmbIzEEurMnBHziZUEELRDuSVr-UFD5MVVQ-wxLgU0i_uscMkUOpAdPWSvBnFmN_I4umb/s400/P5120019.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I scrambled the egg, added a little salt and fried it in the bottom of the wok, and when it was done and in big pieces (I'm not so into eating the mealy or wet eggs that some people enjoy) I threw in the big-chopped green onions. When they had cooked a little, I added the rice and then some water and a cube of the cream stew roux. It turned out fantastic!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDikdFyI83rNRPK8FQxpnrWDALBfi1zMzyAfQnvRyO1cNqWC3AbbPPxE-Fsz1ty5j7-5W_Gypid1ssfLAODVnGK7-UmpasbPqmw5TPbjDXxwwI6SoZ99_EYFDwHCRlMLw6KtMSlIP6mpYp/s1600/P5120018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350155853683314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDikdFyI83rNRPK8FQxpnrWDALBfi1zMzyAfQnvRyO1cNqWC3AbbPPxE-Fsz1ty5j7-5W_Gypid1ssfLAODVnGK7-UmpasbPqmw5TPbjDXxwwI6SoZ99_EYFDwHCRlMLw6KtMSlIP6mpYp/s400/P5120018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I accompanied it with a warm mug of bee pollen, which will either kill me or cure me (more on that another time), and a weird fruit that is best described as a very small honeydew melon. Except not sweet enough. But it's OK, baby, <span style="font-style: italic;">you're</span> sweet enough.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoNg4qyEiqMJEFNRr_VueXhUgtxa_oK-AxLJLsBnzh4a2qgHwbXfcAa9M-P2DRNMGRv9nxlwgkND49QPAiSFo3aVtYe0jhqJsShGzVfrbBxDWDnzaCwy6GNW1L2tXNTUNlHs0Pt2TxKJv/s1600/P5120020.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470350148791127010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSoNg4qyEiqMJEFNRr_VueXhUgtxa_oK-AxLJLsBnzh4a2qgHwbXfcAa9M-P2DRNMGRv9nxlwgkND49QPAiSFo3aVtYe0jhqJsShGzVfrbBxDWDnzaCwy6GNW1L2tXNTUNlHs0Pt2TxKJv/s400/P5120020.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Zai jiggity jian!Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-3335988729285948682010-05-05T04:33:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:03:05.372-07:00Sunday Night Outing and a Dangerous New Degree of FreedomI'm starting to get a little better at figuring out what's going on around me. And I feel like my communication skills are getting better all the time. I haven't, for instance, accidentally used the word <span style="font-style: italic;">wife</span> when I meant to say <span style="font-style: italic;">grandmother</span> in at least 48 hours.<br />
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My host family, Clark and Claudie, are kind of fantastic. They teach me all sorts of handy vocabulary, like the name for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel_nut_beauty">the hussies who sell addictive palm nuts out by the highway</a>. They also keep buying me food, which I'm trying to put a stop to. They can't let me live in their house for free for four months and also buy me food all the time. Even if it is in a particularly delicious effort to feed me the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish">weirdest creature in the sea</a>.<br />
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Sunday night I was relaxing at home when Claudie asked me if I'd like to go walk around. Here, let me simulate what a conversation sounds like to me in Chinese:<br />
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"Hey Anneke, we 要情班份過含walk around內焰狗椒mountain beautiful偶氣象比來you think?"<br />
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So I say "Sure! OK!" and we get in the car and we drive somewhere and I know there will be some degree of walking around at some point.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijhp9pnSEG3TtgqL_hVUOM7hqbNxO-LRE57E9pLYUFFOmDKMTv3Au0_h4gPv-pNtVSWiH84uAiXejitj4dOK-bKMWrlg6tFoFRHamV-GmkSijNpKIEsjFnaYtHVdUpG-7nVY8-jiS88A2/s1600/P5020002.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748703508253298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijhp9pnSEG3TtgqL_hVUOM7hqbNxO-LRE57E9pLYUFFOmDKMTv3Au0_h4gPv-pNtVSWiH84uAiXejitj4dOK-bKMWrlg6tFoFRHamV-GmkSijNpKIEsjFnaYtHVdUpG-7nVY8-jiS88A2/s400/P5020002.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Well, this time where they drove me was out to Neiwan, which is indeed beautiful and does allow ample opportunity for one to walk around.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDoCG2uOUpXBzFWJG5kxwVG5x_AlzCz6UTjiPC4MsCeivrWF7l0fcrJme5JHT3XmnoRRbJ3G6Q1gExSS11PcdMfDSBi09GhSzBKhyphenhyphenp8OLJkJd8DbMxA6t2mnF9mWCB8JC8uhsgk3OLKaV/s1600/P5020004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748698820649938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrDoCG2uOUpXBzFWJG5kxwVG5x_AlzCz6UTjiPC4MsCeivrWF7l0fcrJme5JHT3XmnoRRbJ3G6Q1gExSS11PcdMfDSBi09GhSzBKhyphenhyphenp8OLJkJd8DbMxA6t2mnF9mWCB8JC8uhsgk3OLKaV/s400/P5020004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here are Clark and Claudie, being their adorable selves.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDegC-c96XqvuIDo8CAdrAwBL48QBiVfqfS7nzlYfQlDhHN3orYavq6awQcbuQWv3V3u47VIJpBTkYxNxUZQnAJSQFubsqc05FZsQaL-oJgtGk6ya7wa06AecM94jtqAsxIiFj4DE2-DQ3/s1600/P5020001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748796819239426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDegC-c96XqvuIDo8CAdrAwBL48QBiVfqfS7nzlYfQlDhHN3orYavq6awQcbuQWv3V3u47VIJpBTkYxNxUZQnAJSQFubsqc05FZsQaL-oJgtGk6ya7wa06AecM94jtqAsxIiFj4DE2-DQ3/s400/P5020001.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And here, for size comparisons, is Claudie next to a giant American. (drawn to scale)<br />
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Well, it turns out that this place we were walking around was indeed very mountain beautiful but wasn't so much a stroll through the woods as it was a giant market for tourists. I was feeling kind of self-conscious since it was a Sunday and I was trying to figure out how to keep the Sabbath and not offend my hosts at the same time.<br />
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It was all of about 30 seconds before Claudie bought me something to eat.<br />
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I thanked her graciously and rehearsed ways to fend off the next purchase. We saw a stand with steamed buns for sale. "Anneke! You want to eat a steamed bun?"<br />
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"Actually," I said to her, trying to be discreet and speak the right language all at the same time, "I don't like to buy things on Sundays."<br />
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"Why?!"<br />
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"It's what my church believes. We don't go shopping on Sundays, because we don't want to make people work."<br />
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"Interesting," she said, thrusting a steamed bun in my hand. She spent the next 20 minutes coming up with novel ways to overcome this inconvenience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMuBahCnhPcihR93wnh61TOM4D86dhqDQGgKcqtyqboF40QWteNtJPhJvEpdzru94laSzt3KmWbSFKV4JCRDB_jljcZ5MrDiycvvOl2BHwR7q51XkaCayiqDENU_CpyfBmQ-m5FCvlcts/s1600/P5020005.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748686463459618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJMuBahCnhPcihR93wnh61TOM4D86dhqDQGgKcqtyqboF40QWteNtJPhJvEpdzru94laSzt3KmWbSFKV4JCRDB_jljcZ5MrDiycvvOl2BHwR7q51XkaCayiqDENU_CpyfBmQ-m5FCvlcts/s400/P5020005.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
"Hey Anneke! I know! See, these people who work here are Taiwanese, and they would have been here anyway. So you're not making them work."<br />
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"Yeah..." how on earth do you say "it's the principle of the thing" in Chinese?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2pnX5OdSNTG9iJJv8c0zHITuXnwEuuaYkVEXYvwhbNPlTt0NIGq5HFBUfW7GBKCoYoUodvjHyrwNY_fKXIArizgGz2cH353dfiRuq3dWF732Nox2sI-3G2qCs_MccC6WBhD5OJmoTYzt/s1600/P5020006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748683730200002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI2pnX5OdSNTG9iJJv8c0zHITuXnwEuuaYkVEXYvwhbNPlTt0NIGq5HFBUfW7GBKCoYoUodvjHyrwNY_fKXIArizgGz2cH353dfiRuq3dWF732Nox2sI-3G2qCs_MccC6WBhD5OJmoTYzt/s400/P5020006.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
"Hey Anneke! I know! See, I'm Taiwanese, and so if I buy the things instead of you, no problem!"<br />
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She is such a sweetheart. I tried to formulate some more sentences but I don't know if any of them worked. I had to watch myself from then on out. I saw a <span style="font-style: italic;">takoyaki</span> stand - those beloved octopus pastries from Japan and expressed my delight at seeing something familiar. "You want me to buy it?" Claudie whispered surreptitiously.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fUR5MZKKeTAc5Uvb1ML7JTbGUeJtW4PgYfJC3e14UA3E0jklDXbbAft5RCm9128htNuUQC29LJWk7mIySuUVId0MBd1uAE_k-H7IoLsdP0iuTEKdiV2CEE24NSjYu5zCkDYkH-0oILP7/s1600/P5020008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748680798516114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8fUR5MZKKeTAc5Uvb1ML7JTbGUeJtW4PgYfJC3e14UA3E0jklDXbbAft5RCm9128htNuUQC29LJWk7mIySuUVId0MBd1uAE_k-H7IoLsdP0iuTEKdiV2CEE24NSjYu5zCkDYkH-0oILP7/s400/P5020008.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Naiwan was totally beautiful. The hillsides here look like one giant, green, lush allergy attack just waiting to storm through my sinuses. Good luck so far, though...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtV7Q2-u0dld8TER0sL1NNWWSoksY6lQBWfeHvh0oMwHinOy0-nvHEufW13UYswUS1ofw_MTSvahsvhVWcCUyO2FIvQH7NeJfqOqiCLKa2z52WaZ7jSk-VfV2IN_wTa3NrYJgkoTTFsG1/s1600/P5020011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748470957824866" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxtV7Q2-u0dld8TER0sL1NNWWSoksY6lQBWfeHvh0oMwHinOy0-nvHEufW13UYswUS1ofw_MTSvahsvhVWcCUyO2FIvQH7NeJfqOqiCLKa2z52WaZ7jSk-VfV2IN_wTa3NrYJgkoTTFsG1/s400/P5020011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Which brings us to our next culinary adventure, which we entitle: Uh Oh! We Know How to Walk to the Grocery Store!<br />
