Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

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Anhui teaser

March 2nd, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Travels

More to come about my trip to Anhui later, but here was one of the highlights of my trip:

Mmm...can you smell that yet?

It’s chou doufu (stinky tofu), Anhui-style! Delicious. It’s a distinctive charred black, not the usual deep fried tofu brown color, and it’s actually made with dou gan (dried tofu) instead of regular tofu.

For those people who can’t stomach the smell of normal stinky tofu, Anhui-style stinky tofu is here to help you see what it’s all about. It’s still stinky — but only when you get up close to it. Maybe I’m used to the smell, but I could ignore the stinkiness a lot more easily in Anhui than in Beijing, where I can smell the stinky tofu carts before I even see them.

Riddle me this

January 16th, 2011 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life, Reflections

One of the truer stereotypes of the Chinese is that they take their cuisine seriously. While rapid development and modern demands of society are deteriorating their allegiance to good food, it is still generally expected that people know how to — and do — cook. Even though more and more Chinese are eating out, they still mostly cook at home.

At least, I think this is true. Now I’m having doubts.

Why, oh why, is it so hard to find an apartment with a decent kitchen in Beijing? Even the one I have now, in my rather nice apartment, comes with barely two square feet of counter space. At least it has three gas burners and a divided sink with a vegetable washer. Of the six apartments we saw yesterday, one had two electric burners, two had two REALLY old gas burners, two had two new ones, and one had one gas burner. And none had an oven.

Apartment search did not get off to a very promising start.

China is not cheap

December 22nd, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Current Events, Food, Life

Really.

The whole “China is cheap” myth is one I believed until after about three months of living in China. Now, a small, non-scientific study comparing cost of living in Boston and Hangzhou, a small city just outside of Shanghai, illustrates my point perfectly:

While not exactly a scientific study, Wang admits, the exercise reveals that a surprising 10 [out of 19] of the food items, including green beans and bananas, were more expensive in China. In Hangzhou, a scenic coastal city near Shanghai, the price of beef brisket per 1.1 pound, or 500 grams, and the cost of a dozen eggs were both double the prices found in Boston. A liter of milk, meanwhile, was nearly triple.

Hangzhou’s premium gasoline was also 23% more expensive, and the overall price of the entire basket of goods purchased there was 8% higher.

The average per capita income in Hangzhou in 2009 was 26,864 yuan, or $4,024, according to the Hangzhou local government. Boston’s was $32,255.

In short, things are more expensive here, and we make less money. And prices aren’t going down. The consumer price index reached 5.1 percent in November, a 28-month high, and food prices surged 11.7 percent. The government is again raising gas prices, too. News reports have been heavily focused on inflation related to the soaring housing and food prices, which alternately has caused a lot of worry and little worry among consumers.

For me, I have seen my liter of milk — that’s about a quarter of a gallon — go from 11.90 RMB ($1.79) when I first came last year to 15.90 ($2.39) today. Eggs are 24.90 RMB for a 25-egg carton, or $1.88 for a dozen. Ground beef is about 20 RMB for 500 kilograms, or $3 per pound. Chicken and pork are slightly more expensive.

But there are cheaper things as well, such as carrots, onions and potatoes.

Things I (don’t) like about China, Part 2

December 8th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Reflections

The Chinese don’t get a lot of Western things “right.” For instance, driving and roads, or socialism. This can’t be more true when it comes to Western food. It’s hard to figure out how to mess up spaghetti with tomato sauce, or a ham and cheese sandwich, but they do it. I shall illustrate my point using bread — everyday sandwich bread.

All bread in China is sweet, which is odd, considering the Asian predisposition to dislike sweet flavors. Sure, bread is a “sweet” food, in that it’s not salty, sour (except for sourdough!), or bitter. But in China, bread is sweet. I usually buy whatever store-made wheat bread is available because if I butter it well enough, I can almost ignore the sweetness. But yesterday, for my chicken salad sandwich, I bought a foreign brand of multi-grain sliced bread … and it’s sweet! And has raisins. I just don’t understand…

Sweet bread — not to be confused with sweetbreads, which I love.

Belated holiday cheer

November 26th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Food I can cook in China, Life, USA! USA!

Black Friday sales have long since started, and I’m now just wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Don’t worry, I hardly forgot about my favorite holiday. The past two weeks, I’ve been running around town getting prepared for the big meal — deciding on dishes, hunting down the ingredients, buying necessary host-wares. It was exhausting, to say the least, especially yesterday when I started cooking at about 10 a.m. and barely stopped until our 7 p.m. meal.

This is my oven:

Some people have two ovens. I just have this.

It’s pretty tiny. The largest pan that will fit in it, that I’ve been able to find in China, is a 7×7-inch Reynold’s disposable foil baking tray. Which is what I ended up using to bake the stuffing — in three rounds of near an hour each. Naturally, I couldn’t find a turkey small enough to fit, so I was able to use my oven as an excuse to order one. (Fact: I’ve never actually made a turkey before — cleaning, basting, roasting, carving.) A few Western restaurants serve up Thanksgiving meals as well as have take-out options; one homey restaurant near my apartment went one step further: They delivered (though not for free). They were also “inexpensive.” Turkeys cost anywhere between 70 yuan ($10.50) per kilogram to 1,200 yuan ($180) for a 14-pound one. I got an 8-kilogram turkey with gravy for 600 yuan ($90) from Grandma’s Kitchen.

The most expensive bird I've ever eaten.

It wasn’t the best turkey ever, but it wasn’t dry or rock-hard, either. To be fair, it tastes pretty good now, as leftovers. Then again, Thanksgiving leftovers always taste better than they taste fresh.

The full menu: oven-roasted turkey; chestnut mushroom stuffing; tomato bisque with fennel; mustard green beans with ham; mashed sweet potatoes; pumpkin bread; and pumpkin maple pots de creme for dessert. Aside from my tiny oven, Thanksgiving dinner was relatively easy to make. Chestnuts, mushrooms, green beans and sweet potatoes are all hugely popular ingredients in China (chestnuts and sweet potatoes are ubiquitous street snacks). Pumpkins are also sold at most markets, though I just bought imported canned pumpkin. Given how difficult it is to find some staple Western ingredients, I was pretty relieved by how little hassle it was to make all my usual Thanksgiving dishes.

There was just one thing missing: cranberries. Nobody carried fresh cranberries, so I had to serve canned cranberry sauce. Ew! Still, dinner was an overall success, and I had as much fun preparing for it as I did eating it with friends — six people total, including myself, from the U.S., England, Canada and China. Just spreading the joy…

Click through for some pictures. (more…)

Yay bagels!

November 12th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food

I got some from Hegel’s Bagels, a new gig by a tall guy named Jordan from New York. They’re delicious, and 80 RMB ($12) for a baker’s dozen and free delivery (at least for me).

Bagels are a rarity in China. I guess the Jew refugees from 1930s and 1940s Europe didn’t stick around long enough to introduce them to the Chinese. A few Western restaurants have bagel sandwiches on their menus, and there’s Mrs. Shanen’s Bagels in Shunyi — the expat-laden community near the airport, which according to Google maps, is almost two hours from where I live. Mrs. Shanen (not her real name) has been almost single-handedly satisfying Beijing’s bagel needs since the mid-1990s.  Sometimes I am lucky enough to buy a couple when I go to the western food market. The NYT loves to profile her shop.

Anyway, I’m don’t know when or if bagels will ever catch on in China. According to the Times profile from the 2008 Olympics, