The Backdoor Culinary Tour of Modern China

Hey, good to see you! It's been awhile. Are you hungry? I'm starving. Let's see what there is to eat. Here's some old friend you'll probably recognize:





Even though I don't get up for it very often, my favorite meal is breakfast. These are steamed dumplings filled with pork sausage...



...but these are my favorite! They're dumplings filled with pork sausage and pan-fried. I go to the same place for breakfast almost every day.



I just went to the grocery store, let's see what's in the fridge. Oh, take a look at this. Yep, that's right, yougurt is a beverage in China. This one is strawberry, and it toally beats strawberry milk.



Oooh! This is the best ice cream bar in China.



I like these cookies. They're covered in black sesame seeds, and inside is a kind of sweet bean paste. Sounds gross, but they kinda taste like peanut butter.



My favorite thing here by far is all the fresh produce. Look at these tiny mandarin oranges!



These are called li in China, and nashi in Japan. In the US they are known as Asian Pears. They are crisp like apples and taste like lovely, fresh ripe pears.



This is xiao bai cai, Chinese cabbage. It's similar, but not quite the same as what I've seen in the US labelled as bok choy.This is a staple vegetable here.



Sounds good? Okay, let's cook some up. Lot's of garlic, of course, a quick trip in a wok...



So, now who gets the ice cream for dessert?

Chinese Independence

It's National Holday week here in China, which also coincides with the Moon Festival, a time to spend time with your family and enjoy the harvest moon. That's cause enough for a week off from school! Sunday night a friend got us some tickets to a fireworks display on the Yangtze. If there was ever any doubt that the Chinese invented fireworks, I can personally testify that it is true. For the finale there were fireworks exploding right out of the surface of the water! There was one set that exploded in traditional Chinese red paper lanterns that floated down with glowing streamers. I didn't get a very good picture of it, unfortuantely. Still, on the whole, they were...

"The finest rockets ever seen..."

"They burst in stars of blue and green..."

"And after thunder, golden showers..."

"Came falling like a rain of flowers."