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After work yesterday we decided that Hui Lian (who is staying with a family in Xi Feng) should come play at my house. So we got our moms to sign permission notes and cleared it with the bus driver and she rode home on my bus after school. It was so liberating that I forgot that I am a fully functional adult.<br />
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We ventured out of my house down toward the area where I thought that one grocery store we saw might be and eventually we found it! Which lays the foundation for me cooking a lot more of my own things and gradually overcoming the problem of constantly having food bought for me. Plus, if I went to the grocery store surreptitiously on foot, without asking anyone to drive me, there wouldn't be anyone to demand that they pay for my groceries. Mua ha ha!<br />
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So Hui Lian and I began our Grand Adventure.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrDeE_pMvpcFRnRc5TapGoX8m56pbwswvRylZxSz0q11ahdPlAZ7Ju93pRRAS81K_BTPwKsqZXkrXbUVlH2xHYcQ6pYY0MeDoCf5E4y2zCDskYFeGldYrjR7QcQ6r4RBVoGCVyCqIj_Tf/s1600/P5040013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748462287372914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzrDeE_pMvpcFRnRc5TapGoX8m56pbwswvRylZxSz0q11ahdPlAZ7Ju93pRRAS81K_BTPwKsqZXkrXbUVlH2xHYcQ6pYY0MeDoCf5E4y2zCDskYFeGldYrjR7QcQ6r4RBVoGCVyCqIj_Tf/s400/P5040013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Of course they sell Ke Kou Ke Le here - this is civilized society.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1ekhksuu5ir2YG1oUNWN_3oJDnCvCSYuzjAe_AyWCGbtw4mRoAss7paZlZcNdd8E7L9-cuLVmQb8EGxG0jOKXK5vjvXjrj5rtz1_9PRgL3ux6M8xa6UPYJEDeSITSowAICIfJOAv0BHg/s1600/P5040014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748458245516610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1ekhksuu5ir2YG1oUNWN_3oJDnCvCSYuzjAe_AyWCGbtw4mRoAss7paZlZcNdd8E7L9-cuLVmQb8EGxG0jOKXK5vjvXjrj5rtz1_9PRgL3ux6M8xa6UPYJEDeSITSowAICIfJOAv0BHg/s400/P5040014.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Everyone says good good eat! The funny thing is, this makes perfect sense in Chinese.<br />
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We got some rice (which is harder to pick out than I anticipated) and a lot of vegetables and a few too many items that I got all excited about because they have them in Japan. Like chewy milk candy. Be still my soul!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pn8k15CzEKdJzVkAlpfPSM2MKGiaiQ17gnXzswM7WXK09NPgBE9b9_RvPKPalOVphCIwwq1CH0qNzYWIot0RIVxE9aOGyGNfgPDO6ZcVUy_MTnpVQTqCD0bVuZVObSwgkVfU2WciTpye/s1600/P5040016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748453522422786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5pn8k15CzEKdJzVkAlpfPSM2MKGiaiQ17gnXzswM7WXK09NPgBE9b9_RvPKPalOVphCIwwq1CH0qNzYWIot0RIVxE9aOGyGNfgPDO6ZcVUy_MTnpVQTqCD0bVuZVObSwgkVfU2WciTpye/s400/P5040016.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
We went home and made some Japanese curry. And I made Hui Lian eat some of the durian. Oh! I forgot to report on the durian! Wish I had some photos. Bottom line is: not too bad. I don't love it and I don't hate it, but I maybe actually like it. We bought it as already in the little internal segments, each wrapped in their own stink-proof plastic liner, and Claudie just threw it all in the freezer when we got home and then sat me down and fed it to me one night promising it was "just like ice cream." It kind of was. I don't know that I'd enjoy the texture unfrozen - I can't imagine what it would be like. The smell was actually kind of fun - it smelled like an Asian grocery store - and the taste was very sweet and strong but no more offensive than an overripe banana. It had a little of that alcoholy tang that an overripe banana has too - maybe that's just the taste of strong fruit. Anyway, nothing too drastic. Hui Lian agreed, though she was a little more dubious about it than I was.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvoexXi0If77yT-LB1acjKLxKE9NczbVdrZ81lYDPAxUlTqJapueLROQwK2BzfPQbg-fM5auavdgRdullWp7UJW-jSXPDx8g7ry1G-fNMbq_gEGL9GClnAzUKZvIBYsYVpDuUpHGYP9JR/s1600/P5040018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5467748442754246130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidvoexXi0If77yT-LB1acjKLxKE9NczbVdrZ81lYDPAxUlTqJapueLROQwK2BzfPQbg-fM5auavdgRdullWp7UJW-jSXPDx8g7ry1G-fNMbq_gEGL9GClnAzUKZvIBYsYVpDuUpHGYP9JR/s400/P5040018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
But we fed her Japanese curry to cover up the durian aftertaste and I have a gigantic pot of leftover Japanese curry and this is the country, remember, where no one eats cold food or leftovers and so they don't even have microwaves (I think there's a custom official somewhere saying "we don't need to stinkin' microwaves") so I enjoyed the experience of cold leftovers for lunch today which really, honestly, wasn't too bad. And that last sentence was way longer than it needed to be so I think it's time for me to go to bed. Until next time, brave friends. And remind me to tell you about my student named Egg.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-36193634854914851252010-05-01T01:56:00.001-07:002012-10-17T03:03:28.065-07:00If you're gonna be friends with me, you're gonna get fatI started out this morning without any plans but I ended up with a new friend and a stomach filled to bursting. My host family had to go to work this morning (we have school on Saturday mornings too?) and I was planning to just hang out until they got back and just play it by ear. I ate my leftover salty fish and vegetables for breakfast and I had started some rice before I found out I'd be eating alone so I had to eat it all because I didn't know the protocol on leaving leftover rice. But it's OK to overeat a little for breakfast, right? Because I have the rest of the day to work it off and I just won't eat very much else.<br />
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This is when my new friend called. Her English name is Demi, and she teaches at the same school I'll be at and is also a church member. Today her kids were visiting their grandparents and so she had the whole day to take me out and do things. When I got in the car she warned, "Are you hungry? If you're gonna be friends with me, you're gonna get fat." I had no idea.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW-91sC6XTcrVmChaJ7-EDZGIIDU_2cIS7HDYvxkBlA3XlLTv6SnsLHXH3SrmoCH_FZMcTns_gjYVQ3bs4SKEZJ38vijjuYbv5iuL6j43XLEqAGxOfEGP6DqptiHgo5kcAxtFV7GkOUrdt/s1600/P4300002.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223609112944914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW-91sC6XTcrVmChaJ7-EDZGIIDU_2cIS7HDYvxkBlA3XlLTv6SnsLHXH3SrmoCH_FZMcTns_gjYVQ3bs4SKEZJ38vijjuYbv5iuL6j43XLEqAGxOfEGP6DqptiHgo5kcAxtFV7GkOUrdt/s400/P4300002.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvujr4WmXvjgk4MQ3Ku9vKRkfE4AgpbvXhNmHcstgxVXBkCQBvksjDaY9XgcSveEy05tGwlcmjCWkAd4B3sLs3xaawhBEemEta6ItF-p0X0D3OAJmumwEc-Qa34p4ROIr_B8cSN4IzhjQQ/s1600/P4300003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223606381003618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvujr4WmXvjgk4MQ3Ku9vKRkfE4AgpbvXhNmHcstgxVXBkCQBvksjDaY9XgcSveEy05tGwlcmjCWkAd4B3sLs3xaawhBEemEta6ItF-p0X0D3OAJmumwEc-Qa34p4ROIr_B8cSN4IzhjQQ/s400/P4300003.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Our first stop was the local weekly market. It was right next to this Buddhist temple and she showed me around inside - very beautiful, very ornate. Very interesting mix of old painted art and flashing lightbulb art, all combined to pay tribute to a host of local gods.<br />
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The market was packed with people, all very friendly, all making comments on how white I am. Almost everyone gives out samples, which makes it kind of like when you go have Saturday lunch at Costco because you're a poor college student.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvfQ0L8m8Es-OdsoLfPrIHIUyWlD2Te3qy8_DctDyGkuL6VU0Zg6H6O7TFOOTSYfvqhDSw1Ffwi_XCD2JCw26KAQti1FXbCes0WBc9Md0bWof1sNOKCIaDshP712GO7rJtKhIRfZERJLd/s1600/P4300004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223595487256818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvfQ0L8m8Es-OdsoLfPrIHIUyWlD2Te3qy8_DctDyGkuL6VU0Zg6H6O7TFOOTSYfvqhDSw1Ffwi_XCD2JCw26KAQti1FXbCes0WBc9Md0bWof1sNOKCIaDshP712GO7rJtKhIRfZERJLd/s400/P4300004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I wanted to get more pictures but most of the time it was just too crowded. These concoctions are all vegetarian things and pickled and preserved foods sold by a friendly Buddhist guy. I have this soft spot in my heart for religious vegetarians.<br />
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Among the other things we ate were a steamed bun thing with mochi on the outside and a glass of fresh sugar cane juice that Demi bought me - so much for my no sugar policy. If my no-sugar policy doesn't include fruit, though, where does sugar cane juice fall? I'll have to think that one over a little more.<br />
