Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
THAILAND so far ...
I've been in Thailand for a week now, here's what I've done:
Got my hair cut
Got my teeth cleaned
Took a cooking class
Bought 3 used books
Read 1 of them, started another
Eaten lots of good food (except for the worm I almost ate with my fruit yesterday at breakfast)
Caught up on sleep
The highlight so far was definitely the cooking class. It was the best food that I've had so far ... and haha! I cooked it.
Our teacher's name was Suriyan, but he said "if you can't remember my name, just call me international name: Obama." He was a funny guy.
First we took a trip through the market and "Obama" explained a lot of the main ingredients of Thai cooking, curry pastes, a ginger-like root, lots of kinds of noodles, ... I can't remember it all now, good thing he gave us a cook book with all the info. We then rode out to his cooking studio, outside the city.
Our class was a group of 11 people, but he had it down to a science! Each person had their own cook area with a gas burner and cutting block. Most things were prepped for us ahead of time, but we had to do the chopping and cooking. As far as I know, there were no accidents.
Our first dish was a hot and sour prawn soup. Then we made Paneang curry with chicken. Then, using the wok, we made a phad Thai (stir-friend noodles) and then a cashew chicken. "Obama" also showed us how to make a sticky rice, but we didn't make one, we just ate the one he made.
I was amazed at how fast everything was cooked. Thai food (or at least the dishes we cooked) seems to bee a fast cooking sort of food.
Here's the entire meal that we sat down to. Yum!!!
Oh and I also went to Chiang Mai's China Town to celebrate new years! It was so crowded. But I got a good view of the festivities. There were a few fireworks and lots of dancers ... but it probably can't compare to the celebrations in China right now.
I was looking forward to eating some Chinese food (I miss it) ... but it was mostly Thai food.
I still have about a week more here in Thailand, but most of it. starting today, will be taken up with my teaching conference. With all the relaxing I've been doing in the past week, I'm looking forward to having some scheduled time.
Got my hair cut
Got my teeth cleaned
Took a cooking class
Bought 3 used books
Read 1 of them, started another
Eaten lots of good food (except for the worm I almost ate with my fruit yesterday at breakfast)
Caught up on sleep
The highlight so far was definitely the cooking class. It was the best food that I've had so far ... and haha! I cooked it.
Our teacher's name was Suriyan, but he said "if you can't remember my name, just call me international name: Obama." He was a funny guy.
First we took a trip through the market and "Obama" explained a lot of the main ingredients of Thai cooking, curry pastes, a ginger-like root, lots of kinds of noodles, ... I can't remember it all now, good thing he gave us a cook book with all the info. We then rode out to his cooking studio, outside the city.
Our class was a group of 11 people, but he had it down to a science! Each person had their own cook area with a gas burner and cutting block. Most things were prepped for us ahead of time, but we had to do the chopping and cooking. As far as I know, there were no accidents.
Our first dish was a hot and sour prawn soup. Then we made Paneang curry with chicken. Then, using the wok, we made a phad Thai (stir-friend noodles) and then a cashew chicken. "Obama" also showed us how to make a sticky rice, but we didn't make one, we just ate the one he made.
I was amazed at how fast everything was cooked. Thai food (or at least the dishes we cooked) seems to bee a fast cooking sort of food.
Here's the entire meal that we sat down to. Yum!!!
Oh and I also went to Chiang Mai's China Town to celebrate new years! It was so crowded. But I got a good view of the festivities. There were a few fireworks and lots of dancers ... but it probably can't compare to the celebrations in China right now.
I was looking forward to eating some Chinese food (I miss it) ... but it was mostly Thai food.
I still have about a week more here in Thailand, but most of it. starting today, will be taken up with my teaching conference. With all the relaxing I've been doing in the past week, I'm looking forward to having some scheduled time.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A TURKEY TALE
(the rest of the story...)
A bright and sunny and warm day back in October,
we (the other foreign teachers and I) were walking along near our favorite Korean restaurant when we saw this:
"Huh?!? Are those really turkeys in China?? in Harbin??" On closer inspection, we decided they most certainly were! The only other place I'd heard of turkey being spotted in Harbin (I haven't seen it myself) was in the frozen food aisle at Metro ... and people say it's been there for a long long time.
The low October sun cast cast dark shadows, shadows that you might say, foreshadowed this turkey's fate. Lindsay and I went inside the storefront to inquire about the turkeys. It was worth a shot! Having lived in China for 5 years, she did most of the talking, but together, we came to understand that the shopkeeper would sell it to us for some 300 kuai (a pricey deal, but well-worth it, we thought, as our mouths watered) He would butcher it, clean it etc. etc. He also told us that they were his pets; he liked to see them strut around with their feathers furled. He'd never eaten turkey before, but he didn't seem reluctant to sell it to us to eat. He was quiet the entrepreneur!
Over the course of the next couple of weeks we hemmed and hawed over whether or not to buy the turkey. We all agreed that it would be a grand adventure AND a grand feast if we did, but was it worth the 麻烦 (ma fan - "trouble")? The week before our Thanksgiving dinner ... we decided to go for it!
