D wanted to buy a basket ball. So, we went on down to the local all-in-one department store to find one. After choosing the ball (an American brand) and convincing himself that the inflated import price was appropriate, D tried to check out.
This, of course, was not easy (nothing is easy here).
He wanted to use his credit card because we didn't have enough RMB on us to pay for the ball (who knew it would cost around 300 RMB?), so the salespeople hustled us to a special counter where he could use his credit card. Credit cards are not common here, so there's always a flurry of activity around someone who wants to use one. And since D's is an "international" (a.k.a. non-Chinese) credit card, the purchase requires a manager's approval.
All was going relatively smoothly until they turned over his card to look at his signature. D wrote "ASK FOR ID" on the back of his card, an attempt to get US clerks to ask for his ID so that they be sure that the person bearing the card is, indeed, D.* In preparation for showing ID, D had his passport open and ready.
Can anyone guess what happened next?
The clerk insisted that he sign the receipt "ASK FOR ID" so that it matched the back of the card. D's explanations in English about "determining my identity for security reasons blah, blah, blah" were not understood (shocking, eh?). She wouldn't let him sign his actual name.
The clerk was very thorough, though. She even compared D's "ASK FOR ID" on the receipt with the one on the back of the card. She wasn't too pleased with the match (they didn't match well at all), but she let him buy his basketball anyway.
*This business about writing "Ask for ID" on the back of a credit card rather than signing your signature to it sparks quite a debate among some people. Apparently, the folks who use the ID line on the back are afraid that if someone were to steal their credit cards, the thief could just forge the signatures. Those thieves, however, would have a harder time producing ID with a matching name and so on. Or so the thinking goes.
The US postal service will have none of this. If you don't sign the back of your credit card, you can't use it to make purchases at the post office. Why? Credit cards usually say "not valid until signed" on the back.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival
Today is a holiday in China -- Mid-Autumn Festival. It's not a national holiday here, which means that employers don't have to give their employees a holiday. Our college did give us today off, though. And even better -- they didn't make us come in to work last Saturday to "make up" for our day off (it's common practice in China to readjust workers' and students' schedules so that they have to come in on the weekends prior to and/or following a national holiday. It's a shitty practice, in my opinion. You don't really end up getting a holiday at all, just a readjusted work schedule).But back to the Mid-Autumn festival. Supposedly, it began with an uprising:
The Mid-Autumn Festival is believed to commemorate a Chinese uprising against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). Plotting to overthrow the Mongol government, Chinese conspirators exchanged secret messages about the day of the rebellion written on slips of paper and hidden inside mooncakes. The uprising, which brought down the Yuan Dynasty, took place on the 15th day of the eight month of the lunar calendar.But now it represents something less tumultuous:
Long void of its rebellious meaning, the Mid-Autumn Festival has come to celebrate the end of the summer harvest season when the moon is closest to the Earth. Families would gather together to enjoy the beauty of the full harvest moon and snack on little cakes with a round shape that imitates its fullness.
The small pastries with a thick, sticky filling either of lotus seed or red bean paste are so rich in taste that tradition dictates they have to be cut into slivers and consumed with sips of tea.I did, indeed, partake in some moon cakes (that's a moon cake in the photo above). In fact, two of my students supplied me with them when they found out that I didn't have any to snack on! I'm curious to see if stores around here have a post-festival reduction on moon cake prices because if they do, I'll be shipping some across the pond to some lucky readers out there :-)
The festival has not come without scandal, though. Food prices are on the rise in China, and people are getting pissed:
The beloved national tradition of nibbling sweet pastry mooncakes and admiring the fullness of the harvest moon in the Mid-Autumn, or Moon, Festival has been hit by China's runaway inflation, forcing vendors to opt for frugal variations of the rich treat.I haven't seen any social unrest myself, and I certainly haven't seen it on the news (the news, which is controlled by the powers that be, never airs that sort of thing). But I will certainly keep my peepers peeled!
The round pastries eaten and given away as gifts during the lunar festival, which this year falls on Wednesday, have fallen prey to inflationary pressures along with all other food products. Annual inflation in China hit an 11-year high of 6.5% in August, raising fears of rapid erosion of living standards and potential social unrest.
Producers of mooncakes have found themselves in a bind. As China's food prices have soared, the cost of raw materials to produce the cakes has increased by 15-30% too. But worried that surging prices could touch off unrest across the country, the government has issued stern edicts warning against price gouging and dictated that the prices of the traditional treat should be kept stable.
NOTE: Quotes donated by Asia Times Online
Friday, September 21, 2007
Authentic Chinese Food . . . Or is it??