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I bought some absolutely delicious pineapple and that's one of the words I learned today - feng li. I also bought a whole kilogram of a weird fruit I'd never known existed. It's lovely - kind of like a pear and a watermelon had a baby. Let's see if Wikipedia can help me out - ah. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_apple">Here</a> it is. I didn't mean to buy a whole kilogram though. Guess I'll be eating fruit for the next few days.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQASog6nozWnl-brs6-Hy-zLVck1M_nyQGK6YaRw5LFN7MjlSISunAlPRJEoda53w10wpL9Wok4-OXezqmByju3-8PPdK0sJqryOoAF5URfe3wT_tt30mrwZwEgq11_5a-tDEUV5Vd491/s1600/P4300005.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223592546127986" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQASog6nozWnl-brs6-Hy-zLVck1M_nyQGK6YaRw5LFN7MjlSISunAlPRJEoda53w10wpL9Wok4-OXezqmByju3-8PPdK0sJqryOoAF5URfe3wT_tt30mrwZwEgq11_5a-tDEUV5Vd491/s400/P4300005.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Then we went into Xin Zhu, the "big town," which is known as the "Windy City." Sure enough, everyone was flying kites, and they were selling them at a little booth.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjreE4k5q98Jp5gIH-Dt6XVBRhVEJPyqogtwXqqlhS7xJxkjureiJOdF1C3Mjq5kHIhO0-gb8FlPyusrd-hx6RBFaUJTOd4FZG2FW2d881Ggfi5g_GXnU-h5E3b7m32_QmV9nUJLb53jgNp/s1600/P4300007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223355978664642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjreE4k5q98Jp5gIH-Dt6XVBRhVEJPyqogtwXqqlhS7xJxkjureiJOdF1C3Mjq5kHIhO0-gb8FlPyusrd-hx6RBFaUJTOd4FZG2FW2d881Ggfi5g_GXnU-h5E3b7m32_QmV9nUJLb53jgNp/s400/P4300007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The main attraction, though, was the big fish market, which was the freshest fish market I've ever been to. Most everything was still alive. The shrimp spit at you every once in a while when you try to take their picture.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zVb8WBgxHSGUjrMYsTp-EpQLXraJk3uas7a9g6YRsIJtSmt-uJR_fcXxrIxtFhPippgFxZ0S8UdFqQHSoRO1qYP2sSe7MxlQSdy1JNio7TdPptfZc6Mu808gNCmbwm_E_K3qjnmgeWO1/s1600/P4300008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223350509064674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zVb8WBgxHSGUjrMYsTp-EpQLXraJk3uas7a9g6YRsIJtSmt-uJR_fcXxrIxtFhPippgFxZ0S8UdFqQHSoRO1qYP2sSe7MxlQSdy1JNio7TdPptfZc6Mu808gNCmbwm_E_K3qjnmgeWO1/s400/P4300008.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHWW28IxxuWm7iZcEm36i6wqrQmo8hQdzYB-tu7xebtLGFNQ5DhpFZuL1IP9ZtQ6cpyHSlm_GX_rnHTTp5Xy1s09p6l13tHxN1qAwFslanih-Lq5ogewoe476mRZGQstUWHmgNECcjd2e/s1600/P4300009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223343823239426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHWW28IxxuWm7iZcEm36i6wqrQmo8hQdzYB-tu7xebtLGFNQ5DhpFZuL1IP9ZtQ6cpyHSlm_GX_rnHTTp5Xy1s09p6l13tHxN1qAwFslanih-Lq5ogewoe476mRZGQstUWHmgNECcjd2e/s400/P4300009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
These fish heads were enormous - I tried to get the scale of them in there. Each one is about the size of a basketball.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_bDqyRjKCNY7C3hNXT-xSP08R6d-0cpg36CHGj5vtt3dK4FiVGbmRvrvAcmC6J_8pnSGudlanVNVcbMVE12ZDecuyC1YHxsMOlJY53mtlzqFnZpdujp2WvXuQ9oFh7Z9K5-ifv6isYbr/s1600/P4300010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223341431267778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_bDqyRjKCNY7C3hNXT-xSP08R6d-0cpg36CHGj5vtt3dK4FiVGbmRvrvAcmC6J_8pnSGudlanVNVcbMVE12ZDecuyC1YHxsMOlJY53mtlzqFnZpdujp2WvXuQ9oFh7Z9K5-ifv6isYbr/s400/P4300010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
On our way out, Demi bought me a weird dessert from a little cart. From what I could deduce from the sign, this is the lucky swastika peanut and orchid cart. Mmm.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHpp-4KAlgD-EAy4HVyVhKJ0nd-HY6X9UI6t-UmuFKqst2zBcS53-pr40uTv_VuALgsy4mAJGrja2e89VB0BnhjbbDU9Js2wyrVYQKdTppm_VFfl49U6oV1tFxHaKVy2oOjKMj-5gCz36/s1600/P4300011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223330750192722" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHpp-4KAlgD-EAy4HVyVhKJ0nd-HY6X9UI6t-UmuFKqst2zBcS53-pr40uTv_VuALgsy4mAJGrja2e89VB0BnhjbbDU9Js2wyrVYQKdTppm_VFfl49U6oV1tFxHaKVy2oOjKMj-5gCz36/s400/P4300011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5rAph5fIAVKKwuYV17m6ZBUoRdfTIw7__bnAOeS4f5DvqfFzdAU_kHFrVE_gePTcr30aR0SJmFxe5Lmy5UJnB50SdlslTFpDy00ilWNLUcxGwk6bDomGEg6guzXHTZCf_TKkZ0sOBHUC/s1600/P4300012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223122457152274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM5rAph5fIAVKKwuYV17m6ZBUoRdfTIw7__bnAOeS4f5DvqfFzdAU_kHFrVE_gePTcr30aR0SJmFxe5Lmy5UJnB50SdlslTFpDy00ilWNLUcxGwk6bDomGEg6guzXHTZCf_TKkZ0sOBHUC/s400/P4300012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
You know what, though? It was absolutely amazing. First, you get two scoops of ice cream - you can choose from passion fruit, strawberry and taro. Then they shave this giant block of peanut brittle onto it. Then they add in a sprig of fresh cilantro. Then they wrap it in some sort of a rice flour skin. Umm.... yum. "Aren't Chinese people great?" Demi asked. "We think of putting the weirdest things together." Yes. Yes, and this is why I love you.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZrbAm5UTvQIwm_McHaGkn76CHFSZUg1FjmkUXwRYHmEjAxzTAcjC25-fySWyvJFocuijhd_3xzJ8mbvBuVoGkDDWkQdNjvtujXben209y_g-tdOe0nEkSxbnKFCjlV73U-dpud6UcFNb/s1600/P4300013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223114646923826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXZrbAm5UTvQIwm_McHaGkn76CHFSZUg1FjmkUXwRYHmEjAxzTAcjC25-fySWyvJFocuijhd_3xzJ8mbvBuVoGkDDWkQdNjvtujXben209y_g-tdOe0nEkSxbnKFCjlV73U-dpud6UcFNb/s400/P4300013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Luckily, we went hiking next, which was just lovely. They call it "climbing a mountain," but mostly it's winding your way up a gently sloping trail with carefully manicured flowers and a couch made out of plants.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjoQLq7XrqE_VFHp0iXe-koL6KN-dUpnRkN4xvULXzLHVOOrOSKa-J4XL69fJ_wPh1nzWNrb9KFzjoaNhDCJ1ztT8yk5tUC5-Cb5iA9OwQm8dwhfsfYbdQv4yhM1BsSSe7inY38gODhCJ/s1600/P4300015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223107157104066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjoQLq7XrqE_VFHp0iXe-koL6KN-dUpnRkN4xvULXzLHVOOrOSKa-J4XL69fJ_wPh1nzWNrb9KFzjoaNhDCJ1ztT8yk5tUC5-Cb5iA9OwQm8dwhfsfYbdQv4yhM1BsSSe7inY38gODhCJ/s400/P4300015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoiAAHRIHrmjjxda2f8t20wXndmrCtUE15V15CvliYBMy6tZYhWZEa5z84gUVLhuiysnqk7yGHrfLwlZWIUSaaXRDOKFL7vLP0R56ybzCP52jhAVROsDCD5usgON1HKXh70gammn3zZew/s1600/P4300019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223103017374290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoiAAHRIHrmjjxda2f8t20wXndmrCtUE15V15CvliYBMy6tZYhWZEa5z84gUVLhuiysnqk7yGHrfLwlZWIUSaaXRDOKFL7vLP0R56ybzCP52jhAVROsDCD5usgON1HKXh70gammn3zZew/s400/P4300019.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Afterwards, Demi asked, "Are you hungy?"<br />
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"No, not really."<br />
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"Ok, I'll take you to my aunt's restaurant."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjConc0sjzwOscWTRcI1YnB5UTpM73erixT4BzjjG1UKpmsNVRzyVuuacDEmMaICGcRtE71y4PXZO5SYjt4V1_RS_WdR4F4Rv7wY7OwKp4Kmxzl77aGYy8COt8Mdkokt_rjaijMx_7embJQ/s1600/P5010020.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466223097537898562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjConc0sjzwOscWTRcI1YnB5UTpM73erixT4BzjjG1UKpmsNVRzyVuuacDEmMaICGcRtE71y4PXZO5SYjt4V1_RS_WdR4F4Rv7wY7OwKp4Kmxzl77aGYy8COt8Mdkokt_rjaijMx_7embJQ/s400/P5010020.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
She is right. We're going to be friends. And I'm gonna get fat.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-77952567701161968072010-04-30T01:11:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:03:45.302-07:00Culinary adventures in an ACTUAL Chinese houseThis blog is taking a new adventure, along with me, as I spend the summer in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan_ROC">Republic of China</a>. I've got an internship teaching English at Zhong Xin High School and I'm ready and willing to tackle whatever that involves. Especially if that involves crazy Chinese food.<br />
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OK, where to begin? Um....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHzzHFJ5c1QEU5mxEleRotz3dOgGOcntFrr20u5UwKMscLiXC5PuC-TGstsovUK65KwBdY6qooesoNCmxZVEeFq_utvUCETnJ0gxHJ7gj75hgdkhCz3p6FEjIe6yIJCLZno8HRdqCYGOh/s1600/P4290009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465844107733229394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHzzHFJ5c1QEU5mxEleRotz3dOgGOcntFrr20u5UwKMscLiXC5PuC-TGstsovUK65KwBdY6qooesoNCmxZVEeFq_utvUCETnJ0gxHJ7gj75hgdkhCz3p6FEjIe6yIJCLZno8HRdqCYGOh/s400/P4290009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Just kidding. That was the computer down in the common room of the apartment building - I tried it but it was exceedingly slow. The keyboard isn't actually all that weird if you know how to set it up to type in English. Luckily, though, I found a rogue wifi signal in my bedroom and I'm blogging in style on my laptop. Ok, so, from the top:<br />
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I spent yesterday and/or the day before flying on big machines through time zones and I can say I've never been more glad to get out of an airplane in my life.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZHYHgjmAFtPTiJeimqvXxYIg2iWGvnzcMYhHoBg9auVrRILRVFyXGhVPQgp-99LdkukrFZCK-fW4uGRjArh5bOU2RX7hnIhOjnjiZuZAAu98uMnaM1Fm7axquRzxA0dYRY643NSwAqL1m/s1600/P4280001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465844101093512738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZHYHgjmAFtPTiJeimqvXxYIg2iWGvnzcMYhHoBg9auVrRILRVFyXGhVPQgp-99LdkukrFZCK-fW4uGRjArh5bOU2RX7hnIhOjnjiZuZAAu98uMnaM1Fm7axquRzxA0dYRY643NSwAqL1m/s400/P4280001.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
We got in at 9:00 at night local time and met our boss and our host families, who had been waiting for us for about an hour and a half. It was so nice to see them, though, and they were so exceedingly hospitable. I'm staying with a couple who teach math at the same school I'll be teaching in and they brought me home last night after a quick stop at the grocery store.<br />
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Let me just say quickly: any anticipation I might have had about Taiwan was relieved as soon as I realized that their grocery stores are every bit as magical as grocery stores in Japan. I don't know what it is about grocery stores that soothes my soul, or why it should be this way, or whether I should be looking into getting some professional help, but once I realized that I was going to be able to buy wonderful foods that made me happy, I was just fine.<br />