Sadly (Thankfully) I did not get to witness the next part of the story. My weekly teaching schedule didn't allow for many long blocks of time off of campus. (photos credit of Erika)
The day was gray and cold. A light dusting of snow covered the ground as Erika and one of her students returned to purchase the turkey. But the change in weather had meant a change in storefronts. Things looked different this time, and there were no turkeys in sight!
But they didn't give up. Into each store they went, inquiring: "Do you have
turkey?" "Yesssss, of course!" was often the reply they got,but then the shopkeeper would point to the cigarette lighters. "No, not 火机 (huo ji - "lighter"), 火鸡 flap flap（huo ji - "fire bird")... do you have any?" "No." Store after store, there were plenty of lighters for sale, but no turkeys. Finally, one storekeeper told them that it was the one next door!
Little turkey prints dotted the snow outside ... they'd found the turkeys!
After Erika picked a turkey, agreed on a price
per jin(unit of weight), the lady shopkeeper simply picked up the turkey (or 宝贝儿 bao ber "baby" as she called it) and put it in a bag to hand to Erika and her student. What happened to the butchering? Erika later related to us that at that point, she was beginning to wonder if there was a return policy. But after a bit more hard bargaining, the shopkeepers agreed to take it to be butchered the next morning for 10 kuai.
The next morning a larger contingent of students and teachers went to witness the deed (still no me ... I was teaching class!).
As soon as they arrived,
the storekeeper grabbed his bike and and the turkey in a sack and was off with a quick "Follow me!"
They stopped walking when they arrived at this hair dressers, and it was here that our 宝贝儿 turkey breathed it's last!
There was an older couple that lived behind this hair dressers that expertly did the deed. It was over before he knew it!
But he still had all his feathers on... those there started to worry again because of our general lack of experience when it comes to cleaning and gutting turkeys.
Thankfully, one feather was plucked by a little child
who witnessed the scene ... and then the old couple de-feathered and cleaned the bird.
After less than thirty minutes, our bird was ready to come home to be cooked!
Well, not exactly ready to be cooked.
He didn't fit into our tiny ovens, so first he had to be hacked up into more manageable pieces. We soaked him in a brine over night and then divvied him up to be baked the next day. I took care of the legs.
We then reassembled him for a picture before we disassembled him onto our plates and into our stomachs at a gathering we had with some 40 friends and acquaintances.
A mighty-fine looking turkey, don't you think? He was quite tasty too! Not just the best turkey that I've ever had in China ... but one of the bests I've ever eaten. There wasn't much of anything but bones left by the time the 40 of us got done with him. So, in the end, you could definitely say he was worth the 麻烦!
A bright and sunny and warm day back in October,
we (the other foreign teachers and I) were walking along near our favorite Korean restaurant when we saw this:"Huh?!? Are those really turkeys in China?? in Harbin??" On closer inspection, we decided they most certainly were! The only other place I'd heard of turkey being spotted in Harbin (I haven't seen it myself) was in the frozen food aisle at Metro ... and people say it's been there for a long long time.
The low October sun cast cast dark shadows, shadows that you might say, foreshadowed this turkey's fate. Lindsay and I went inside the storefront to inquire about the turkeys. It was worth a shot! Having lived in China for 5 years, she did most of the talking, but together, we came to understand that the shopkeeper would sell it to us for some 300 kuai (a pricey deal, but well-worth it, we thought, as our mouths watered) He would butcher it, clean it etc. etc. He also told us that they were his pets; he liked to see them strut around with their feathers furled. He'd never eaten turkey before, but he didn't seem reluctant to sell it to us to eat. He was quiet the entrepreneur!
Over the course of the next couple of weeks we hemmed and hawed over whether or not to buy the turkey. We all agreed that it would be a grand adventure AND a grand feast if we did, but was it worth the 麻烦 (ma fan - "trouble")? The week before our Thanksgiving dinner ... we decided to go for it!
Sadly (Thankfully) I did not get to witness the next part of the story. My weekly teaching schedule didn't allow for many long blocks of time off of campus. (photos credit of Erika)
The day was gray and cold. A light dusting of snow covered the ground as Erika and one of her students returned to purchase the turkey. But the change in weather had meant a change in storefronts. Things looked different this time, and there were no turkeys in sight!
But they didn't give up. Into each store they went, inquiring: "Do you have
turkey?" "Yesssss, of course!" was often the reply they got,but then the shopkeeper would point to the cigarette lighters. "No, not 火机 (huo ji - "lighter"), 火鸡 flap flap（huo ji - "fire bird")... do you have any?" "No." Store after store, there were plenty of lighters for sale, but no turkeys. Finally, one storekeeper told them that it was the one next door!Little turkey prints dotted the snow outside ... they'd found the turkeys!
