Food! Glorious food!

Today we have been in China for 6 months! It's unbelievable! Whilst we have adjusted quite well (I think) to most things Chinese, the one thing we still can't get used to is the food (and the toilets).

Chinese "cuisine" is extremely strange. The Chinese will eat absolutely ANYTHING, whether it has nutritional value or not. I've eaten some really weird things since I've been here - lotus flower root, tree lichen, jujubes (which are quite nice), dried fish sweets, seaweed crisps, green tea cheese cake, moon cakes and Chinese bread - to name a few. I can't say that I would rush out to eat Chinese food in a hurry any time soon. On the bright side, I've become quite handy with a pair of chopsticks :-)

Here are some pics of the delicious delicacies which we can pick up at our local Carrefour.

I'm not sure what this is... is that tongue or stomach of something?

Anyone for multi-coloured corn? Yum!

Bitter melon on the left and funny garlic-root-thing on the right

The Green Tea Cheese cake on the left, and a turkey-ham sandwich (supposedly) on the right. Both from Starbucks

The salad bar at Carrefour... Top left: some kind of root thing; pickled jellyfish; chilied lotus flower root. In the bottom strip we have all things pickled - from veggies to jellyfish.

I think these are pigs ears..

That is a grapefruit

The grapefruit in my hat 

Anyone for a piece of grapefruit? It's as big as a banana.

Pig trotters - I think

Fresh chickens on the left, and duck on the right. And yes, those are BLACK chickens!

The seafood section. Live fish, frogs, turtles and crabs! 

Frogs, eels, clam things and live prawns.

Moon cake

Due to the dire food situation, we have to cook most of our meals at home. Which has lead to me becoming somewhat of a budding cook. Historically speaking, I've been known to burn water, so the fact that I'm actually cooking now, is a HUGE feat.

BUT, bearing in mind the limited supply of "normal" food at our local supermarket, it makes cooking a variety of dishes very difficult. We also do not have an oven (in fact most people in China do not have ovens... weird). We only have two stove plates and a microwave. But I'm trying to make my best out of a bad situation....

We can buy beef at Carrefour... we're not sure of the cut, but it seems edible.... Here's some "steak" dishes - with broccoli, green beans, mashed potato, potato salad or potato bake (which I made in the microwave)

Salad and shepherds pie, with asparagus (which is scarce) and a fresh salad (we've only seen lettuce in the supermarket about 3 times) and a glass of Pims and lemonade :-)

Liesl made a coke "roast" in a pot on the stove. It was delicious!

Liesl's second "roast" which was also divine!

Steak, with cauliflower and cheese sauce and stuffed red peppers. Go me! Seen as we have only seen cheese in the stores about 5 times, this is quite a treat!

Steak with corn, veggies and creamed spinach. This is the one and only time we have ever found spinach.

Salmon and asparagus pasta with cashew nuts.  Liesl doesn't eat seafood... so I only eat my fish dishes on her days off. "Salmon Saturday".  LOL

Steak, veggies, mashed potato and a jalepeno popper stuffer with "bacon" (fried ham) and cheese.

This was the feat we had the first time we discovered The Metro (which is a German supermarket that sells imported products). It was also the first time we found cheese and olives in China. We pigged out!

My attempt at cottage pie - seen as we can't buy mince, I had to chop the meat up into really teeny pieces.

Bolognese... sort of. 

Salmon and prawn won tons

My attempt at Chinese cooking... pork dumplings and veg; fried noodles and veg; pork dumplings in a beef broth. 

My attempt at a microwave chocolate cake. Seen as you can't buy cocoa anywhere, I had to use Swiss Miss hot chocolate power instead.  

This is what we use instead of bacon... because we can't buy bacon

Salmon with green beans and asparagus

Beef stew and savory pancakes

Salmon, veg and fried calamari

Liesl made this - crumbed chicken, mash and veg. Nom!!

We have also found a couple of restaurants that serve food which is ok to eat (besides MacD and KFC).

Liesl and her pork fried rice dish

This came with Liesl's rice... still not quite sure what it is. It's warm, it's beige and it has the consistency of creme caramel.

Fried pork dumplings. Wuhan is famous for its dumplings.. apparently... 

Sushi!

Chicken sushi in crab eggs

Salmon and mango california rolls. This restaurant serves "Western-style" sushi - according to its menu.

We are also heading into real Winter at the moment. It's getting colder by the day. Our temperatures usually range between 2 - 7 degrees. I now go out in 3 layers of clothes - which includes 2 puffy windbreakers.

Us in our new ear muffs.

Liesl bought me these nifty gloves. Aren't they cute!

It's also Christmas time, and Wuhan is fully decked out in holiday cheer.

I'll post some pics of Christmas in Wuhan in my next post.

xxx

China: Month 5

We've been in China for 5 months now. Gee, how time flies... it's either that or the vodka diet is finally paying off and I'm losing some days.

An old friend...

This is just an update of what we've been up to over the last few weeks...