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We bought just a couple things to tide me over until the weekend. They asked me what I liked and I said fruits and vegetables so that's what we got. The most exciting thing, though, is that we bought some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian">durian</a> - something I've always wanted to try just because it's weird. The husband doesn't like it but the wife does and she asked if I was brave enough to try it and I said "you cannot scare me with food." (Actually, I don't know what I said. It was late and I was tired and I was supposedly speaking Chinese.) So the durian awaits in the freezer and I shall report on it when I get the chance.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4-CWxK3_r1A4a-tQ0vwx3AYMsIcqep818HKWXibTszNIqsrbzfwoDqK-STAlPDBX9dBsnQSKuUaO4NoZP25G3qqrasX8gNAIybw91h9ArfIG8Nk9WKxYo4_LM1cZzmA8FooVWliMLFrj/s1600/P4290003.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465844095419042786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF4-CWxK3_r1A4a-tQ0vwx3AYMsIcqep818HKWXibTszNIqsrbzfwoDqK-STAlPDBX9dBsnQSKuUaO4NoZP25G3qqrasX8gNAIybw91h9ArfIG8Nk9WKxYo4_LM1cZzmA8FooVWliMLFrj/s400/P4290003.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
They showed me around the 7th floor apartment where I'm staying and explained several times how to work everything, double checking for understanding where needed. I was happy to find that I was understanding most of what was going on, but I am still kind of vastly unable to communicate, leading to some rather funny interchanges.<br />
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"You brought your own <span style="font-style: italic;">ricemaker</span>?"<br />
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"Oh, wait, no," I corrected sleepily. "But I have used one before and I know how to use it."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Sgbsym_Xes6UTpD9_c1sHCgveCi1MExzU1BmpvMkHPry9QYMWlzl9AxmDyANsGyaUBXrV1ksCNRo1829k0xpKEU3ayqd-J135eqYG55Dk1g75n2AcJiLYUpW6GeJJgfLCPromQTKAfn/s1600/P4290007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465844089206551682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4Sgbsym_Xes6UTpD9_c1sHCgveCi1MExzU1BmpvMkHPry9QYMWlzl9AxmDyANsGyaUBXrV1ksCNRo1829k0xpKEU3ayqd-J135eqYG55Dk1g75n2AcJiLYUpW6GeJJgfLCPromQTKAfn/s400/P4290007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This is the view from my 7th-floor balcony. I like the gardeny terrace stuff going on in our building's courtyard.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN73ij_oF8ZMLLxcwzZWCys18eRkJbnwUSMpg70T3v9akb-7yQJfG1NL_PuQE2QAZvkQ-zDpy1esV17YDj4oVNjSEpYOta_m0ENSU_QHrosxnc-wHySkAd5L67SAxi55y8nnPiXuAQde-g/s1600/P4290008.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465844082625821250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN73ij_oF8ZMLLxcwzZWCys18eRkJbnwUSMpg70T3v9akb-7yQJfG1NL_PuQE2QAZvkQ-zDpy1esV17YDj4oVNjSEpYOta_m0ENSU_QHrosxnc-wHySkAd5L67SAxi55y8nnPiXuAQde-g/s400/P4290008.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
This morning I woke up at 6am, as is my body's impeccable talent to do, and tried to fall back asleep but succeeded mostly in just resting until about 8. The family was gone to work by then and I had the morning to explore. I went running on the apartment building's treadmill (yessss!) and then took my sweet little time getting ready and dressed and heading out to find my way around the neighborhood.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfl-719p1mmkLv97c5mVdLTb4xuwO-nGw7yQOLK5gN8ABIO8WC8s5kWnF2pQfirkDqo5B3hsiaZk3y1SjKcKcJFSs8G1TppMuvvy1lSXesCioPDhRPOFvq-PhF3L6v7mhQeC5d738jjiRJ/s1600/P4290012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465842379479203330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfl-719p1mmkLv97c5mVdLTb4xuwO-nGw7yQOLK5gN8ABIO8WC8s5kWnF2pQfirkDqo5B3hsiaZk3y1SjKcKcJFSs8G1TppMuvvy1lSXesCioPDhRPOFvq-PhF3L6v7mhQeC5d738jjiRJ/s400/P4290012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
When we drove through town last night I had been thinking "Wow, this is just like Japan!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieM5S_L51KgXVqwx-3RUQsCBJYKSmksRPL5b-RZdj4xmwk6h6AoGpalerf-osHxfNx1CZytl_-BVPOd-iqMP6oiWlgt3vTlDJ5RxQMAqTicIQRnnhDw4Lkq_LlCC2Dul_9OLT5pSWMfkvj/s1600/P4290013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465842374279164594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieM5S_L51KgXVqwx-3RUQsCBJYKSmksRPL5b-RZdj4xmwk6h6AoGpalerf-osHxfNx1CZytl_-BVPOd-iqMP6oiWlgt3vTlDJ5RxQMAqTicIQRnnhDw4Lkq_LlCC2Dul_9OLT5pSWMfkvj/s400/P4290013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The omnipresent 7-11s and even a Family Mart seemed to confirm it for me...<br />
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However, upon venturing out this morning I noticed one significant difference: Japan has sidewalks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnmahdxGvNmRNreK6WM3c0NR7CA4AacRV9B842NYwZFM2eXwJH1mLIRDfnxkblfmgmHFcVe6cbRXHxR4FAQS2nKzV4ozddG2SUJWGpNAfkU0XwSJM4o14G2WWARfkU-IbzPHtebqNIyo_/s1600/P4290014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465842368109924338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXnmahdxGvNmRNreK6WM3c0NR7CA4AacRV9B842NYwZFM2eXwJH1mLIRDfnxkblfmgmHFcVe6cbRXHxR4FAQS2nKzV4ozddG2SUJWGpNAfkU0XwSJM4o14G2WWARfkU-IbzPHtebqNIyo_/s400/P4290014.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
It's kind of nice. In spots. When you can fit between the parked cars and oncoming traffic.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-7ymHjT6HJosSkn8nfrCk2BloK4bRcFG7y9DUaWvaJQu2XPox7eRreF1Z0w9mdEMyZngJJ2SSFANsoiY29gzvhSD-zV8PTYjuMxLeCV9LV8ffMcBZi3vQ92ujwmKfFl14mNNnFO3gwik/s1600/P4290010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465842357894977570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-7ymHjT6HJosSkn8nfrCk2BloK4bRcFG7y9DUaWvaJQu2XPox7eRreF1Z0w9mdEMyZngJJ2SSFANsoiY29gzvhSD-zV8PTYjuMxLeCV9LV8ffMcBZi3vQ92ujwmKfFl14mNNnFO3gwik/s400/P4290010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Our apartment building is rather nice and has this commons room downstairs with a couple of computers, a whole shelf full of books I can't read, a giant movie screen and, best of all, it's festively decked out for Christmas!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqg8a74iOJUXKlouY74c7vV1cFaMjiqsyUO545NEK7cXOI7eJJ3CsRw-1oSVIF1PrckTZktGKNFPkIcQmn5XDkNCZLb2Zs5JGo_weg-9LVKgwRA64mq1jE5QZC29zK9ze7IraYt9x_POW/s1600/P4290011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465842351509311506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqg8a74iOJUXKlouY74c7vV1cFaMjiqsyUO545NEK7cXOI7eJJ3CsRw-1oSVIF1PrckTZktGKNFPkIcQmn5XDkNCZLb2Zs5JGo_weg-9LVKgwRA64mq1jE5QZC29zK9ze7IraYt9x_POW/s400/P4290011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
The wastebasket is very glad.<br />
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The neighbors probably wasted no time in deciding that I'm totally nuts. I was trying to be discreet but the minute I go to take a picture of the wastebasket someone's out for a smoke break and stares straight at me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WLdQkBuDn_a8pA_sMu9pHXX13oLyqNPdFSxO1jl6N_lDXHq-OUDDgS8VoS-y1ezS0Ib6nSQSY3pyOhWw2cBpwuMcOLnJhkMklrNFU2mM2EF2unAtYkPjOn0D1qfOTEveIOdlsxQfN5NU/s1600/P4290015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465841931837424002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WLdQkBuDn_a8pA_sMu9pHXX13oLyqNPdFSxO1jl6N_lDXHq-OUDDgS8VoS-y1ezS0Ib6nSQSY3pyOhWw2cBpwuMcOLnJhkMklrNFU2mM2EF2unAtYkPjOn0D1qfOTEveIOdlsxQfN5NU/s400/P4290015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
I like this statue in our building's courtyard. I like to call it "The Joy of Childhood: or, Scared By a Dog."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTEYPUDr6acHBDitgyvT7GVbl-4qEce-pvqY1em_L-JeAxASTco5hyphenhyphenQ8yuqOzD-JqKzO7i795VYF9FwJ5OESM6Q50wWG89cLLN7EUnw6YLoD6VQ6D47JKz3l-vhP8Ji04G3UwEbixAepU/s1600/P4290016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465841929183399138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpTEYPUDr6acHBDitgyvT7GVbl-4qEce-pvqY1em_L-JeAxASTco5hyphenhyphenQ8yuqOzD-JqKzO7i795VYF9FwJ5OESM6Q50wWG89cLLN7EUnw6YLoD6VQ6D47JKz3l-vhP8Ji04G3UwEbixAepU/s400/P4290016.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXNROEJdGMWVQLIYpaJt5RkR8tvUI2xHPVqZLrrKbZl8zDL90T9ToUiKyFQcewkdaVGpQFjdUzCL7MqdxfSQ2wrZ687sMLIymV9TPRX0HtzG8pF4yunp3BetrFbmFz2JMZW13PHl-3yR1/s1600/P4290017.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465841918867556850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXNROEJdGMWVQLIYpaJt5RkR8tvUI2xHPVqZLrrKbZl8zDL90T9ToUiKyFQcewkdaVGpQFjdUzCL7MqdxfSQ2wrZ687sMLIymV9TPRX0HtzG8pF4yunp3BetrFbmFz2JMZW13PHl-3yR1/s400/P4290017.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
It's a very nice place, actually, and I don't mind spending most of the day today inside. First thing when I got back I had to try the fruits of my trip to 7-11<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd2IUXhAPucvXiFvlbtFOu47lfjH9uJK0v_ahhqD9mS9rmTp7clyMQNARdt962_InO4tEjZJx_a1tbQfiiqQZBJswnlYPM8LvcgheqS7vt8vh-z7CXKCiiOWWjMS4gqYILuWU4o5wAjziG/s1600/P4290018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465841915635193666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd2IUXhAPucvXiFvlbtFOu47lfjH9uJK0v_ahhqD9mS9rmTp7clyMQNARdt962_InO4tEjZJx_a1tbQfiiqQZBJswnlYPM8LvcgheqS7vt8vh-z7CXKCiiOWWjMS4gqYILuWU4o5wAjziG/s400/P4290018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
"They have Calpis Water! Just like Japan! Oh joy and rapture, it's just like Japan!"<br />
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I tasted it to discover it is not, in fact, just like Japan. It's like Japan with a sour yogurt taste. I'm just going to go ahead and assume that was intentional.<br />
