an Americanish life in backwater China

Category Eating

To Win Chinese New Year, You Must Master Snacks

If you want to host a Chinese New Year’s party, you’ll find plenty of tips and how-to’s online about what dishes to serve, what decorations to use, different Spring Festival greetings to use, how to accumulate enough fireworks to start… Continue Reading →

An Expat Tale (Of Taxis, Trains, and Turkeys)

    What is it with U.S. American expats and turkey?!? In honor of Thanksgiving and our beloved bird, I’m recounting a couple crazy turkey tales over at Taking Route today. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving! An Expat Tale (Of Taxis,… Continue Reading →

What in the Middle Kingdom? Tamarind, the Cat Poo Fruit

I knew tamarind existed before we moved to China. On trips to Mexico and Thailand, I had met this fruit, but only in the form of drinks, candies, and pad thai sauce. It was nice to discover that tamarind is… Continue Reading →

The Night Pizza Made Me Cry

I looked at the lid of the box for a long time, and even took a picture to send to my sister on WhatsApp. She’s an expat, too, so I knew she would understand. What I was holding was a… Continue Reading →

Sorry, Americans. No fruit mooncakes for you.

Our first Mid-Autumn Festival in China was very memorable for a number of reasons, including a nice big #Chinafail. I was mostly having a blast learning about what would quickly become my favorite Chinese holiday. We learned about Chang-E, the… Continue Reading →

How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies in Just Two Months!

So, your spouse/child/roommate/classmate/self has requested that you make authentic chocolate chip cookies (i.e. NOT chopped Dove cookies). While your cosmic twin expends virtually no effort opening a pack of break-n-bakes in Alternative Universe America, you’ll be whipping up a batch… Continue Reading →

My most favorite fruit in the whole wide world – jackfruit

In Thailand, durian is the King of Fruit, but in my world, jackfruit reigns supreme.  I had never even heard of jackfruit before moving overseas. Even after moving to Asia, it took me a while to try it. I think… Continue Reading →

My second favorite fruit in the whole wide world – mangosteen

This made my day. We stopped by our neighborhood fruit shop, and lo and behold, there was a nice big pile of mangosteens for sale! It’s the first time I’ve seen them this season, and they won’t be around for… Continue Reading →

What in the Middle Kingdom? 枇杷 Pipa (loquats)

Pipa are delicious fruit that remind me of apricots –same size, same texture, very similar flavor. You may have heard of these as loquats, which I only recently learned is what they’re most commonly called in English. They grow in bunches… Continue Reading →

How to eat sugarcane like the delicious fruit it is

We live in the largest sugarcane growing region of China, so we’re quite familiar with seeing fields of it, or trucks rumbling down the street piled high with it. We’re also quite familiar with eating it! It’s considered a fruit… Continue Reading →

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