Do instant Ramen noodles and Spam sound like "real" Chinese food to you? I know quite a few people who would argue with someone who said that "real" Chinese people (admittedly a tricky term) don't eat this sort of food. Rather, they eat some sort of "authentic" Chinese dishes that you can only find if you go to China. Or Chinatown.
I am here to tell you that these naysayers are wrong.
Sometimes we encounter food here that makes us laugh because it's (1) it's so familiar and (2) it totally goes against what a lot of people think that Chinese really eat.
Take for example this dish:
It is exactly what it looks like. Ramen noodles (the instant kind) and Spam. D ordered this at a restaurant near our campus. The deluxe version of this dish includes a fried egg on top.
Indeed, there are lots and lots and lots of things to eat in China that you can only find in China or Chinatown. BUT, this kind -- instant noodles with everyday topping -- isn't rare here. Below is a photo of me sampling a similar dish (I swear that the noodles were Maruchan brand, they tasted so familiar!) in the southern part of the city (mine has the fried egg):
To my left in the photo is the "green vegetable" (i.e., whatever green vegetable the kitchen has on hand) that is served with meals in China. In this part of the world, a meal just ain't a meal without some sort of green vegetable dish (never mind that most of the time they seem to serve stir-fried lettuce, which has fewer nutritional benefits than water).
What's most interesting to me about this type of noodle dish is that it's both familiar to me and to the locals here. So, this kind of food is both foreign to China and local to this area. That is, this kind of food is real Chinese food. Real Chinese people eat it. Real Chinese people cook it. So, the next time you're eating Ramen noodles and spam (or hot dogs or whatever), and someone tells you it isn't "authentic," you can tell them that you know better.
I am here to tell you that these naysayers are wrong.
Sometimes we encounter food here that makes us laugh because it's (1) it's so familiar and (2) it totally goes against what a lot of people think that Chinese really eat.
Take for example this dish:
It is exactly what it looks like. Ramen noodles (the instant kind) and Spam. D ordered this at a restaurant near our campus. The deluxe version of this dish includes a fried egg on top.
Indeed, there are lots and lots and lots of things to eat in China that you can only find in China or Chinatown. BUT, this kind -- instant noodles with everyday topping -- isn't rare here. Below is a photo of me sampling a similar dish (I swear that the noodles were Maruchan brand, they tasted so familiar!) in the southern part of the city (mine has the fried egg):
To my left in the photo is the "green vegetable" (i.e., whatever green vegetable the kitchen has on hand) that is served with meals in China. In this part of the world, a meal just ain't a meal without some sort of green vegetable dish (never mind that most of the time they seem to serve stir-fried lettuce, which has fewer nutritional benefits than water).
What's most interesting to me about this type of noodle dish is that it's both familiar to me and to the locals here. So, this kind of food is both foreign to China and local to this area. That is, this kind of food is real Chinese food. Real Chinese people eat it. Real Chinese people cook it. So, the next time you're eating Ramen noodles and spam (or hot dogs or whatever), and someone tells you it isn't "authentic," you can tell them that you know better.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
My Kingdom for Dunkin' Donuts Coffee with Cream and Sugar
Before we made our great journey across the sea, we were warned by many sources that "real coffee is hard to find in China. All you can find is instant. And if you do find real coffee, it's terrible."
This isn't exactly true.
They were right that instant coffee is what you commonly find in that you can find instant everywhere -- at grocery stores, at restaurants, people's homes. So, if you're dying for coffee -- so much so that you'll drink something that's a close relative of real coffee, you won't be disappointed. Judging from what I've seen, most people who drink coffee in China drink instant coffee. And, they usually drink some variation of "Milk Coffee" -- instant coffee that has sugar and powdered milk already mixed into it. Instant's entre into the market was probably made easier by the fact that to make it, you "just add hot water," and since all of the water coolers around here have a hot water tap, you're good to go (and since you can't drink tap water here, water coolers are everywhere).
Packages of real coffee (what people here call "ground coffee") are hard to come by. The big international grocery store where we shop only sells one kind of ground coffee. ("International" means that they sell some non-Chinese things, like Land-o-Lakes cheddar cheese.) I've not seen ground coffee for sale anywhere else yet. You definitely can't just run down to the local market and buy this -- they'd only have instant.
You can, however, order real coffee at some restaurants. But this is what you get when you it:
Butter pat used to give you a sense of scale
This is about 4 oz. of coffee. Having been raised on the teat of "free refills" and venti Starbucks, this dinky thing (which I've started referring to as "European sized coffee") is simply not enough. But it has to be. Because coffee here is expensive. And that is what we weren't prepared for.