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And this wouldn't be a blog of culinary adventures if I didn't include my first culinary adventure - I made myself a stir fry and some fish. Maybe the fish here comes pre-salted like it does in Japan? Or maybe I was out of it and added way more salt than it needed. Anyway - salty fish. Oh, well. It wouldn't be an adventure without the occasional salty fish.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfMzvDuBtA2-oLWRAXxd_d1l5GI0r0AxVZGGks06JhyiDiCu-YO3WyOjZVnmaPzCVLAK5BRgCc2PjOeDUDi9aKbs6Mm0_zhY4KmfLMdvTqmsYiOVtIKsNUhIj_QszQ2RbyKLc2z983TKo/s1600/P4300021.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465841910217934706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfMzvDuBtA2-oLWRAXxd_d1l5GI0r0AxVZGGks06JhyiDiCu-YO3WyOjZVnmaPzCVLAK5BRgCc2PjOeDUDi9aKbs6Mm0_zhY4KmfLMdvTqmsYiOVtIKsNUhIj_QszQ2RbyKLc2z983TKo/s400/P4300021.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-6262561614769774412010-04-18T22:52:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:03:58.980-07:00Your mission, should you choose to accept it....Agent 1275, we have disturbing reports coming in from our operatives. We need a good man to go in and confirm for us. We're hearing that . . . and these are just allegations, mind you, but we are hearing that the best Chinese food in the world might actually be found at a location in Sandy, Utah, in the United States. While this threatens the cultural supremacy of the most serene People's Republic of China, we can take comfort in the fact that it may just be more capitalist lies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnX6WZjC07VSsa7L5dWfVqGRyMh5Fijg4Afz2mccZg6rl56rZPjUnRBpw3e9VqoI7pZpnGUbFotxiHbTit56rNCoD0oUeujEl_dvdMaOzYtO-v4celBBTgrIAW3vpO07nvXtbHs7Hpk9I3/s1600/P4160026.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461724212125766882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnX6WZjC07VSsa7L5dWfVqGRyMh5Fijg4Afz2mccZg6rl56rZPjUnRBpw3e9VqoI7pZpnGUbFotxiHbTit56rNCoD0oUeujEl_dvdMaOzYtO-v4celBBTgrIAW3vpO07nvXtbHs7Hpk9I3/s400/P4160026.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
But we do need you to get in and on the ground and see what you can find.<br />
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Location: Szechuan Gardens, Sandy, Utah<br />
Allegations: producing food <span style="font-style: italic;">better</span> than that in the homeland<br />
Recommendations: see if you can't get them to start serving crab rangoon. If worse comes to worse, see if you can't get them to sell the location to the P.F. Chang's franchise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiii-rgCojpFRt8UjWSR-GfD-wos3gPbVuH6g11wDOEeUpKeSHJvQq5QgPmutOOCSmrU0L7Ko390rtB_GZ-t08PCxaUkcommej6qxi2rV8mTOvTpKpcop_FIk9n4tMfUsUdHGe1AYeNHVNm/s1600/P4160010.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723502481566178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiii-rgCojpFRt8UjWSR-GfD-wos3gPbVuH6g11wDOEeUpKeSHJvQq5QgPmutOOCSmrU0L7Ko390rtB_GZ-t08PCxaUkcommej6qxi2rV8mTOvTpKpcop_FIk9n4tMfUsUdHGe1AYeNHVNm/s400/P4160010.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Looks like we've got some cow guts here. Affirmative. Digestive tract tissue of a ruminant, served in the classic Sichuan style. So spicy it'll fuse to your own digestive tract, but unnervingly delicious in spite of everything you know.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFST74xKq-ydVE6auaJGgXZRFTVs77sRp_Qf1Gc4AXjZn9sJyGFlVIiJPkPbrzXJAt-s07WT_hb2zYdABb0wj0yTLBmcdVdY9FoDJJYITuoih3QF5Io_my5NndHIlVAVxtxzsUK5NuojN/s1600/P4160012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723488985342882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTFST74xKq-ydVE6auaJGgXZRFTVs77sRp_Qf1Gc4AXjZn9sJyGFlVIiJPkPbrzXJAt-s07WT_hb2zYdABb0wj0yTLBmcdVdY9FoDJJYITuoih3QF5Io_my5NndHIlVAVxtxzsUK5NuojN/s400/P4160012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Well, we can take some comfort in the fact that they're serving that American staple, Wonton Soup. However, it still manages to be tasty in a way that threatens to undermine everything we hold sacred.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1JHWDRK25iS5-ln_TGKtjVe1VI90xKlka-2yaZq7Nkw1PgLTtcCxTsUxImT6jbUqQGlbtkXzc_8MQcOFOR6JD_9Oh_Trd_YqNDzyOPG7o67i8nzbjRbCdodDr0wpEe5YAe32ZVtgXRqg/s1600/P4160013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723485286970258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1JHWDRK25iS5-ln_TGKtjVe1VI90xKlka-2yaZq7Nkw1PgLTtcCxTsUxImT6jbUqQGlbtkXzc_8MQcOFOR6JD_9Oh_Trd_YqNDzyOPG7o67i8nzbjRbCdodDr0wpEe5YAe32ZVtgXRqg/s400/P4160013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Oh no - they didn't break out the eggplant? They did. We've been trying to keep the Americans from discovering that eggplant are actually delicious. We've been succeeding on most fronts; keeping the vegetable offerings in most American restaurants to a minimum. We wouldn't want them to realize the true power of this cuisine, not with the instability of our plutonium supply. We just don't have than many secret weapons <span style="font-style: italic;">left</span>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKBao9mYhTVMDVMiiYrfa_V2IrNvGeVgs61ZVXmjk-3lw5Y-eJSlwVNJSzZE7v9QlYt6SaJDI-zPIY_yC4Qx4Wb3tmGvvHhyp3hFKo1J4CwlDwsJbD9x59rnk2LTZe-BMRj0L5d9XF_nXA/s1600/P4160014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723482107792818" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKBao9mYhTVMDVMiiYrfa_V2IrNvGeVgs61ZVXmjk-3lw5Y-eJSlwVNJSzZE7v9QlYt6SaJDI-zPIY_yC4Qx4Wb3tmGvvHhyp3hFKo1J4CwlDwsJbD9x59rnk2LTZe-BMRj0L5d9XF_nXA/s400/P4160014.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
What is that unearthly glow? It's, like, a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig">ring of beneficent light</a> emanating from that dish of fish fillet with pickles. Fortunately, Americans might still be dissuaded by the name - they might hesitate to order something that sounds like it's at all related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lutefisk">the horrors of the North countries</a>. Let's keep them in the dark as long as we can - we must not under any circumstances let them know that Suan Cai Yu Pian is actually the current holder of the Mandate of Heaven.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdW9ZvtxuzRlcKLJBMoP36a8a7qIlDIm2IZ6v2iPuUzDvpSBbWBM4N4ruQ2cBwbMRJSZ9sBuOLVzRfwqz1SaZKwPLVfntoUprS2aIli5GdgnoKKExsvfIL4U0Q70Sx9xhQRzM1x022v_Rx/s1600/P4160015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723094675897186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdW9ZvtxuzRlcKLJBMoP36a8a7qIlDIm2IZ6v2iPuUzDvpSBbWBM4N4ruQ2cBwbMRJSZ9sBuOLVzRfwqz1SaZKwPLVfntoUprS2aIli5GdgnoKKExsvfIL4U0Q70Sx9xhQRzM1x022v_Rx/s400/P4160015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Walnut shrimp . . . quick! Convince them it's a Utah salad creation! Stick it next to a jar of Miracle Whip. Perhaps they'll look the other way.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRKaRbLprYGv0-_yPZQiagYLPlSn6lWuRLe1hGMrmkRxrXz_UUE9_yrzdjqG4JKNvCgIUmiCzIxooU9t8KT-E6w5d_iuWZEVi4fSmfDMjzjGp2TWFex4PMmdvy3qg1vCmeArGVakxfUdW/s1600/P4160017.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723086213448098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioRKaRbLprYGv0-_yPZQiagYLPlSn6lWuRLe1hGMrmkRxrXz_UUE9_yrzdjqG4JKNvCgIUmiCzIxooU9t8KT-E6w5d_iuWZEVi4fSmfDMjzjGp2TWFex4PMmdvy3qg1vCmeArGVakxfUdW/s400/P4160017.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YI1gp99UjCFAi4cyXdXSdevHihKcX2q121OI3L-NYNxtxsKTbVXurfVCRwoimw0P0PhHdLvKUTk7fMxgCmwgCUfETujZwbDBlsOZenFpYRRuKFnesFHxsnM02ElO6FkvGCIEfdIEl_Nm/s1600/P4160018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723083246289874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YI1gp99UjCFAi4cyXdXSdevHihKcX2q121OI3L-NYNxtxsKTbVXurfVCRwoimw0P0PhHdLvKUTk7fMxgCmwgCUfETujZwbDBlsOZenFpYRRuKFnesFHxsnM02ElO6FkvGCIEfdIEl_Nm/s400/P4160018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
Duck? Oh no. They have our duck- looks like we've got the visuals to confirm it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCEUhNuvjfehmoHCrDli0BGksYdF5tg19W7Gr7EB_IdnxQSr_v-CnEmgTCTck-8it7R8UbYIOgTwccP3_-PyjK4Kni6r4BdIdVCMi5DAL49FDScH6X-msd4_2HYz-lG2qwgdMhO1_mVqe_/s1600/P4160019.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723073943772450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCEUhNuvjfehmoHCrDli0BGksYdF5tg19W7Gr7EB_IdnxQSr_v-CnEmgTCTck-8it7R8UbYIOgTwccP3_-PyjK4Kni6r4BdIdVCMi5DAL49FDScH6X-msd4_2HYz-lG2qwgdMhO1_mVqe_/s400/P4160019.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHcUYroxvqCIFNuowfTbXNzmggMElvKYrrzQeRISfYS2_nBPSSOljXV0L-OOkWRTef7rSaQL6I9H_BOLxED0QWxvouMSDybCQkiPBp0fjBZUODpR1R27o147N_mxK70lVPA-bN2zLNNl54/s1600/P4160021.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461723066695142034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHcUYroxvqCIFNuowfTbXNzmggMElvKYrrzQeRISfYS2_nBPSSOljXV0L-OOkWRTef7rSaQL6I9H_BOLxED0QWxvouMSDybCQkiPBp0fjBZUODpR1R27o147N_mxK70lVPA-bN2zLNNl54/s400/P4160021.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Look at what they've done - they're definitely using this in an unauthorized manner. They're consuming it all. We've got to get our troops in there somehow, to stop the carnage.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DG8SX_jMjrJymb1O-XCjYsQ0RyIFyrijVbWOZiCWr_RxXHTWjmhjCVW8qztnz39lR7EMDUxloJ8o9sVQwSGqby3y7A8IIFg-ug5oVtHL7SjvcPzhGN5moZKtJhWQmENXhXu9P7vj-xdR/s1600/P4160022.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461722701433388450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5DG8SX_jMjrJymb1O-XCjYsQ0RyIFyrijVbWOZiCWr_RxXHTWjmhjCVW8qztnz39lR7EMDUxloJ8o9sVQwSGqby3y7A8IIFg-ug5oVtHL7SjvcPzhGN5moZKtJhWQmENXhXu9P7vj-xdR/s400/P4160022.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Not the . . . no! Not the cellophane noodles! Whatever you do?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncTVLeFjrLoASqMZ8LXSm2F79IvHsHmrZiS7B2Eij56fExG0CuR-QQ6vRb_WiyvWFctXEHcfb9d83slrlND1QI3nxaL8gKytH0isbNvhAjX69E2eMHOOP-4H1SvnAdSjAzO1XvXfUAyr-/s1600/P4160023.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461722695855974306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncTVLeFjrLoASqMZ8LXSm2F79IvHsHmrZiS7B2Eij56fExG0CuR-QQ6vRb_WiyvWFctXEHcfb9d83slrlND1QI3nxaL8gKytH0isbNvhAjX69E2eMHOOP-4H1SvnAdSjAzO1XvXfUAyr-/s400/P4160023.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
