May 31 - Learning to Cook Chinese Food and other adventures

The day started with our typical lesson but this time the lesson was described as an activity and our activity was to learn to cook Chinese food. I was excited about this prospect when I saw the itinerary in Johnson City, not so thrilled with it yesterday. I have decided that I can only eat one Chinese meal per day. I think Bill was right when he suggested that it may have more to do with eating in what are essentially restaurants all the time as it does Chinese food. Also, I don't think it is the food itself necessarily. Although the food can be a little rich I am pretty much always tired so food of any kind would be less tempting.

So we met out two student guides in front of our building and they took us to the cafeteria in the building where Henry is staying. One of the guides was Vickie who took us to Tianenmen Square and will be going with us to the Forbidden City tomorrow. This is the same building where they brought us the first day and fed us the huge banquet. They explained that each of us would get to help cook a meal and then someone would help the chef personally. This seemed to fall apart somewhere during the meal because nothing like this ever happened. We were all invited to help just whenever we wanted. There was also lots of discussion in Chinese and a lot of standing around initially - perhaps they didn't know to expect us on this day.

I have only ever seen glimpses of a restaurant kitchen through an open door. It was an experience for me just to be in the kitchen much less one that was preparing Chinese food. Our first task was for someone to stir a flour and water mixture. Young student Ron was more than eager for the task. He apparently didn't do it quite right though. He started mixing and changed direction. Both girls shouted at him, "One direction only!" It would seem this is important. The young apprentice or sous chef took over and ended up adding an egg, scallions, carrots, and various spices, including MSG. The girls dutifully called out each ingredient. He then poured the mixture onto a griddle looking device, put the lid down, flipped once and pulled them off. They were really, really good and were only slightly thicker than a crepe. I watched him put in all the ingredients and it didn't seem complicated at all. I'm not sure I could remember everything that went one but this would be one to fix at home.

Next was dumpling making. Neil had helped to mix and knead the dough before we started the little crepe things. It was time to pinch the dough into little squares and make the dumpling holder. Only the guys attempted the pinching part but none of them every got it right. The only criteria I could really see was size but I don't think any of them worked. After pinching, the dough was rolled out. They had a neat little technique where you have a mini rolling pin in one hand and you turn the dumpling with the other to make a round dough shape. Vickie was quite good at it and gave me a personal lesson but I never really got it. I was able to roll it out like a pie dough and that seemed to work okay. It was better than nothing. The dumplings were then stuffed with a sausage mixture and, once again, the guys were tasked with forming the dumpling. No one ever got that either. We were whisked away from the dumplings and taken toward the front of the kitchen - I think people had started coming in for lunch and they were tired of us.

There were three huge wok stations with gas controlled burners. I should have brought my camera but I didn't think they would want pictures. (They didn't seem to mind Jessica taking pictures so I should I have brought it.) There were two guys with tall chef hats and dragons embroidered on their chef shirts. I am assuming they were more important in some way. The less friendly of these two showed us how to stir fry. He made kung pao chicken, shredded pork with little tofu wrappers, and sweet and sour pork - dishes that Westerners typically order I'm thinking.

These would later become our dishes for lunch, which we had out in the dining room. And, where our fearless leader came strolling through flanked by two young and pretty Chinese students. I learned today that he put them on the spot and asked them if they would take him to lunch. I'm sure no pressure was necessary and they were all too willing to have lunch with their professor...

Later in the afternoon we went to the Urban Planning Hall, which was a little more interesting than it sounds, but not much. Mostly it was just because everything was in Chinese. It was very techy looking with cool effects but we couldn't read any of the signs to know what we were looking at.

Then on to Wangfujing, the biggest shopping street in Beijing. It will probably come as a shock to most of you, but I really wasn't interested in shopping. It isn't fun shopping for me. There are people absolutely everywhere. Yes, it was Saturday, big city, big shopping area, etc. Neil said it best - it is like Christmas shopping every day. I hate the crowds at Christmas and intentionally shop late to avoid them. I was also feeling tired and it probably wasn't the best time to hit the huge shopping area. I poked around a little while and actually considered purchasing a few things but couldn't quite figure out how (this was in a department store) so I wandered back onto the street and wondered what had happened to my shopping urges. I was feeling a little depressed when I ran into Aubrey and Neil. They also seemed depressed but perhaps for different reasons.

Aubrey and I decided it would be a good time to try KFC in Beijing. Surely that would lift our spirits. We found the KFC and climbed to the second floor where one would presumably purchase food. To my dismay there were no mashed potatoes or biscuits, not even baked beans. There were strange looking prawn sandwiches and bowls of gruel (probably not really but I was feeling depressed again.) There did seem to be buckets of chicken but I was already alarmed about this after one of the Chinese students commented that the KFCs in America were not as good as the ones in Beijing. Off we went to find the McDonald's.

Craig and I have been avoiding McDonald's since our diets in the fall. It's the french fries. I can do without the food but the french fries are like black tar heroin to me. I become addicted immediately and it's all I can think about. It is so nice to know exactly what you are getting though and be relatively happy in the end. I would probably rather have something but McDonald's will certainly do nicely. I was immediately restored to a feeling of contentment and well-being. Aaaahhhh McDonald's. At home it would make my stomach hurt. Here it is like mother's milk.

I have discovered that I am almost definitely an American. I have suspect this for a while but feel that I have confirmed as much. We toured the Buddhist and Confucian temples on Friday. There were a ton of Westerners at the Buddhist temple. It was very touristy, with shops located inside the temple walls. The Europeans just look so.. European. The Germans tend to look very German and while I realize that I probably look very American it is somehow comforting to me to know this. I'm not homesick but I will appreciate home more when I return. A less than clean bathroom in Wal-Mart can't even come close to the less than desirable public restrooms here.

Which leads me to wonder about the small children. I haven't snapped a photo yet because I am still reluctant to take photos of people unless they are in the distance and unidentifiable (or they don't realize I am taking their photo.) I am happy in my American-ness but I don't want to be a typical American to the Chinese. [As an aside, they often seem genuinely surprised when I look them in the eye and smile. They will either continue to stare with a blank expression, look away, or do a double take and then smile back.] For anyone who hasn't seen this I have posted a picture from a very good website: http://www.beijingtraveltips.com. Many of the small children have little slits in their pants. I have seen everything on this one. I have seen children without slits, very young children with slits and older children with slits.

I read that this is one of the things officially being discouraged as Beijing prepares for the Olympics. The official discouragement is not working and it is not difficult to find. I understand the practicality for older children. They just sort of squat and go in the street when they are ready. What I don't understand is the very small children. I have seen diapers in the store and have even seen diapers poking out the slit on some children but I have also seen babies with the slit pants. It would seem that they are not old enough to be potty trained yet or even trained to squat in the street yet. How on earth does that work?? I have not been so fortunate as to witness the actual child slit pants squat. Aubrey has been lucky enough to see it twice.

Since starting I have interrupted myself to post images to flickr, have talked to Jessica, Henry and Michelle. Can't remember what I was going to post here. This is probably enough for now. Tomorrow we will visit the Forbidden City so I must rest.