To utilise my free time, I decided to get myself a little keyboard and teach myself how to play a couple of tunes on the piano. I downloaded some "teach yourself how to play" programmes for my computer, and with the help of the trusty Tim, I'm learning to play a few of my favourite songs - very badly.

My electric organ

Tim, my music teacher.

 Liesl spotted a Holiday Inn on the way home from work one day. Said Holiday Inn has an Irish Pub. So naturally, we had to find a way to get over there for some good ol' pub grub!

We eventually found a cab, and with the help of google maps, we managed to direct the taxt driver to our desired destination. Yay! AND it only took an hour to get there!

Some Chinese places near the hotel

View from the hotel

The Holiday Inn

Lanterns 

On the road

In the cab

In the bar

Some proper drinks!

Proper food!! Steak pie, with mashed potatoes and veggies!! Nom, nom, nom

Yay for Corona!

We also found a nice little Japanese restaurant at our local mall. We had some stunning sushi and fried dumplings, AND it was totally cheap. Definitely want to go back there!

Shovelling my food like a true Chinese person.

Fried dumplings

When one of us has a day off, we like to surprise the other with something fun when they come home. I planned a pamper night for Liesl. Facials, manicure, pedicure, the works!

The relaxing candle-light atmosphere

Liesl relaxing and getting ready for the pamper party!

The set up

Us relaxing

The foot soak

The foot wrap

Pedicure, and hand therapy

The pamper pack

One of the Chinese teachers at our school, invited us over to her apartment for lunch. She doesn't speak any English, so we had to take our teaching assistants with to translate. It was really interesting. The food was very tasty and edible - she cooked traditional chinese "cuisine". I really enjoyed it. Except for the part where we had to eat with Chinese people... it's very weird. Watching them eat is not really a pleasant experience. We knew this before going - obviously we see Chinese people eating all the time, so we know what it involves. I think we thought that maybe people we know would eat more like Westerners... but we were wrong. They chew with their mouth's open. It's extremely noisy and annoying. They talk with their mouths full of food. They also spit out unwanted items onto the table NEXT to their plates... not onto their plates or into a napkin, but right onto the table next to you. I find this very strange... I really don't want to be eating with someone's half chewed pork fat next to my plate... AND they don't even clean up afterwards. They just leave the half eaten food on the table, for someone else to clean up!

That aside, we did have a nice time, and really appreciated that she wanted to have us round for lunch. 

Us in the middle: Me, Rainbow, Yuki, Liesl, Tina and Peter (it was at Tina's house)

A few weeks ago, the Shane English School representatives from head office in Shanghai paid our school a visit. We met these guys when we were in training in Shanghai in June. So it was nice to meet up again, and be with people that can speak English!

We went to a bar called Vox, and watched a local Chinese band play

Grant, Liesl and Chris

Me and the guys

Us eating street food after the club - I'm still not sure what meat we ate.. but it did taste really good.

Chris, Grant, Liesl and Peter at another bar called Helen's

Us at Helen's - joined by a random Japanese guy we met at the bar

 In other news...

I've discovered the reason behind the excessive use of chili in China... it's because normal Chinese food is oily and tasteless without it. So I've now become accustomed to eating chili on my meals so that I can actually taste something. Mayonnaise usually burns my mouth, so I'm quite surprised that I am coping with the chili and actually enjoying it.

Me at Pappa John's on our weekly Pizza night. They have fabulous jalepenos.

This is the form at the bank that we have to fill out every time we make a transaction. It's a fucking nightmare!

 We have a little pet store in our local mall, and the sell ferrets!! They are so cute! I really want one. Unfortunately, they live for like 10 years... which isn't really ideal right now. I kind of need a pet that will die in about 6 months - so that I don't have to give it away when we leave China...

Isn't it cute!!

We recently opened a new school, which we now also have to teach at on weekends. It's a small school, with only two classrooms, but it's quite nice.

Our photos and teaching certificates up in the entrance of the new school.

Some of Liesl's kids

Us and our TAs at the new school

This is the toilet at the new school.. notice how the stalls have no doors... and the front door is made of glass. Needless to say, we do not use these toilets...  what is that about?

Sign in the bathroom in Starbucks - in the event that there is a public western toilet... we will usually find feet marks on the toilet seats.

This is how most toddlers go to the bathroom...

See... oh well. At least they are peeing into the bushes... instead of just on the floor.

Enough said...

These are pics of the food court in our local mall. It's on the third floor. Stay away from the third floor. It's revolting. I wish I could bottle the smell and bring it home with me... because it's unfair that we are the only ones who get to experience this putrid, nauseating scent. I literally gag when I smell it. It's so bad, it's impossible to walk along the entire third floor without a vomit bag. I have no idea what these people are cooking... ew.

Here's some pics of the famous East Lake in Wuhan. It was a very misty day... so you can't really see a lot. But this is a HUGE man-made lake. There are numerous areas around the Lake which you can visit - such as the Lily Pad gardens, the Blossom Gardens, there's a man made beach and swimming area, fishing area etc.

Here's some pics of us with our friends:

Liesl and Yuki, Sunny, Me and Yuki

Well, that's all for now.

Will post more next month!

xxx