How did they get their hands on these state secrets?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGG7xdhh2DUcS1Vqos39XZARTGZ6UKXvFmgpKJZUWB_GNJQlMY4hRTLZlkXCuX_bz10I1IS7xh_T1lZJT6W-IRoLDyQ_VhjFYGJNB1l3RoO1Wo0z04qpX9O6XI0vI85wdtYZHi9jLsmoE0/s1600/P4160024.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461722691798945170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGG7xdhh2DUcS1Vqos39XZARTGZ6UKXvFmgpKJZUWB_GNJQlMY4hRTLZlkXCuX_bz10I1IS7xh_T1lZJT6W-IRoLDyQ_VhjFYGJNB1l3RoO1Wo0z04qpX9O6XI0vI85wdtYZHi9jLsmoE0/s400/P4160024.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
They've been reduced to absurdity. They're just reveling, aren't they? They laugh at their triumph!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTE64MCx3v6ybEmdJm9qpzN57Y2Ub_yaSTlHWQOx1M4Wp7QpMPVH_GFiYojpKTdhAYKxFUjRhZLGHwShBm5OID5f_fFeiO5VpoG7-9W3Vj5WjfqD-PvLYhnXoHO0FmwGSsMSTe3sCrIeG/s1600/P4160025.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461722680927885282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTE64MCx3v6ybEmdJm9qpzN57Y2Ub_yaSTlHWQOx1M4Wp7QpMPVH_GFiYojpKTdhAYKxFUjRhZLGHwShBm5OID5f_fFeiO5VpoG7-9W3Vj5WjfqD-PvLYhnXoHO0FmwGSsMSTe3sCrIeG/s400/P4160025.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfkMoBEEQYg44kKHLQGgG4dIbNlmCtUmSF302GYXxO7x79mCylMaGryYDC_Y821plX5DxHgCh0fKWZG3SWV6xiFiEoTVAJCCiI94xkE0vmLNHdDxR8weAd0SLBvFh5gTv1uDGvIphZGEz/s1600/P4160009.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461722678935389922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUfkMoBEEQYg44kKHLQGgG4dIbNlmCtUmSF302GYXxO7x79mCylMaGryYDC_Y821plX5DxHgCh0fKWZG3SWV6xiFiEoTVAJCCiI94xkE0vmLNHdDxR8weAd0SLBvFh5gTv1uDGvIphZGEz/s400/P4160009.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This calls for some serious counterintelligence. I'm not sure what we can do, Agent 1275, but we need a plan. We've got to get this out of the hands of the Americans. Next thing we know they'll be training their troops on this stuff. Get in there, and get in there <span style="font-style: italic;">fast</span>.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-87494795666940307772010-04-18T22:04:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:04:23.201-07:00Chinese Dinner for 1.3 BillionBack when I lived in the French house, I had a calling. It was a very special calling. I was the ward dinner chairman. I moved out after a couple months because they didn't have a spot for me in the fall and while I missed everyone dearly I had a little spot in my heart that was rejoicing because: ward dinner chairman is the hardest calling ever.<br />
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Once a month, you get to coordinate a meal for 150 people. Now, I like meals, and I like people, and I probably even like all 150 of these people but seriously. I had to sleep for 3 days straight just to recover every time.<br />
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Now that I live in the Chinese house I am on the beneficiary end of ward dinner - I show up to eat and someone else has done all the hard work.<br />
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This month, though, we had a very special ward dinner. The best ward dinner of all: Chinese ward dinner. And I volunteered to be the Chinese food consultant. (Do you think I could be a professional Chinese food consultant? If so, actually, I'm dropping out of college right now.) And so the planning and the coordination of the shopping and the coordination of the cooking was under my supervision. That's right: plan Chinese dinner for 1.3 billion people.<br />
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So here we go!<br />
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First fact: Chinese people don't use recipes. You just buy food and you cook it. I think you all really need to try cooking like this. It may freak you out a little bit; you may feel like in that first week of advanced figure drawing when they had you a 16 x 20 sheet of paper and a black permanent marker and say: Here! Make art! But at the end of the semester, how do you feel? Like the master of the marks-a-lot, that's how you feel. So if you want to be a Chinese cook, you need to stop asking for recipes. Sooner rather than later.<br />
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Second fact: This involves being able to estimate quantities. The upside, though, is that you go to the store, see what's on sale, and buy it. And then you just cook it. And life is totally fine. When you're cooking for 1.3 billion people this is a little tougher but you manage. You go to Macey's and you tell your shopping mates: "Ok, we usually get about 3 pounds of chicken for 10 people so... um... go get 45 pounds of chicken." and "Hey, will you go grab 15 dozen eggs and meet me back here?" and "Well, is that all the green onions they have? Ok, put them all in bags." It's actually pretty exciting.<br />
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Third fact: Chinese people have two things they eat: fan and cai. Fan is rice, or in some regions noodles or sometimes steamed bread. Cai means "vegetables" but it also means "dishes." Chinese people eat more vegetables in one sitting than the average American 8-year-old has had in his entire life. This is why Chinese people live until they're 120. Meat dishes are also "cai" but it takes a back seat. When you're planning a meal, you don't have a main dish and a side dish and a salad; you have fan and cai. How many cai? Well, usually 2 or 3. Or like 10 if you're being hospitable. But the nice thing is you just cook a lot of cai and you serve it family style and you don't have to worry about portions and sizes and setting the table. It's a beautiful way to eat. Hey - 1.3 billion people can't be wrong.<br />
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So here we go - we planned 3 dishes, and ate tangerines for dessert. We split our cooking teams up into three groups, one of which I supervised. I wish I had more photos, but really, it was all I could do to keep my hands attached to my body.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">First dish: Gong Bao Ji</span><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">Gong Bao Ji</span> is Kung Pao Chicken, but doesn't it sound cooler when you call it <span style="font-style: italic;">Gong Bao Ji</span>? It was named after a government official from the Qing dynasty who really liked it or something, but that made it dangerous to talk about during the Cultural Revolution and it was outlawed in mainland China until the 1980's. For real. This is how you live on the edge, friends, you eat politically scandalous chicken.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimViAFNGqc3ntry3fM30IJqBTs08pHsobgrTptp1s7xZpI3Hkoa4ToveQIOjrNmaiEUFaOBg1BrCCn9pjbuLS-T_zyzZoQbyb2tRC3ZVRs9_0pVLRPwTE1FrVvP6D5IRQv14vU6tIR2gD8/s1600/P4110011.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711307787866082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimViAFNGqc3ntry3fM30IJqBTs08pHsobgrTptp1s7xZpI3Hkoa4ToveQIOjrNmaiEUFaOBg1BrCCn9pjbuLS-T_zyzZoQbyb2tRC3ZVRs9_0pVLRPwTE1FrVvP6D5IRQv14vU6tIR2gD8/s400/P4110011.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This is my chicken chopping crew. We chopped chicken and garlic and ginger and green onions for two and a half hours. No, really. 1.3 billion people take a long time to chop for. These guys were such good sports.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8JtLfUBKvRRQgoWGcfxyFlmtHRE0IZn91SC-naWHZ2od1iD1yJkGhEJ8IouAIsWl7GyxT_Y7dU0tgcYTtECn07K3FzlLIQ0H3kp1SZAssXpwgLse78hJNVkE_6lYejaEKFHw0lHYFuSU/s1600/P4110012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711303235680242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr8JtLfUBKvRRQgoWGcfxyFlmtHRE0IZn91SC-naWHZ2od1iD1yJkGhEJ8IouAIsWl7GyxT_Y7dU0tgcYTtECn07K3FzlLIQ0H3kp1SZAssXpwgLse78hJNVkE_6lYejaEKFHw0lHYFuSU/s400/P4110012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Some of the chopping chaos. Life was complicated by the fact that we were working with <a href="http://culinaryadventuresinthechinesehouse.blogspot.com/2009/12/communist-dinner.html">communist knives</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjXGJdzJAzr09bURKIrNEExg6dwUpDEFnls-4GSzgqua5rLV_BRMscvPQg11Jru1iA3gmY5ec3QMmcfOEM3FBggcOHbyhrC0R_9BbyqML2SdvSHbC19tlOxl0YKErzsPJHxB0OPZ_9RKeB/s1600/P4110013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711295009404498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjXGJdzJAzr09bURKIrNEExg6dwUpDEFnls-4GSzgqua5rLV_BRMscvPQg11Jru1iA3gmY5ec3QMmcfOEM3FBggcOHbyhrC0R_9BbyqML2SdvSHbC19tlOxl0YKErzsPJHxB0OPZ_9RKeB/s400/P4110013.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
This was 1/4 of the peanuts we used. I soaked them in water the night before - they were just raw peanuts because that's what was cost effective. I think I bought 8 bags of raw peanuts. I think roasted would have been tastier<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4lTrv8e_clPzVniSiJjrBGxV44ClU6FiCq_u1HIQjnKTvhjMEZauxDb7QsrEa0gkASqycY9vm2DdgVY7s2fdktU_y8TV0s04UMFhdWWA2-deKUZ1vLET-kn9wEyhupRHRYsN1_mI84Ml/s1600/P4110014.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711289937288850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4lTrv8e_clPzVniSiJjrBGxV44ClU6FiCq_u1HIQjnKTvhjMEZauxDb7QsrEa0gkASqycY9vm2DdgVY7s2fdktU_y8TV0s04UMFhdWWA2-deKUZ1vLET-kn9wEyhupRHRYsN1_mI84Ml/s400/P4110014.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here's how you make the Gong Bao Ji: Stir fry chopped garlic, fresh ginger, green onions and red chiles (I just got the big dried bags from the Mexican aisle). Add chicken and peanuts. Add soy sauce and/or salt and sugar until you like it. Throw some sesame oil in at the very end. It can range from kind of spicy to really dang spicy depending on how well you divide up huge bags of Mexican chiles between 8 woks.<br />
