Category Eating
If you’ve ever learned anything about Chinese New Year, I’m guessing you were told that Chinese families gather together at Spring Festival to bao jiaozi (stuff dumplings.) While that seems to be true in much of China, it isn’t so… Continue Reading →
Here in China, Valentine’s Day is an imported holiday. It’s celebrated only by 1) young couples who aren’t yet married, 2) any restaurant, flower shop, or bar that can make money off of said young couples, and 3) laowai. Since… Continue Reading →
Today I’m continuing the fanciful trip through the market with another fruit that looks like it’s straight outta the Jungle of Nool. It’s 火龙果 huo3long2guo3, literally ‘fire dragon fruit,’ but usually just called “dragon fruit” in English. (Personally, I think… Continue Reading →
If Dr. Seuss had been a horticulturist instead of an author, I’m pretty sure he’d come up with a few of the fruits and vegetables that we have here in the Middle Kingdom. Let’s take a look at these strange… Continue Reading →
Do not be fooled. Despite the shiny foil wrappers and cutesy hearts on the package, these are not candy. They’re 肉粒, “meat pellets.” Wow, that really doesn’t sound appetizing. Let me try for a better translation: How about “meat granules”?… Continue Reading →
My original post on using jiaozi wrappers to make life easier got an enthusiastic response, including creative ideas from you, friends. There’s so many great ways to use these wonder circles of dough. It seemed like a good idea to… Continue Reading →
I don’t know about you, but any recipe that requires dough to be rolled out raises a great big mafan flag for me. For one thing, I don’t have a lot of counter space in my kitchen. For another, I… Continue Reading →
There have been, on occasion, bags of soup bones for sale in the butcher area of our supermarket here in rural China. I love using bones for soup – bones make the broth. So, on a fateful day not that… Continue Reading →
So, what do we eat here in China? We get asked this all the time by people here, who assume we eat nothing but this, all night, all day. If I had to eat these “Western” dishes every day, it… Continue Reading →
Every once in a while, I get a food daydream. Not a food craving, but a daydream, where just for a split-second, I am suddenly imagining myself eating something I could never get here in rural China. Today’s dream was… Continue Reading →