The coffee in the photo above costs around 2.5 USD (depending on the place where you order it). And that's the cheap coffee (not instant, but the cheapest real coffee on the menu). That means that a cup of coffee is at least as expensive as most meals on restaurant menus. When D and I order coffee with our meal, it doubles the bill's total, and more than doubles it if we order a second cup. It would be cheaper for us to drink beer with our meals (a can of beer is around 30-50 cents USD).
Also, making real coffee is labor intensive. There are no coffee pots at restaurants**; instead, each cup is made by hand using a vacuum method of preparation. This is what the contraption looks like before the water and coffee come into contact with each other:
This method produces a tasty cup of coffee. But most days I just miss crappy drive-through coffee in paper cups (especially, I am embarrassed to admit, Dunkin' Donuts coffee).
Needless to say, the majority of the people in our city (1) don't drink real coffee and (2) probably couldn't afford to even if they wanted to. Even the instant coffee is pretty pricey (and by pricey, I mean it costs about the same as instant coffee in the US, which means that it's expensive here).
So, now you know: Real coffee is hard to find and insanely expensive, but it tastes good if you can get it. Instant coffee is easy to find and also expensive. Of course, the situation may be different in big cities. Our town of 1 million people is small by China's standards.
Notes:
* Coffee shops here are not really coffee shops. They are over-priced restaurants that just happen to feature coffee as the beverage of choice. They think you're a bit weird when you just order coffee. They also serve all kinds of bizzarro coffee drinks. Here I am drinking something called "Noble Lady Coffee" ('cause, ya know, I'm am noble ;-) Note the extended pinky:
And check out the swanky interior of this coffee shop (called U.B.C. Coffee):
This place is huge, and in addition to serving coffee
and food, also serves a full bar
** Coffee pots/makers are hard to come by at stores, too. And expensive. And kind of crappy.
This isn't exactly true.
They were right that instant coffee is what you commonly find in that you can find instant everywhere -- at grocery stores, at restaurants, people's homes. So, if you're dying for coffee -- so much so that you'll drink something that's a close relative of real coffee, you won't be disappointed. Judging from what I've seen, most people who drink coffee in China drink instant coffee. And, they usually drink some variation of "Milk Coffee" -- instant coffee that has sugar and powdered milk already mixed into it. Instant's entre into the market was probably made easier by the fact that to make it, you "just add hot water," and since all of the water coolers around here have a hot water tap, you're good to go (and since you can't drink tap water here, water coolers are everywhere).
Packages of real coffee (what people here call "ground coffee") are hard to come by. The big international grocery store where we shop only sells one kind of ground coffee. ("International" means that they sell some non-Chinese things, like Land-o-Lakes cheddar cheese.) I've not seen ground coffee for sale anywhere else yet. You definitely can't just run down to the local market and buy this -- they'd only have instant.
You can, however, order real coffee at some restaurants. But this is what you get when you it:
Butter pat used to give you a sense of scale
This is about 4 oz. of coffee. Having been raised on the teat of "free refills" and venti Starbucks, this dinky thing (which I've started referring to as "European sized coffee") is simply not enough. But it has to be. Because coffee here is expensive. And that is what we weren't prepared for.
The coffee in the photo above costs around 2.5 USD (depending on the place where you order it). And that's the cheap coffee (not instant, but the cheapest real coffee on the menu). That means that a cup of coffee is at least as expensive as most meals on restaurant menus. When D and I order coffee with our meal, it doubles the bill's total, and more than doubles it if we order a second cup. It would be cheaper for us to drink beer with our meals (a can of beer is around 30-50 cents USD).
Also, making real coffee is labor intensive. There are no coffee pots at restaurants**; instead, each cup is made by hand using a vacuum method of preparation. This is what the contraption looks like before the water and coffee come into contact with each other:
This method produces a tasty cup of coffee. But most days I just miss crappy drive-through coffee in paper cups (especially, I am embarrassed to admit, Dunkin' Donuts coffee).
Needless to say, the majority of the people in our city (1) don't drink real coffee and (2) probably couldn't afford to even if they wanted to. Even the instant coffee is pretty pricey (and by pricey, I mean it costs about the same as instant coffee in the US, which means that it's expensive here).
So, now you know: Real coffee is hard to find and insanely expensive, but it tastes good if you can get it. Instant coffee is easy to find and also expensive. Of course, the situation may be different in big cities. Our town of 1 million people is small by China's standards.