After Erika picked a turkey, agreed on a price
per jin(unit of weight), the lady shopkeeper simply picked up the turkey (or 宝贝儿 bao ber "baby" as she called it) and put it in a bag to hand to Erika and her student. What happened to the butchering? Erika later related to us that at that point, she was beginning to wonder if there was a return policy. But after a bit more hard bargaining, the shopkeepers agreed to take it to be butchered the next morning for 10 kuai.
The next morning a larger contingent of students and teachers went to witness the deed (still no me ... I was teaching class!).As soon as they arrived,
the storekeeper grabbed his bike and and the turkey in a sack and was off with a quick "Follow me!"
They stopped walking when they arrived at this hair dressers, and it was here that our 宝贝儿 turkey breathed it's last!
There was an older couple that lived behind this hair dressers that expertly did the deed. It was over before he knew it!
But he still had all his feathers on... those there started to worry again because of our general lack of experience when it comes to cleaning and gutting turkeys.
Thankfully, one feather was plucked by a little child
who witnessed the scene ... and then the old couple de-feathered and cleaned the bird. After less than thirty minutes, our bird was ready to come home to be cooked!
Well, not exactly ready to be cooked.
He didn't fit into our tiny ovens, so first he had to be hacked up into more manageable pieces. We soaked him in a brine over night and then divvied him up to be baked the next day. I took care of the legs.We then reassembled him for a picture before we disassembled him onto our plates and into our stomachs at a gathering we had with some 40 friends and acquaintances.
A mighty-fine looking turkey, don't you think? He was quite tasty too! Not just the best turkey that I've ever had in China ... but one of the bests I've ever eaten. There wasn't much of anything but bones left by the time the 40 of us got done with him. So, in the end, you could definitely say he was worth the 麻烦!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
SUNDAY SNAPSHOTSSS (many photos!)
I taught my last class on December 23rd and had two days off for Christmas, but since then it's been busy, getting exams ready and giving exams. I just gave my last final this past Friday (January 2nd). Here's a bit of what I've been up to as the term winds down ...
All the students at our university have to learn to ice skate. It seems like a Harbin tradition. Now that it's the end of the semester, many students are selling their ice skates back to the school store. I bought a used pair and I've gone twice at the ice rink on campus (a large flat field that they flood). I hope to skate on the Song Hua River sometime this winter.
Lindsay and I ice skating. Yes, it's as cold as it looks. Ice on my eyelashes and I think you can see our breath in this picture. But is good fun and good exercise.
第十届哈尔滨冰雪大世界。The 10th Harbin Ice and Snow World. The other foreign teachers at my school and I braved the cold to see this last Sunday evening. We lasted 2 hours. I think I wore the 4 pairs of pants! Good thing, because they had ice slides there!
Me at the 10th Harbin Ice and Snow World. A note about the fake fur on my hood. I had this jacket in the states, but never zipped on the fur. But here, it's worth it. It helps block the wind. And it's totally the style here!
We also treated some of our close mutual friends to a holiday dinner last week.
But it's hasn't been all fun this past week. End of the term means it's also time to grade exams ...
I'm done with my stack of 32 English second-majors. But now I need to tackle my 83 freshman English majors Oral English exams (pictured here: as thick as my Lonely Planet travel guide). Before I could grade the exams, I had to have a lesson from our Chinese teachers. This year, the foreign teachers have been asked to follow the same format as the Chinese teachers. It's meant that we've spent a lot of time in the English department office, but it also means that we've got to know the Chinese English teachers a whole lot better! Now ... I wonder how long it'll take me to grade these exams ...
All the students at our university have to learn to ice skate. It seems like a Harbin tradition. Now that it's the end of the semester, many students are selling their ice skates back to the school store. I bought a used pair and I've gone twice at the ice rink on campus (a large flat field that they flood). I hope to skate on the Song Hua River sometime this winter.
Lindsay and I ice skating. Yes, it's as cold as it looks. Ice on my eyelashes and I think you can see our breath in this picture. But is good fun and good exercise.
第十届哈尔滨冰雪大世界。The 10th Harbin Ice and Snow World. The other foreign teachers at my school and I braved the cold to see this last Sunday evening. We lasted 2 hours. I think I wore the 4 pairs of pants! Good thing, because they had ice slides there!
Me at the 10th Harbin Ice and Snow World. A note about the fake fur on my hood. I had this jacket in the states, but never zipped on the fur. But here, it's worth it. It helps block the wind. And it's totally the style here!
We also treated some of our close mutual friends to a holiday dinner last week.
But it's hasn't been all fun this past week. End of the term means it's also time to grade exams ...
I'm done with my stack of 32 English second-majors. But now I need to tackle my 83 freshman English majors Oral English exams (pictured here: as thick as my Lonely Planet travel guide). Before I could grade the exams, I had to have a lesson from our Chinese teachers. This year, the foreign teachers have been asked to follow the same format as the Chinese teachers. It's meant that we've spent a lot of time in the English department office, but it also means that we've got to know the Chinese English teachers a whole lot better! Now ... I wonder how long it'll take me to grade these exams ...
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