Sago soup 西米露

Last week I was looking up recipes I had a chance at making on my hot plate -- a narrow list that solely includes things that can be boiled, such as soup and noodles -- to use some of my stash of foods the school has given us teachers for holidays.  I have things like dried mushroom, jujubes, lotus seeds, etc.  I found that an obvious thing to do was red or green bean (different than American beans, I think we'd call them azuki and mung beans) soup.  All I'd need to buy was sago, the tiny tapioca balls.  Well, long story short I've gone crazy and already made a huge bowl of red bean soup, and today decided to make a quick and easy sago milk soup, or 西迷露。 I've had it at restaurants and quite enjoyed it, so I'm thrilled that mine turned out the same. I added apples instead of taro, since that's what's in my fridge today.

The incredibly easy recipe via pictures tutorial:

Sago starts out small, white, and dry.

Boil in water for 10 minutes

The outside will be translucent and the inside still white.  Turn off heat and allow to sit for 10 more minutes, it will continue to cook itself.

The white inside will become clear.  Drain the water and return sago to pot.

Add coconut juice and a fruit for flavor, such as mango, taro, or apples.  Cook for a couple minutes for flavor.

It's usually served chilled, if you can wait that long.  As it sits, the sago will expand and thicken the soup slightly.

And the delicious result:

Enjoy!

Veggie meals and supermarket fishing

Vegetarian eats are very rare in China, since even vegetable dishes are cooked in animal grease and everything's cooked in the same place (I gave up after the first week of not being able to eat anything and decided for sake of sanity to eat meat). But there are a couple (expensive) restaurants I've been to that are delicious, and we recently found a new cute place with great food and better prices.  Take a look.

And not vegetarian, but entertaining.  Just a man fishing for dinner at the supermarket.

Eat Slowly -- Hot Pot

I've been diligently taking photos of the food I eat, so I bring to you one of my favorite forms of cook-your-own-meal dining here:  Hot pot.
There are variations as you will see in the picture, but the premise is the same.  You have a bowl of boiling stock, you order pieces of meat and veggies, put them in the stock, let them cook and eat at your leisure.  There is a set seasoning to it, I think, because a lot of them taste very similar ( = delicious ).
I've had hot pot in it's birthplace (don't quote me on that, but it's at least the most famous) in Chengdu, where the pandas are.  There is the spicy capital of China, and it was much to hot to eat and enjoy.  China spicy doesn't mean Mexican delicious flavor spicy, it means your mouth will literally go numb.  Luckily there is almost no spicy in Shenzhen.
The pictures I have include: a super awesome hot pot place where the pots look like wizard hats and are also very dangerous because you have to navigate the large burning structure to retrieve food; the lovely miss Christiane modeling a standard hot pot table; and a close up view of a potato retrieval out of a hot pot where one side is spicy stock and one is standard soup.

Super awesome "wizard hat" hot pot place. 

The lovely Miss Christiane modeling a hot pot table with plates of meat slices, lettuce, and tree ear mushrooms.

Up close and personal with a spicy potato.

So there you have it.  Let your mouth water and be jealous, this stuff is delicious.

Eat Slowly -- Homemade

I know I've been promising all along to do some food posts, but haven't gotten there yet.  You really cannot overstress the importance of food in this culture.  If you see a friend, you don't ask "how are you?"  you ask "have you eaten?"  And the food is delicious, if not the healthiest!  Instead of "enjoy your meal", they will tell you to 慢慢吃, or "eat slowly".

The variety is different than in Beijing, and many of my favorite dishes from there aren't here. More to explore!  Some of my favorites include Chinese eggplant, dumplings, tree ear mushrooms, BBQ sticks, and noodles (there are too many different kinds to count).

Well, with much ado I now bring you Eat Slowly!  This post is dedicated to some homemade foods, (since I've been slacking on breaking out my camera in restaurants ;) ).  I will bring you more photos from restaurants, street food, and produce soon! 

Homemade is difficult for me here, because of the limited cooking supplies and area.  I only have a hotplate and microwave to cook with and have never appreciated a stove and oven more!  Hot plates are awful as far as cooking goes.  I've managed to burn rice and noodles that were still boiling in water!  Not to mention the only sink in my apartment is tiny and I miss my disposal...  I could do more on my end for sure but I haven't decided it's worth the effort yet.  My neighbor, on the other hand, is a very adept cook.  They have a gas stove and a small oven, and she knows how to use it!  So the few home cooked good meals I've had here have come from her.  Here I've included the dumplings and crab meals, as well as my own boiled dumplings, mushrooms, and a creative East-meets-West lunch I made with Thomas.  

Eat slowly!

Homemade dumplings, of course!

Dumplings with tree-ear mushrooms

Dinner at my neighbor's -- crab, fish, beef with peppers, cabbage, and rice.

And just for fun, our most inspired cross-cultural meal thus far -- fried noodles, steamed buns, chicken wings, and grilled cheeses :D

The Crab Saga

Well, as predicted, the crabs showed up on my doorstep this afternoon.  And in true China fashion, as I should have predicted, they turned out to be ten very alive, very fast crabs in a cardboard box.  Ha!  I gave them to my neighbors and they invited me over for dinner.  It was quite the adventure, we lost two crabs and had to chase them around their apartment.  In the end, a delicious feast complete with hairy crabs and French wine.  The highlight?  When the student foreign teacher from no-ocean Colorado caught on to the joke "Which is faster, green crabs or red crabs?"

Good (and filling) to be the king!

They have this holiday called "Teacher's Day" here, and it's tomorrow.  Closely followed by the Mid Autumn Festival on Monday, which is like Chinese Thanksgiving.  So our school and students have been giving us gifts all week.  I now have more fruit and rice and things than I have any idea what I'll do with.

From the school:  rice, oil, grapes, oranges, pine nuts, milk, goji berries, dried jujube, misc dried fuits jar, and best of all -- dried tree ears!  They're this marvelous mushroom thing that grows on wood so directly translates as a tree ear, haven't been able to tell if there's a real English word for them or not.  If there is, I don't care, "tree ears" is too great a name haha.  You soak the dried ones and then put them in soups and things, it's delicious.  More to come in a planned massive entry about the food here. 
I'm curious about the milk because it was not refridgerated.  So I'm not sure what "milk" means in this case, I'll let you know when I find out.
Outside of this picture is a large box of fresh jujube fruits and a handful of little phone charms from students.  Ay yo yo!  I think I'm going to propose a fruit swap for the teachers in my area, because I will never finish 30 oranges, 3 large bags of grapes, and a box of jujubes because they go bad!

Well, must go to bed.  I have to wake up at 630 every morning for breakfast before my 8am classes!  (I know my parents are rolling their eyes but I've been in college for the majority of my recent life so 630am every day is killing me!)  The classes are going better, but still need a lot of fixing.  I'm teaching my department head's classes tomorrow and she'll be watching so wish me luck!