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Second dish: Chao Cai<br /></span>I put my roommate Piao Liang in charge of the Chao Cai. Chao Cai means stir fried vegetables. It is the ultimate in not using a recipe. You know what you do? You buy some vegetables, you chop them well, and you stir fry them. I bought red peppers, purple cabbage and bok choy because they were pretty and on sale. She seasoned them with ginger, rice vinegar and salt and sugar. They came out... dang amazing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPMpz4gSWIYtckOO7aLzKRcAesPxX-vkevUsZA47-mTSCybq_efOUKor7MfjqAtzJ27CK8o-fCl6Cp4hcb8bDtfDZ5BHydTHJSuy28xr5glmTxx42NlSHEeijR3BAbgbMYalionqH94SQ/s1600/P4110015.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711282173055042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPMpz4gSWIYtckOO7aLzKRcAesPxX-vkevUsZA47-mTSCybq_efOUKor7MfjqAtzJ27CK8o-fCl6Cp4hcb8bDtfDZ5BHydTHJSuy28xr5glmTxx42NlSHEeijR3BAbgbMYalionqH94SQ/s400/P4110015.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Third dish: Jidan Chao Fanqie<br /></span> Don't the names of these dishes sound awesome? Just say it, and the room fills with mystique. Unless, of course, you speak Chinese and you know that the name of this dish means "eggs fried with tomatoes."<br />
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Someone waiting in line at dinner asked "is this even Chinese?" The funny thing is, this was the most authentic dish there. Every Chinese person I've ever known has, at one point, cooked me eggs fried with tomatoes. Sounds really boring - it's actually overwhelmingly delicious.<br />
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What do you do? You whip up eggs (15 dozen eggs in this case - usually I do 10 eggs to 5 tomatoes to 1 bunch of green onions), stir in some salt, and stir fry them in oil like scrambled eggs. Set them aside, and stir fry some chopped tomatoes. Add sugar and salt to the tomatoes and maybe some sesame oil at the very end. Throw in the eggs, the chopped green onions and fry it together just for like 30 seconds. Then, you enjoy the beauty of it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKVQAEyr86JWMTKNBB-SjC4odfcYQSiBXGy_lPYzaAXrL-J8oJSQrhVusLVr7dhE3lAl4oOHFGxBw1Y6ABDwyUNG8tk9Q4QqfTS90v1dC3FOytgo9pBpFIRNUrNz_fihUkXCePVHmd8DjE/s1600/P4110016.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461711000645725282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKVQAEyr86JWMTKNBB-SjC4odfcYQSiBXGy_lPYzaAXrL-J8oJSQrhVusLVr7dhE3lAl4oOHFGxBw1Y6ABDwyUNG8tk9Q4QqfTS90v1dC3FOytgo9pBpFIRNUrNz_fihUkXCePVHmd8DjE/s400/P4110016.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
So here we are - dinner for 1.3 billion people (this is only one half of the serving tables). It actually went of very smoothly - for once we actually had dinner ready when it was supposed to start and apart from having not quite enough rice (we had bought one 20-pound bag, which said it was 201 servings but we could have eaten more) everything was exactly enough.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheICvmNipP9mqT0KMB9YGFthkVzsIhl6c_bkFbHs6FTA7lWDJY0K3XEWWgyaMQsykwEhlpA_1qEljf-wPIGmULl8xZQLpQr9upS_jeD3zn3je8sFfEdDhZijYYZHcGV3yuTgESBs1C2FgW/s1600/P4110017.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461710990174382498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheICvmNipP9mqT0KMB9YGFthkVzsIhl6c_bkFbHs6FTA7lWDJY0K3XEWWgyaMQsykwEhlpA_1qEljf-wPIGmULl8xZQLpQr9upS_jeD3zn3je8sFfEdDhZijYYZHcGV3yuTgESBs1C2FgW/s400/P4110017.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Here's a lovely plate<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZuqrqzYCp6ydLOi_GvaMDgfoe9ZVwFzu8maKhZgL9fcupGUhzBjVef3NRD7WykbypaexOIMnOzlkWDExhOY_iNQhkCXpWgbXVsGoQRsS-wY9keIgedwnOimeHWNNWhht0sMRjf6UrBK9K/s1600/P4110018.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461710980866850706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZuqrqzYCp6ydLOi_GvaMDgfoe9ZVwFzu8maKhZgL9fcupGUhzBjVef3NRD7WykbypaexOIMnOzlkWDExhOY_iNQhkCXpWgbXVsGoQRsS-wY9keIgedwnOimeHWNNWhht0sMRjf6UrBK9K/s400/P4110018.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And my lovely co-chief Piao Liang. And my post traumatic hair disorder:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRm62AGwjY-ykInzp8GftC3Kf9W0VpemLinhSq3Am3pRBtfIx85M3BxNlTmJXu0p34I3intxMVW7L9mIf_mjoVvTZQGczDOBXndp3iHljffnEUDPMQJ_pisd8VW3IMEaLqCTXPqxyO4v2o/s1600/P4110020.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461710980064205938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRm62AGwjY-ykInzp8GftC3Kf9W0VpemLinhSq3Am3pRBtfIx85M3BxNlTmJXu0p34I3intxMVW7L9mIf_mjoVvTZQGczDOBXndp3iHljffnEUDPMQJ_pisd8VW3IMEaLqCTXPqxyO4v2o/s400/P4110020.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And some of the guys enjoying themselves. They have the most important job, which is eating everything.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGi-9zLkRS6I9BHF7u6IzTuQ_oIRwU0AfBouXj8shc3nhQXKmWC4rRrjjZYG1F4kDZ9E7gRQiA-D9rUzJNwTJXnULr10TiPKngXlArq0_WOMzLvcZdtkcLyM9kDoFNmnZYQ5rpuic4lxuR/s1600/P4110021.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461710971252812706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGi-9zLkRS6I9BHF7u6IzTuQ_oIRwU0AfBouXj8shc3nhQXKmWC4rRrjjZYG1F4kDZ9E7gRQiA-D9rUzJNwTJXnULr10TiPKngXlArq0_WOMzLvcZdtkcLyM9kDoFNmnZYQ5rpuic4lxuR/s400/P4110021.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
I was so glad it went well - I appreciated my hard-working <br />
<del>slaves </del>comrades. We did it! We fed the masses!Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-55560333264254189752010-04-18T16:04:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:04:40.957-07:00Koko Chan's First ArtichokeMy little friend Yoyo is one of those people you'll never forget. You know how Japanese women are just sweet, timid, blushing little flowers who never utter a disharmonious note? Yes. Yoyo is absolutely none of the above.<br />
<br />
She and I were mission companions. We shared all sorts of tender moments. We'd be walking down the street in a little town in Shizuoka Ken and the public announce system would start informing us that a little old lady had gone missing. Yoyo would pause, grab my arm dramatically and start humming the theme to <span style="font-style: italic;">X-Files</span>. Or there was the time that she was rather upset at a decision our zone leader had made, incensed that such a young American boy thought he knew best. She called him and when he answered, she said in very dramatic accented English: "When you were 12, I LIVED BY MYSELF." And then promptly hung up.<br />
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She is probably one of my favorite people in the world. And last fall, she made the world that much better: she brought Koko Chan into it. Koko Chan is the fattest little half Japanese baby I've ever seen, and utterly adorable. I don't get to see them nearly often enough so I invited them over to dinner a couple weeks ago.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 78%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtgOojuMICF6yFIKtihPSvOl1HKuu19OeyR0NnztUrumbgu8qi-oV9m4eYOCbb4ZhqOkLkHz73xI6CWA3_-mMHQ89zzEtP8dlFe-YbvbhdMVCyKeuKPlB_2-ZS4xHheWr6TDYYicscbqq/s1600/P3210005.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461617725004263906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtgOojuMICF6yFIKtihPSvOl1HKuu19OeyR0NnztUrumbgu8qi-oV9m4eYOCbb4ZhqOkLkHz73xI6CWA3_-mMHQ89zzEtP8dlFe-YbvbhdMVCyKeuKPlB_2-ZS4xHheWr6TDYYicscbqq/s400/P3210005.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">Koko Chan surveys my kitchen table, not sure if this is worth her time or not</span></div>
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Usually when I see them we eat Asian food of some sort. Yoyo actually taught me how to cook like a Japanese grandmother, for which I will be eternally grateful, but this time I felt like mixing it up and cooking something a little more "exotic." So let's go with France.<br />
<br />
I got some frozen tilapia fillets - tilapia is the poor pescavore's friend. I thawed them out, patted them dry, and battered them in a flour, egg & salt mixture. I then did what France would have me do - sautéed them gently in butter and garlic. I'm pretty sure my soul was sautéed in butter and garlic at one point. If not, I'll have to figure out how to get that done.<br />
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I also boiled some red potatoes and made a simple white sauce to which I added Brie cheese. Brie cheese! It covereth a multitude of sins.<br />
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Finally, I got a couple lovely artichokes at Sunflower Market and steamed them. I don't even have a proper steaming pot, but I just used a big pot with a few inches of water in the bottom and boiled them for about 40 minutes. Turned out perfect.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOi-vPuFVtmp6tw94MjbtogkgbarWjaaI8o58evKxd4hJQhDds057ntsCD5uOtE31GTgGnazIlB_2zyP_ZEu1XPMH1dtNqkyGOoYcINt5IN56pD0KinHX2FKy95Q3EaxYcQmKrMk6P8dXO/s1600/P3210004.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461617735045268610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOi-vPuFVtmp6tw94MjbtogkgbarWjaaI8o58evKxd4hJQhDds057ntsCD5uOtE31GTgGnazIlB_2zyP_ZEu1XPMH1dtNqkyGOoYcINt5IN56pD0KinHX2FKy95Q3EaxYcQmKrMk6P8dXO/s400/P3210004.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
"I don't know what you guys like on your artichokes," I said to Yoyo's husband Timmy. "My mom always liked to make a mustard sauce but sometimes I just eat them in butter."<br />
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"On our what?"<br />
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"Artichokes. How do you like them?"<br />
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"How do you even eat them?"<br />