Notes:
* Coffee shops here are not really coffee shops. They are over-priced restaurants that just happen to feature coffee as the beverage of choice. They think you're a bit weird when you just order coffee. They also serve all kinds of bizzarro coffee drinks. Here I am drinking something called "Noble Lady Coffee" ('cause, ya know, I'm am noble ;-) Note the extended pinky:
And check out the swanky interior of this coffee shop (called U.B.C. Coffee):
This place is huge, and in addition to serving coffee
and food, also serves a full bar
** Coffee pots/makers are hard to come by at stores, too. And expensive. And kind of crappy.
Pizza Hut
Ever wonder what Pizza Hut is like in China? Well, wonder no more. D and I have done the investigative research for you.First things first: Pizza Hut is not the red-neck hangout that it is in the U.S.A. Rather, it's a place where the nouveau riche bring their one child for an over-priced meal. And the decor reflects this. The interior is all stone and glass and shininess (kind of like the lobby of a fancy hotel). Also, there's a lot more staff around to do odd things -- like hold the door open for you when you enter and exit the building.
Second: the menu is both strange and familiar. While they do have pizzas (including their classic Pan Pizza), some of the pizzas are weird. Like the special that they were running on a stuffed crust shrimp pizza. Which sounds good. Until we realized that there were raisins and mayo on the Pizza. And don't count on ordering bread sticks here. Most of the appetizers are tailored to a different palate. Like these lamb cumin meatballs (inexplicably served with a side of salsa) that we ordered:
BUT, we did also find waffle fries on the menu (Spicy Western Waffle Potatoes) which were served with genuine Heinz Ketchup! See how happy I am! (And yes, what you see on the plate is the whole serving):
We were conservative and ordered the equivalent of a Supreme Pizza. The only weirdness was the addition of pineapple. Here, D happily serves me a piece:
Pizza Hut in China also has the same Nazi-like rules about the salad bar that Pizza Huts in the US have. That is, they allow only one trip. Native Chinese folks, however, have made an art out of sticking it to the man where this one trip business is concerned. They've developed a an impressive skill of putting as much food from the salad bar as possible into one bowl. It was fascinating to watch. First, a ballast layer of carrot sticks or something else sturdy goes down. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, other layers are built up into every sturdier walls of melon, cucumbers, or more carrots. Then, the middle is filled to the brim with other goodies. (The people here don't seem to distinguish between vegetables and other stuff where salad making is concerned. Crutons go on top of melon. Melon gets salad dressing. And so on.) And everyone does this. It takes them about year to make their bowls up. One fellow was especially skilled. He was quite proud, I think, that we wanted to photograph his handiwork:
Impressive, no? (His wife thought that it was hi-larious that we wanted to take a picture of this. All we could do was give a thumbs-up in support of his masterpiece, which he seems to understand perfectly).
The meal was insanely expensive (kind of like Pizza Hut in the U.S., no?) But since it was familiar, I didn't care. I don't usually enjoy Pizza Hut, but this was a treat. Interesting how context can change the value of something.
Cost for the Pizza Hut meal: 160 RMB
Average cost of our meals in China (at a sit-down place) 40-70 RMB (1/2 of which is usually the cost of coffee)
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Cheungzhou at night
I've posted here about some of the less modern aspects of China. But not all of it looks like a third world developing country. Sometimes, if you squint your eyes (so that you can't really see the Chinese writing on buildings) and plug your ears a bit (so that you can't hear all the chatter and the drivers incessantly blowing their horns) and hold your breath (so that you can't quite smell all the weird smells), you might think that you are in some mid-sized U.S. city.
Case in point: Here are two views from a pedestrian bridge that crosses the main drag running north and south through Zhuhai. This photo was taken near the big "international" grocery store where we shop (i.e., they sell [land 'o lakes] cheese and real coffee) in a part of the city called Cheungzhou.*
Photo 1: Basic view:
Photo 2: Artistic blurry lights view:
In truth, these photos don't capture the size and bustle of the city. I mean, we are living among 1,000,000 + souls here. Of course, my Chinese students laugh and laugh at me when I refer to Zhuhai as "big" -- after all, there are a number of provinces in China that have larger populations than some countries in the world (our province alone has a population of 69.61 million**). One million people, the approximate population of our city, is a drop in the bucket -- a small town.
*I've been told that Cheungzhou means "fragrant city." It is fragrant, but not in a "wow, that smells like flowers/fresh baked cookies/insert nice smell here" way.
