Favorite China Foods [part 2]

Well, some days have passed and I have been able to venture out and find some new varieties of food to show you from 东北 (Dōngběi, northeast).

If you couldn't tell from part 1, food in China is a very special and very delicious thing. Meal times are always a pleasure because we are usually eating with students, or with each other. Very rarely do you ever see someone eating alone in China. It's practically unheard of. I think of all the times in college were I would sit alone in the dining hall reading a book or doing some homework [or cramming for an exam]. Food and meal times is “community time” in China, something I very much appreciate.

Without further adieu, I'll introduce you to some more of my favorite foods!

“Yu Xiang Qie Tiao”

Fried and sweetly battered eggplant. Our new team favorite!

"Guo Ba Rou"

 Perhaps this is the most Dongbei dish that you could possibly ever order.

It is also the closest thing to General Tso's Chicken that we can find.

However, it's friend pork in a sweet sauce, covered in cilantro and carrots shavings.

“Zha Cheung Lain Cai”

Tofu strips with cucumber and carrot, glass noodles, soy sauce and vinegar.

(depending on where you go, some places throw some sugar on top, some places throw in spicy chillies.)

"Rou Si Ban Fan"

Ok, ok, it's really a Korean dish, but it's served in our cafeteria!

Meat strips, rice, a plethora of veggies, egg, and spicy kim chee sauce.

“Rou Duar Qie Zi”

Fried pork, pepper, and eggplant in a sweet sauce, served over rice.

****“Ma La Tang”****

My other favorite

This is known as a 'female dish'. Why? Because all the girls love it! 

But be careful, ma la tang is “not good for your health” (so they say...).

The best part about it? You choose what you want to go in it!

Usually that includes all sorts of noodles, different typed of tofu, greens and veggies boiled together. 

Top it off with as much 'la' [spice] as you can handle!

...oh, and just so you know, no meal is ever complete without a bottle of this stuff...

Peanut Milk!

(Wo)Man versus Nature

It all began at 2am.

Tap…tap-tap…tap-tap, tap.

Odd, because 2am isn’t the usual time that Michael practices his tap-dancing routine. These were different taps. They had no rhythm, and they were close. Very close.

The wind outside was howling like I’ve never experienced before in Harbin. The students said that more snow was coming, they didn’t say that it was a winter storm. As I steadily awoke from my sleep and listened more intently I realized that the sounds were coming from above my head, not from Michael’s apartment. I soon realized that the sounds were not coming from the wind, but coming from something that was…alive.

With flashbacks of every horror film running through my mind I threw off the covers and turned on a light. Moments of silence, then tap, tap-tap-tap.

It was in the AC unit. Claws on plastic, continuous shuffling and scurrying. I had stood up too fast for my sleepy brain to really put together what was going on. I stared at the AC unit for a solid 5 minutes, listening, triple-checking that this was real life.

I was alone. It was dark and windy. And there was no way that I was going to wake any of my teammates up from their precious slumber. I flashed forward to a {possible} time in my life where I could simply roll over and say “honey, I heard a noise, do you think you could go check it out?” However that {possible} time & security of life is no where in sight, SO… I had to conquer this beast alone. I closed all the doors, creating a trap, and I grabbed my handy-dandy cell phone {with a built-in flashlight} and peered up the unit.

Grates. There’s grates all up inside, making it impossible for me to see what was causing all the ruckus. So I did what any sleepy female would do….I grabbed my pillows and comforter and made myself cozy on the couch.

Our make-shift animal trap.

Now please, hear me out. I know I’m a girl, but I’m not a wuss. I can hold my own. There was a time in my life where we had a mouse in our house, and every morning before school my mom would send me to check all the traps before she would enter the room. There is a massive difference between checking a mouse trap and the possibility of a mouse falling on your head while you sleep.

Just like a kid who’s scared of the monsters in the closet, I too became super attuned to any noise that my apartment decided to make, the refrigerator actually getting a ‘jump’ out of me. I listened as my water filter did its thing, as my windows creaked, and as the fridge hummed along in the night. But throughout the noises, there was still one that remained…the scratching of something alive.

Laying on the couch my mind flew back to the bird fiasco in the office [no pun intended]. Oh God, what if it’s a bird that wiggles itself through the grate and poops on all of my stuff? I threw off the covers yet again and charged back in the bedroom, hiding away all of my valuables from the potential of poop. I then thought about what it would look like to chase a bird out of my room with a broom, or to sleep with the windows open, just in case. I decided against it, as I didn’t want to end up with a pyramid of snow on my windowsill in the morning.

I laid back down and sang to myself “I’ve got peace like a river” over and over and over again. After about an hour of playing the “what-if” game, and having childhood J---s songs on ‘repeat’ in the iTunes of my mind, I was able to calm myself down and sleep for a couple hours.