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I had realized that maybe this was Koko Chan's first artichoke - I wasn't too surprised to find out that it was Yoyo's as well. Made sense... I don't think I'd ever seen an artichoke in Japan, come to think of it. But Timmy? Are there Americans who don't eat artichokes? Apparently there are. Well, I was glad to oblige the entire family.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxp1azh3MemSgJvNYD8LKazNB4svE_H6rwY3PWgGEZ0SHxMus2vZ5sk9py-0-yj7Syb9uMnfxR44nVMYjHlPUZ8VU2OZf-70jie69OtT9ltQTNkMaaVq9LvLac-2Q0z1wHfZEU4n4inucM/s1600/P3210006.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461617717362189090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxp1azh3MemSgJvNYD8LKazNB4svE_H6rwY3PWgGEZ0SHxMus2vZ5sk9py-0-yj7Syb9uMnfxR44nVMYjHlPUZ8VU2OZf-70jie69OtT9ltQTNkMaaVq9LvLac-2Q0z1wHfZEU4n4inucM/s400/P3210006.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
Yoyo took a bit to warm up to the idea that it was an edible object. I showed her with the outermost leaves how you scrape the meat off the very base with your teeth.<br />
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"There's almost nothing there."<br />
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"It gets better."<br />
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"Do you ever get full? Or is this just a way to make you feel like you're eating. Maybe a very good diet."<br />
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"You're dipping it in butter. Pretty sure it's not going to be a very good diet."<br />
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"American diet!"<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHHns2XbAQqy342idOexq2xkmmu2hIsG998TiB8ug-Yahieo1yIXYoSNQGXuiq5hvV28snaOpjgxlw-zU8oJFF4DS17h2JEBJ6iESxGQTtlo7O8lusOi4AurYvVwlKkKRQtRHv8NJQId9i/s1600/P3210007.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461617712785268386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHHns2XbAQqy342idOexq2xkmmu2hIsG998TiB8ug-Yahieo1yIXYoSNQGXuiq5hvV28snaOpjgxlw-zU8oJFF4DS17h2JEBJ6iESxGQTtlo7O8lusOi4AurYvVwlKkKRQtRHv8NJQId9i/s400/P3210007.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><br />
As they got closer and closer to the heart they got more and more excited. Koko Chan even perked up a little bit. She found that gnawing on the leaves was a wonderful way to pass the time, and Yoyo agreed. "Can we take these home? She can just chew on them all day and keep herself entertained."<br />
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There was much rejoicing when we finally got to the hearts. "It's full of hair!" Yoyo cried incredulously.<br />
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"It looks like Koko's hair," said Timmy, smoothing his daughter's wild locks. Koko almost has Japanese baby hair - the kind that grows straight up - but its American tips weigh it down slightly at the ends, creating a lovely wave-like crest that adorns the top of her head.<br />
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We finally got to the hearts and ate them triumphantly, covered in butter - "American diet!" and enjoyed ourselves all around.<br />
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Yoyo, with her impeccable Japanese demeanor, posed demurely for a family photo:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDFRt8QcuSvMRuxRrN0-COymixM2AaOokmgdGurCKv2E_zNLh3oXmoLE5Li9lguDQJ7FxsIIp0AEHJOmRCdSV-0OUma5QpS5X4xMhMKhU1CW5d2RNI2WQpUK5gWe2SuKzU-6gkvMzjo2_/s1600/P3210002.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461617855966645954" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDFRt8QcuSvMRuxRrN0-COymixM2AaOokmgdGurCKv2E_zNLh3oXmoLE5Li9lguDQJ7FxsIIp0AEHJOmRCdSV-0OUma5QpS5X4xMhMKhU1CW5d2RNI2WQpUK5gWe2SuKzU-6gkvMzjo2_/s400/P3210002.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 78%;">Koko Chan's first artichoke, 2010</span></div>
Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4395406291490012025.post-15589097430372789932010-03-24T21:19:00.000-07:002012-10-17T03:04:59.266-07:00Emotional Validation Through Pie<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
He Never Called Back Pie</div>
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I've never participated in Pi Day festivities before, but it was social pressure to cook something delicious so of course my pride made me participate. Unfortunately, my pride forgot to go shopping on Saturday so there we were, Sunday afternoon, staring at a frozen pâte brisée with looks of consternation on our faces.<br />
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"I have all of the ingredients we would need for a pecan pie except for the pecans," I told Hui Lian.<br />
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"Well, we'll just add something else," she suggested.<br />
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"What are our assets?"<br />
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"I have oatmeal and apples."<br />
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"Deal."<br />
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I fished out my <a href="http://culinaryadventuresinthechinesehouse.blogspot.com/2009/11/gonna-make-pie-with-heart-in-middle.html">famous family pecan pie recipe</a> and got to work.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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This is the point in the narrative where the protagonist's fatal flaw leads to a train of events that will eventually end in catastrophe. What is my fatal flaw? We talked about this already - pride. Pride is my weakness. <i>And your faith in your friends is yours!</i><br />
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So, right at the point in the pie where I was supposed to add a cup of corn syrup, I got all prideful and decided "High fructose corn syrup is the devil. Natural things that come from the earth are wonderful. Therefore, I shall replace half of this corn syrup with something benevolent. Like molasses."<br />
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Let's just cut to the chase and deliver the moral of the story: never add a half cup of molasses to a pie.<br />
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It was pretty, though! Also, there were enough people at the party that none of them knew who brought the nasty apple pie. Mwa ha ha ha ha!<br />
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The success in this story, however, lies, in the veracity which we unwittingly bestowed on the pie's title. We had given the pie a title, see, in honor of Hui Lian's recent life events. (I have plenty of anecdotes my own as well, of course, to lend credence to the phenomenon.) We had named it "He Never Called Back Pie." And oh, how satisfying! You cut yourself a beautiful, appetizing piece of "He Never Called Back Pie," with its lovely, fluted flaky crust and you settle down to eat it when you realize - "Bitter. Dark. It's bitter and dark. It got my hopes up and then it didn't follow through." And then you cry into your pillow.<br />
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You know who you are.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsz1ghWI0bqJ31amcI1OXy40y9_pBLdrhVq0LZAJAi4CvORiydk5BCz8hd5Bkv0c4H5zmS4pcNb0hYCxtku6lfbB0x-Ob_NPYqNac5UVlcq2zUsftxme3IzJauUkLPA2L7Tf8DHgCGvCnQ/s1600/P3140001.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452424406732969010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsz1ghWI0bqJ31amcI1OXy40y9_pBLdrhVq0LZAJAi4CvORiydk5BCz8hd5Bkv0c4H5zmS4pcNb0hYCxtku6lfbB0x-Ob_NPYqNac5UVlcq2zUsftxme3IzJauUkLPA2L7Tf8DHgCGvCnQ/s400/P3140001.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
Keep Talkin' That Mess, That's Fine, But Could You Walk and Talk at the Same Time Pie</div>
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I repented for He Never Called Back Pie, and so it was with full confidence a week later that I tackled a simple <span style="font-style: italic;">tarte au chocolat</span> in the French tradition. And I am happy to inform you that this story will have a much happier ending than the last one.<br />
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The recipe I found called for a pre-baked crust (bake it for 15 minutes with dry beans in the bottom to keep it from bubbling. And to lend a pleasant Chinese Checkers look to the bottom of your crust. And then take out the beans and bake it for five minutes more and take it out.), a cup and a quarter of heavy whipping cream, two eggs, some vanilla, and eight ounces of dark chocolate.<br />
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I only had half of a Newman's Own organic chocolate bar because I accidentally ate the rest, and it was nowhere near eight ounces, so I made up for it with a lot of cocoa and a little bit of brown sugar and it came out just fine.<br />
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Heat the cream until it begins to bubble, and mix in the chocolate/cocoa/brown sugar and vanilla. In a separate bowl whip the eggs, and add just a little of the hot cream to temper them. Then whisk it all together, pour it in the crust, and bake it at 350 for 18 minutes or a few more until it's solid in the middle.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauABC1I18C8SYY7jUDSNDfPe3hyphenhyphent17UiE1gPm4lUoEdM7NQCC_VokNsyIsjX1XtEtXv_tmZOWML3A5YlXqWesj0IKNkGxiOlgUfg_Ihmk2DBXYcHYXQqWKCIhImXGyNwAWLEZ78qFdHl5/s1600/P3210012.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452424417301962898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauABC1I18C8SYY7jUDSNDfPe3hyphenhyphent17UiE1gPm4lUoEdM7NQCC_VokNsyIsjX1XtEtXv_tmZOWML3A5YlXqWesj0IKNkGxiOlgUfg_Ihmk2DBXYcHYXQqWKCIhImXGyNwAWLEZ78qFdHl5/s400/P3210012.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
And it's really dang beautiful, and everyone eats it and there is a general feeling of love all around. Because those scoundrels who treated you bad? You kicked them to the curb.Annie Japanniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11597462471442823536noreply@blogger.com0