** Guangdong province is 71796 sq. miles. See more China population stats here.
Case in point: Here are two views from a pedestrian bridge that crosses the main drag running north and south through Zhuhai. This photo was taken near the big "international" grocery store where we shop (i.e., they sell [land 'o lakes] cheese and real coffee) in a part of the city called Cheungzhou.*
Photo 1: Basic view:
Photo 2: Artistic blurry lights view:
In truth, these photos don't capture the size and bustle of the city. I mean, we are living among 1,000,000 + souls here. Of course, my Chinese students laugh and laugh at me when I refer to Zhuhai as "big" -- after all, there are a number of provinces in China that have larger populations than some countries in the world (our province alone has a population of 69.61 million**). One million people, the approximate population of our city, is a drop in the bucket -- a small town.
*I've been told that Cheungzhou means "fragrant city." It is fragrant, but not in a "wow, that smells like flowers/fresh baked cookies/insert nice smell here" way.
** Guangdong province is 71796 sq. miles. See more China population stats here.
Our new pet
We have a new "pet" in the Runningburro household. A giant (and by giant, I mean GIANT) cockroach. It has calves and biceps and I think that it smiled at me.
I wish I had a photo to share. But of course, he runs from the light like the creature of darkness that he is. Even if I were able to catch him (he hides in the AC unit), I probably wouldn't be able to smash him. I mean, can you imagine the crrrunnnnchhh it would make?
To clarify: our apartment in not dirty (well, not filthy, anyway). It's just that this place is so hot and humid that roaches thrive here.
A colleague of mine gave me a warning today: don't leave the cap to your bedside water bottle off. Or you might get a mouthful of roach like she did one night when she took a swig from her opened bottle.
Gah!
I wish I had a photo to share. But of course, he runs from the light like the creature of darkness that he is. Even if I were able to catch him (he hides in the AC unit), I probably wouldn't be able to smash him. I mean, can you imagine the crrrunnnnchhh it would make?
To clarify: our apartment in not dirty (well, not filthy, anyway). It's just that this place is so hot and humid that roaches thrive here.
A colleague of mine gave me a warning today: don't leave the cap to your bedside water bottle off. Or you might get a mouthful of roach like she did one night when she took a swig from her opened bottle.
Gah!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Tour of Jin Ding
Saturday we took the day off from work and went exploring. After fortifying ourselves at Mr. Pizza, we wandered around Jin Ding. [Click photos to embiggen]
We met these chickens, who, apart from being tethered to a tree in the middle of a busy shopping/eating area, seemed relatively happy:
These chickens? Not so much.
I bought a pair of "Chinese" sandals from this lady, who was cutting out more sandals from a sheet of pleather (yes, that's me in the foreground):
This was right around the corner from the main drag in town:
These are the kinds of spaces that always surprise me here. Busy, busy, busy, traffic, traffic, traffic, and then an unexpected field.
A kid mopping. It was funnier in person. He was really getting into it, even if the mop was getting the best of him. And he was really mopping the floor, not just messing about:
Chinese pick-up truck:
Post-yarn buying high (2 skeins of wool and 6 pairs of so-so needles for around 6 USD):
We met these chickens, who, apart from being tethered to a tree in the middle of a busy shopping/eating area, seemed relatively happy:
These chickens? Not so much.
I bought a pair of "Chinese" sandals from this lady, who was cutting out more sandals from a sheet of pleather (yes, that's me in the foreground):
This was right around the corner from the main drag in town:
These are the kinds of spaces that always surprise me here. Busy, busy, busy, traffic, traffic, traffic, and then an unexpected field.
A kid mopping. It was funnier in person. He was really getting into it, even if the mop was getting the best of him. And he was really mopping the floor, not just messing about:
Chinese pick-up truck:
Post-yarn buying high (2 skeins of wool and 6 pairs of so-so needles for around 6 USD):
Friday, September 7, 2007
Two Illiterates go to Lunch
Near campus, there is a street that is lined with eateries. These cater to the 35,000 students who attend our college and the two neighboring universities. All told, there's probably about 20 of them, but only two have English-friendly menus (one has English, the other has pictures). For the most part, the non-Chinese patronize these two establishments and avoid the others.
Wusses.
D and I decided to throw caution to the wind and try a popular place with a menu entirely in characters and without any pictures. We went armed with a list of common Chinese dishes in English, Pinyin, and characters. We figured that if all else failed, we could just point to something on our list and the server could indicate whether or not they had it at the restaurant.
The procedure at the place we chose is this: go to your seat, read the little paper menu, and check off the things you want on the paper menu itself. Then the server takes your menu with your checks and puts in your order. Your food arrives at the table as the kitchen makes it. This means that one dish might arrive well ahead of the others. The food sort of trickles to your table (this staggered arrival is the norm here).