Things are less scary in the day-time, even if the sun is covered by a gray snowstorm. I was awakened at the break of day by noises. Those noises. I got in contact with the males of my team. Wes was the only member who was available, so down to my apartment he came, armed with rubber gloves and a box for trapping “it”. My plan of attack was to assemble a huge garbage bag over the apparatus and disassemble it until the animal was freed.

Turns out, there are too many grates inside for the booger to be trapped in that we didn’t have access to, so on and on it scrambled. Within hours we told our Aiyi (dorm mother) about the situation. She defended that it was merely a bug [yea, right], but after some more drawings and persuasion, she agreed to call pest control and said that they would be by later in the afternoon.

How does this story end? I don’t really know the answer to that. As of now, there is no more clawing. After talking to Aiyi, I left to teach class. Upon arriving back to my apartment, there was no evidence that anyone arrived to take care of the situation [culture note: Chinese maintenance men are known to leave a mess anywhere they go]. SO!

Hypothesis 1: “Animal” managed to escape [doubtful, but possible].

Hypothesis 2: Pest control came and took care of everything.

Hypothesis 3: The thing is dead in my air conditioning unit.

…I guess we’ll find out in a few days, won’t we??

So Remember in September?

I know what you're thinking. 

“Kayla, why would you put a picture of a terd on your blog?”

It’s not a terd, I promise. My photography skills were lacking earlier today, but I really wanted to convey a point. You see, these little boogers are red hot chili’s. They were the first things we noticed eight months ago as soon as a dish was served to us in Beijing. We would take a look at the dish and squirm if we saw splotches of red throughout it, knowing that our mouths were going to soon be in pain. As a team, we would pick out as many as we could, usually leaving pyramids of chili’s for our waitresses to laugh at. We were the foreigners. We couldn’t handle spicy.

China also has these tricky little devils called “numbing spices”.  They literally look like a black, prickly acorn, but they’re small enough to hide under rice and leafy greens. If you happen to take a bite of one, you’ll immediately know why they’re referred to as “numbing spices”…your entire mouth {and front of your face} goes instantaneously numb. Don’t worry, the effect only lasts for about 10 minutes.

All these things I had completely forgotten about until today. Pressed for time and by a massive to-do list, I ran to the cafeteria and got my food “da bao” [to go]. As I was shoveling the hu bao da to cai down my face, I couldn’t help but notice all the red flakes that were in my food. I thought about how I was devouring these red peppers with no problem, not even a blink. To top it off, I was actually enjoying the dish, spices included.

I’m very much a “progress person”. I love tracking progress. I love seeing growth. I love being able to say to my students 

“hey remember in September when you couldn’t {blah blah blah}?? Look what you’re doing now!” 

  Usually that makes their eyes get super big, and the pitch of their voice shoots up an octave.  

“Really teacher?!”

Yes, kiddo. Really, really.

So remember in September when I was super winded after 95 stairs eight times a day?

So remember in September when all I could do in the cafeteria was point?

So remember in September when the woman at the register would tell me something, and I’d hand her 100 RMB hoping and praying it was enough?

Those stairs…mastered. Even taking them two by two…and racing!

That cafeteria…friends with all of the cooks at every station.

That woman talking to me…I understand.

Well, sometimes.

Favorite China Foods [part 1]

It's the question I've been hearing all year: "What's real Chinese food like??"

The simple answer is this: "Awesome!"

Often times, I offer the explanation that "Chinese food is different than American-Chinese food."

I know a lot of you are curious, so I started carrying my camera around with me to meals so I can show you some food that are commonly consumed by... me :)

 

We call this one "Jin Jen Gu Ban Mien"

Warm Veggies, Noodles, and peanut sauce

  

"Hua Bao Da To Cai"

Also known as 'fire cabbage', spicy cabbage served over rice

 Quite possibly my favorite "meal"... "Ji Dan Huar Tuar Hui Mien"

Spicy noodles, egg and greens.

 

My favorite dish, forever & always, "Gam Bien Dou Jiao"

Spicy green beans!

More to come, I promise...I just gotta go eat more food.

 

Odd Habits

I did something tonight that inspired this blog post. I made myself laugh out loud. Don’t get me wrong, that happens on an everyday basis, but this one was particularly special. You see, we live in a dormitory. I just so happen to live on the sixth floor. And while there are abundant windows and things throughout the entire building, at night our building tends to be very dark. This is because all of the lights in the hallways and stairwells are sound-wave censored. This means that if I stand at the bottom of the stairwell and let a high-pitched and resounding “bop” escape from my vocal chords, all of the lights in the entire stairwell would turn on…for a whole 15 seconds.

