Feb 5-10, 2010

Last Blog entry until the end of Chinese New Year
February 5 - 10 2010

Pretty much all the foods are steamed or fried in a pan. There is a wide variety of tastes. A lot of the food I've tried is mildly salty, the "spicy" dishes haven't been too spicy, there's been a few veggie dishes that are vinegary that I haven't been too keen on, but most of it has been really good. My favorite dish so far is a beef and yam dish. It's hard to describe the flavor but it's almost a mix of a curry flavor (although there is no curry in it) and the taste of beef broth. Frances had a few guests over the other day for dinner and her boyfriend, Alex, did all the cooking (and cleaning. Hint hint boys!) all the dishes were fantastic! Sweet pork, beef and ginger, beef and yam, egg and tomato, and two veggie dishes which don't translate; one looked like green spaghetti, it was really good, and the other was like a cabbage salad type dish…but steamed. (I didn't try that one) after the main dishes were worn down a bit he brought out hard boiled eggs. They were hard boiled the normal way, peeled and then boiled in a mix of spices, soya sauce and wine. I had a hard time trying it because it was brown, but I'm glad I did because it was sooooo yummy. Alex has agreed to teach me how to make these dishes. Hopefully our schedules aren't too busy that I miss this chance. I'm not sure when he leaves. :-S
The care and preparation that is dedicated towards the food here is incredible. I thought it was going to be gross and sloppy, rather, they are usually very attentive to how the food is managed. The fruits and veggies are very fresh at the beginning of the day if you are shopping at kiosks, but if you go to a grocery store it's fresh almost all the time. Just like home. I usually buy my groceries from the "Trust Mart" which is like a Wal-Mart. I haven't needed too many meal type groceries…it's almost always cheaper to eat out…plus they cook better food than I ever could. The water we use is ordered over the phone…just like "the Culligan Man" (I don't know if I spelled that right), the milk I have been drinking comes in juice boxes, and the coffee/milk tea I use comes in a powder that you just add water too. Really there's not a lot different in the way that groceries are handled, I could get normal milk if I wanted, it's just that I don't drink it enough to warrant buying a whole jug at a time.

I was able to participate in Jordan's (the school) Spring Festival Celebration. We went to a hotel banquet room where some of the teachers put on some performances and some prizes were given out. I didn't put on a performance or win a prize but I did enjoy myself. All the foreigners were sat at the same table, which was nice because then I had breaks from Chinese throughout the night.
The food that was brought out was: crab (I tried this one), clam type something that was bloody when you opened it (I didn't try that),chicken, a yummy thick soup with egg and mushroom, a yummy what I think was fish, but not really sure, that was in a sweet lemon sauce, Peking duck, a soup that was sweet and had papaya, dates, and frog eggs in it (I tried that one), some fruit (watermelon, grapes, cherry tomatoes, and something similar to a grapefruit but a little sweeter) and rice. Surprisingly, I didn't have any rice.
The performances were mostly popular songs that the girls chose to do, there was one girl who did a dance with fans (Chinese fans with fabric attached to the ends so it looked like scarves floating) it was very pretty. The last game they played for prizes was one were they had to chug a beer…the beers were the size of Big Bears…there was three girls and one really tall Chinese guy; he won but they all ended up getting prizes anyways.
It was a good night. :-)

I went for coffee with a girl from school the other day and she taught me a few phrases in Chinese which I've even put to use a couple times. I have also had a chance to wander through the market place a couple times and have made arrangements to hang out with some of the other foreigners before the new year festival.

I'm getting super excited for my family to come to China; they will be here in a couple of days.
YAYYYYYY! Well happy Chinese new year everyone and I probably won't have a chance to write until after the holidays; which end February 22nd. ^_^