We managed to find dumplings on the menu by matching up the characters on our list with the ones on the menu. Emboldened, we tried to find noodles ("look for the character that resembles a t.v. paired with one that looks like two people on a hill" and so on). We weren't having any luck, so when the server came around, we showed her our list of characters, which included the generic phrase for "stir-fried noodles" and she showed us something on the menu that kind of matched that. We also pointed to a beef dish on our list, and she checked off something on the menu that corresponded to it. Finally, we ordered a green veggie, without which no Chinese meal is complete (they usually just bring you whatever green veggie they've got that day).
All was going well until we tried to order water. We know the word for water, so we just asked for it rather than pointing to our list of characters. She looked confused (our pronunciation is horrible) but then indicated something on the menu. I told her that we wanted 2 of them, and she looked kind of surprised by my request (this should have given us pause).
So, to recap: we ordered dumplings, a noodle dish, a beef dish, a green veggie, and two waters.
Imagine our surprise, then, when this was brought to the table:
What you're looking at is sweetened red beans atop a bowl of shave ice that's been sweetened with coconut milk.
Minutes later, a second one arrived.
So now we have to enormous bowls of this stuff, which, when we ordered it, thought we were ordering water. We were dying of thirst, so we ate it (the ice was refreshing), even thought it was kind of bizarre to eat something so sweet before our "real" food. (We did try to order water again, but to no avail. The server kept telling us they didn't have it -- "meiyou". Later, we found out that the only beverage that this place sells is soy milk).
The rest of the meal was as expected, although we forgot to order rice, so we had to use our noodles to complement the beef dish (dumplings not pictured because we scarfed them down before I could get the camera out). Here is a lovely photo of our tasty food:
And here is a photo of a pre-meal Smiley D (you can see the restaurant's sign in the background. We think it kind of looks like KFC's sign, and we refer to this place as KFC2):
Wusses.
D and I decided to throw caution to the wind and try a popular place with a menu entirely in characters and without any pictures. We went armed with a list of common Chinese dishes in English, Pinyin, and characters. We figured that if all else failed, we could just point to something on our list and the server could indicate whether or not they had it at the restaurant.
The procedure at the place we chose is this: go to your seat, read the little paper menu, and check off the things you want on the paper menu itself. Then the server takes your menu with your checks and puts in your order. Your food arrives at the table as the kitchen makes it. This means that one dish might arrive well ahead of the others. The food sort of trickles to your table (this staggered arrival is the norm here).
We managed to find dumplings on the menu by matching up the characters on our list with the ones on the menu. Emboldened, we tried to find noodles ("look for the character that resembles a t.v. paired with one that looks like two people on a hill" and so on). We weren't having any luck, so when the server came around, we showed her our list of characters, which included the generic phrase for "stir-fried noodles" and she showed us something on the menu that kind of matched that. We also pointed to a beef dish on our list, and she checked off something on the menu that corresponded to it. Finally, we ordered a green veggie, without which no Chinese meal is complete (they usually just bring you whatever green veggie they've got that day).
All was going well until we tried to order water. We know the word for water, so we just asked for it rather than pointing to our list of characters. She looked confused (our pronunciation is horrible) but then indicated something on the menu. I told her that we wanted 2 of them, and she looked kind of surprised by my request (this should have given us pause).
So, to recap: we ordered dumplings, a noodle dish, a beef dish, a green veggie, and two waters.
Imagine our surprise, then, when this was brought to the table:
What you're looking at is sweetened red beans atop a bowl of shave ice that's been sweetened with coconut milk.
Minutes later, a second one arrived.
So now we have to enormous bowls of this stuff, which, when we ordered it, thought we were ordering water. We were dying of thirst, so we ate it (the ice was refreshing), even thought it was kind of bizarre to eat something so sweet before our "real" food. (We did try to order water again, but to no avail. The server kept telling us they didn't have it -- "meiyou". Later, we found out that the only beverage that this place sells is soy milk).
The rest of the meal was as expected, although we forgot to order rice, so we had to use our noodles to complement the beef dish (dumplings not pictured because we scarfed them down before I could get the camera out). Here is a lovely photo of our tasty food:
And here is a photo of a pre-meal Smiley D (you can see the restaurant's sign in the background. We think it kind of looks like KFC's sign, and we refer to this place as KFC2):
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Won't you be my neighbor?
These folks live across the street from us.
In fact, there's a whole neighborhood of these houses across the way, lining the pathway to the village nearby. This is the kind of thing that foreigners like me are startled by -- the extremes that coexist side by side. I live in a gated compound. It looks like a resort hotel. These houses make Loretta Lynn's childhood home look like a tidy suburban residence. And we're only separated by a tiny strip of concrete.