Everyone has a different style to turning on the lights. There is a man on my hallway somewhere who has taken up the sound of “hacking a loogie” as his method of turning on lights [at least…that’s what I tell myself he’s doing]. Each of the girls have created their own sound, and Michael plays ‘ninja’ every time he climbs the stairs, as to see if he can sneak past the detectors.

I’ve recently gotten into the habit of slapping my thigh as I climb the stairs. It makes sound, it gets the job done, and it’s not obnoxious. If for some reason or another I don’t produce enough sound to turn on the light, I’ll usually add a little extra force to the next step that I take, instead making me sound like a grumpy and disappointed adolescent.

Alls that to say, I found myself wandering back from the teaching building tonight, alone, and in a shadowy corner.

I slapped my thigh. 

I slapped it again. 

I then stomped my foot. 

Twice.

I couldn’t figure out why my path was still dark.

Brilliant, Kayla. In case you were wondering, China still has yet to install motion-censored lights along dark and shady sidewalks. Try as you might to cause a commotion and produce light, it’s just not going to happen.

Imagine what the word would be if we could have motion-censored lights at our disposal. No child would ever be scared to adventure through the forest, or to look in their closet. Disney princesses would be way more self-sufficient women and wouldn’t need their Prince Charming to come save them from evil forces. There would be no excuse for falling into holes or stepping in puddles. The list goes on and on…

I laughed. I hope you did too.

Saturday in Pictures

 Miss Lauren: "These are chips and salsa. In America, there are a lot of Mexican restaurants, and when you go to a Mexican restaurant, they will often give you all the chips and salsa that you want for free!"

Amy: "Oh so great! Here in China, we have a lot of Chinese restaurants."

Sharing the joy of the "Zac Baker" dance moves.

Students from 501, the "Wonderful Sunshines"

We Have Won

I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not hard to make fun of me. I frequently set myself up for stuff. It’s completely unintentional. There’s another secret too. I’m a loser, and I’m serious. Allow my college ‘Settlers of Catan’ record of  0-72 testify to that. Of all of the hundreds and hundreds of games that I played in college, the only one that I can remember a victory on was entitled “Ticket to Ride”. You build trains and connect roads, but it’s so much cooler than that. If you’ve never played, trust me, it’s life changing. An overarching theme of my life is games. I love games, guys. I just love games. [not games with guys…not same-same…]

Our team has taken up a new hobby to playing Cribbage. If you’ve never heard of it, you should know that it’s a card game. If you have heard of it, you automatically think “oh, that’s an old-person card game.” If that’s the way you think… Team Harbin is a fan of the elderly, then. It’s super cool. Due to the high amount of playing time that has recently been logged, we’ve recently gotten into the habit of “trash-talking.” Some team members are really good at it. Others…well, I’m the only one who is bad at it. I’m really not the biggest fan of being intentionally mean to anyone, game or not. In fact, I’m frequently teased because my gaming philosophy is that we are all on the same team, and therefore everyone is a winner. This is continually a point that I am made fun of for, especially being that my record isn’t the hottest thing under the sun. Actually, if you are to look at the mathematical proportions of "games played" verses "victories accomplished", my record is really quite pathetic. And it's not that I don't go down without a fight. It's always that I'm just out of reach. What a life to live; always just out of reach of victory. Almost successful, almost proving yourself.

However, the other day for all of 30 minutes there was a slight shift in the universe in which I happened to cross the finish line before my tall, male opponent (What? I’m not naming any names, Michael!). Funny how quickly my philosophy of “everyone is a winner” was quickly adapted and looked upon as truth when the tables were turned. I say this because it makes me smile and it’s a fresh reminder that life, although a really big deal in the grand scheme of things, can’t be taken too seriously.

I also say this because  I have a new favorite worship song. I'm still perplexed at how in all my years and background of music and worship experience this song has never seemed to cross my path. Now that I have it, I gotta tell the world so that no one else experiences the atrocity that happened to me.  I promise you that it’s totally worth the $1.29 on iTunes. It's the same price on Amazon. It’s one of those that send shivers through your body, that you can’t help but seeing bursts of white light and the Glory of our Father. You know, you might as well buy the whole album. No really, just do it, you won't regret it. The specific song I'm talking about is the title track, number 15. The chorus of the piece sings like this:

“Hallelujah we’re redeemed and made free 

by the blood of the Lamb we have won

Hallelujah we will sing victory, 

J---s conquered the grave, G-- be praised.”

And I know it’s silly, but for someone like me who is a loser by blood, I can victoriously claim with all of my heart and soul that “we have won”. Those are incredibly heavy and victorious words, especially in regards to the Eternal Victory. Whoooo hooo buddy!