May 10, 2009 - A New Snack from Potatoes
I saw a new snack being sold from streetside vendors -- potato chips on a stick. Aren't they fun? Only about 25 cents for a stick. We were considering trying it when we realized that you get your choice of toppings.
You can have the spicy coating (the red powder).
Or your choice of strawberry, blueberry or lemon gel. Yeah, hard to choose, huh? One boy had a rainbow stick -- he got a bit of each flavor.
After we saw the toppings, for some reason we just didn't want to buy one anymore. Not too hungry.
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May 7, 2009 - IV nutrients for trees
I've seen trees with IVs attached to them all over my city lately! I was happy to see some up close as we walked home from the river. Why? Well, to photograph, of course!
I'm not much on plants, trees, and landscaping although I love the benefits of them. But I've never seen such a practice is USA.
Have any of you seen this before?
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May 6, 2009 - Tea Shop Under the Bridge
The sun was bright and the skies were clear when we set out on our last river exploration. So after some wading, we stopped under the bridge at a makeshift tea house to have a drink. This is the view from where I sat at my table, looking toward the riverbank. You can see the shopkeeper walking toward her little hut where she stores the hot water, tea, and glasses.
This is what we ordered -- flower tea. Isn't it pretty? The white "rocks" are sugar. There's not much flavor, just hot water with a bit of a sweet taste. But it's refreshing when you're thirsty.
Yes, drinks in China are traditionally served hot. The main reason is simply because tap water must be boiled before it's safe to drink. And there is also a fear in Chinese medicine that iced beverages are bad for your body.
We buy 5 gallon drums of drinking water at home, but many people still boil their water rather than pay a higher price for water delivery. (A five gallon drum is about $1.50.) For anything that will be boiled such as cooking pasta, soups, gravies, I always use tap water.
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April 24, 2009 - Dou Hua -- a Favorite Dish
Where I live, dou hua is very, very common. Most every street has a dou hua shop where you can see the huge stainless steel bowl, steaming on its charcoal burner at the front of the restaurant.
Dou Hua is a type of soft tofu. The watery soup it is boiled in can be drunk as well. But since tofu has no flavor, you add a lot of spices. Here's a typical set up -- sort of a flavoring buffet. You choose what spices and oils you want and serve them into your bowl. Options include -- minced garlic, chopped cilantro, salt, MSG, pepper, numbing spice, flavored oils, sesame oil, green onions, dried pepper flakes,
and of course fresh hot peppers!
I was at a rural villa type of place and saw people making dou hua, so of course I snapped some photos. I was a little late on the process, so I missed the first steps. But I asked the cook, and she told me that the soy beans are cooked and mashed and then strained through a cloth. I'm not sure why they are straining it through a basket as well. What could the basket catch that the cloth didn't? I didn't notice that until I got home. Now it's too late to ask.
Then the resulting liquid is boiled until it curdles into dou hua. Did you know that tofu is basically soy cheese? We Westerners eat dairy cheese, but Chinese people eat soy cheese. Quite interesting. When people here ask me what cheese is (because they pretty much don't have any clue), I tell them it's like tofu made from milk.
I didn't like tofu until I'd been in China for a few years. It's one of those things that grows on you. The more you eat it, the more you like it. Now I crave dou hua! It's especially good for women, and I know when I'm eating it, I'm doing something good for my body.
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April 17, 2009 - Getting a Book Bound
I had thought about buying a comb binding machine for our notebooks and for all the things I print from the Internet, but then I figured, why invest? I can get a notebook bound for a little less than $1. And it's one less thing to find a home for in our apartment.
In China, it's "advertising shops" that do this service. They generally have a photocopier, a fax machine, a binder, and larger machines for making plastic signs. (The signs are printed on something akin to a plastic tablecloth. I don't know the actual word for that material. It's very flexible and can be rolled up.) They can also help you do very basic graphic design and print business cards. Business cards (or name cards) are a huge thing in China. Everyone has them, and exchanging them is part of meeting people.
Below is the sweet young lady who helped me bind some books I'd printed from ebook format.
This is a place of business! Notice how utterly chaotic it is in this shop. This is quite normal for shops in China. It makes me crazy on so many levels. First of all it's so unprofessional. And secondly it is so distracting. I can't work amidst random clutter; it makes me anxious. Could you work in this environment? My daughter could, that is, if she could find a work space at all.
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