In the U.S. we have our own share of poverty (which is one the rise). My old neighborhood in CNY was a case in point. But it was segregated from the "nicer" parts of the city, even if only by a block or two. And that seems to me to be the main difference. Here, there's a lot less segregation (although I suspect that that will change now that cars are becoming more popular here. The wealthy can live further away, can flee the scene). Poverty here very visible here.
It's not just the people that suffer poverty here; other animals do, too. There are lots of stray dogs and cats around, especially in the village. I saw the saddest puppy the other day, a little black doggie huddled against a filthy building trying to keep out of the rain. It was missing a bit of fur and it looked like nobody loved it. It was difficult to resist my first impulse: to scoop it up and take it home and introducing it to Jameson.
Some of my readers will be relieved to know that the stray dogs leave people alone. In general, they don't approach you or bark at you or chase you or anything. Today, though, a dog fight broke out about 10 feet away from me as I was walking on the path to the village. 3 dogs started fighting with each other and then 4 or 5 more dogs came running from who knows where to join in on the festivities. Instead of vacating my bowels and screaming in terror (my normal reaction), I just calmly walked by, pretending that nothing was happening (I made sure to keep my umbrella handy, though). I even managed to snap a picture of the "loser" as he ran away. You can see his hind end peeking out from behind the wall.
In fact, there's a whole neighborhood of these houses across the way, lining the pathway to the village nearby. This is the kind of thing that foreigners like me are startled by -- the extremes that coexist side by side. I live in a gated compound. It looks like a resort hotel. These houses make Loretta Lynn's childhood home look like a tidy suburban residence. And we're only separated by a tiny strip of concrete.
In the U.S. we have our own share of poverty (which is one the rise). My old neighborhood in CNY was a case in point. But it was segregated from the "nicer" parts of the city, even if only by a block or two. And that seems to me to be the main difference. Here, there's a lot less segregation (although I suspect that that will change now that cars are becoming more popular here. The wealthy can live further away, can flee the scene). Poverty here very visible here.
It's not just the people that suffer poverty here; other animals do, too. There are lots of stray dogs and cats around, especially in the village. I saw the saddest puppy the other day, a little black doggie huddled against a filthy building trying to keep out of the rain. It was missing a bit of fur and it looked like nobody loved it. It was difficult to resist my first impulse: to scoop it up and take it home and introducing it to Jameson.
Some of my readers will be relieved to know that the stray dogs leave people alone. In general, they don't approach you or bark at you or chase you or anything. Today, though, a dog fight broke out about 10 feet away from me as I was walking on the path to the village. 3 dogs started fighting with each other and then 4 or 5 more dogs came running from who knows where to join in on the festivities. Instead of vacating my bowels and screaming in terror (my normal reaction), I just calmly walked by, pretending that nothing was happening (I made sure to keep my umbrella handy, though). I even managed to snap a picture of the "loser" as he ran away. You can see his hind end peeking out from behind the wall.
Lunch for $2.40
This is what I had for lunch:
Chilie Tofu and some kind of fried pancake thingie with chopped veggies in it. The meal cost 18 RMB, which is about $2.40 at today's exchange rate. I should mention that I ate this meal at a restaurant with table service -- a nice place.*
Notice there's no white rice. They don't serve that unless you ask for it. And even if you ask for it, they often bring it at the end of the meal -- people here tend to view white rice as a filler, something you eat at the end of the meal after the meat, veggies, and other stuff.
*This restaurant is a local chain and has 4 locations in the city. Their specialty is dumplings, but the dumpling menu is all in characters, and I can't tell what's what. So, I ordered items that were pictured in the menu. The point-and-order method. Next time I am taking a dictionary with me to try and figure out the dumpling menu.
Chilie Tofu and some kind of fried pancake thingie with chopped veggies in it. The meal cost 18 RMB, which is about $2.40 at today's exchange rate. I should mention that I ate this meal at a restaurant with table service -- a nice place.*
Notice there's no white rice. They don't serve that unless you ask for it. And even if you ask for it, they often bring it at the end of the meal -- people here tend to view white rice as a filler, something you eat at the end of the meal after the meat, veggies, and other stuff.
*This restaurant is a local chain and has 4 locations in the city. Their specialty is dumplings, but the dumpling menu is all in characters, and I can't tell what's what. So, I ordered items that were pictured in the menu. The point-and-order method. Next time I am taking a dictionary with me to try and figure out the dumpling menu.
The Wide World of Chinese T.V.
On nights that I stay home from the gym, I watch CCTV and enjoy a beer. CCTV is China's national TV network, and like the BBC, they have more than one station. For example, CCTV 5 is the sports channel. CCTV 6 plays a lot of movies (but they usually dub over any English with Chinese, so it's pointless to watch it). CCTV 9 is the English language station, and it's the only English language t.v. station we get.
Unfortunately, most of what CCTV 9 shows is b.o.r.i.n.g. But one bright spot is Culture Express, a show about easy-to-digest current trends that is hosted by Ji Xiaojun, and he's the reason why I watch the show.
Why do I like watching him so much? Well, he seems to have learned to speak English from listening to tapes of Howard Cosell, and listening to him talk is a treat in and of itself. You can hear him in this snippet of Culture Express on YouTube (he introduces the segment on Chinese singer Fei Xiang, China's answer to Barry Manilow). Cracks. me. up.
Unfortunately, most of what CCTV 9 shows is b.o.r.i.n.g. But one bright spot is Culture Express, a show about easy-to-digest current trends that is hosted by Ji Xiaojun, and he's the reason why I watch the show.
Why do I like watching him so much? Well, he seems to have learned to speak English from listening to tapes of Howard Cosell, and listening to him talk is a treat in and of itself. You can hear him in this snippet of Culture Express on YouTube (he introduces the segment on Chinese singer Fei Xiang, China's answer to Barry Manilow). Cracks. me. up.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Chinese Food -- A Primer
If you'd like a more specific idea of the kinds of foods we've been eating, check out this great website by a (now former) expat. It's a primer on ordering Chinese food in China, complete with pictures of common foods and descriptions. Good stuff.
I found the section on breakfood foods to be pretty instructive. I've been wondering what passes for a "breakfast" food around here. I've been eating cup noodles, fried rice, or oatmeal. Time to try some you2 tiao2 and bao1 zi3.*
*Because I don't know Chinese, I rely on a form of romanization called Hanyu Pinyin to help me (try to) pronounce Chinese words. The numbers after the words above tell you what tones you should use with those words (first tone, second tone, etc.). I don't want to say any more on this topic, lest I embarrass myself (especially since I know that Jonathan stops by to read this every now and again)!
I found the section on breakfood foods to be pretty instructive. I've been wondering what passes for a "breakfast" food around here. I've been eating cup noodles, fried rice, or oatmeal. Time to try some you2 tiao2 and bao1 zi3.*
*Because I don't know Chinese, I rely on a form of romanization called Hanyu Pinyin to help me (try to) pronounce Chinese words. The numbers after the words above tell you what tones you should use with those words (first tone, second tone, etc.). I don't want to say any more on this topic, lest I embarrass myself (especially since I know that Jonathan stops by to read this every now and again)!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Mr. Pizza
Today is a banner day for us. We had pizza for lunch. Real pizza.You can see in the photo that D has a kind of manic look on his face. This is because after a month of tasty but unfamiliar food, we lucked into a Englishman-owned pizza joint called Mr. Pizza that is about 10 minutes from our house in a village called JinDing. This place serves true Western-style food.*
D's pizza had cheese, pepperoni, beef, and bacon. Mine had cheese, mushrooms, and chilies. It was thin crust pizza -- like those stone-grilled pizzas that were really popular in the states a few years back. We also had Italian olives, French bread with olive oil for dipping, and marinated sun-dried tomatoes with roasted garlic.
And on the right-hand side of the photo, you can see D's coke -- what you can't see is the ice in the coke. That's right -- ice! What a treat!
This menu sounds mundane to all of you, I'm sure. But it was heaven on a plate for us. We have been enjoying our culinary adventures here, but I wasn't prepared for how happy I was to eat something as "boring" as pizza.
* Self-proclaimed Western-style restaurants here usually don't serve what we consider to be Western food. Sometimes they just serve other types of Asian food. In this case, "Western" means non-Chinese (but could mean Japanese, Thai, etc.). Sometimes they serve Western food, like sandwiches, but they're really weird -- not at all what you'd find in North America or even, I suspect, most of Europe. Sometimes a Western restaurant will have a typical Chinese-mix menu, but will bring you a fork instead of chopsticks if they perceive you as non-Chinese. So, the only thing Western about it is that it has international cutlery. For all of these reasons, we inwardly groan when a Chinese person -- who is trying to be helpful -- recommends a restaurant to us that serves "Western" food. We don't entirely hate Western-style restaurants like this -- there is something kind of entertaining about seeing their "take" on North American/European food and watching Chinese people try to eat whole sandwiches with chopsticks.
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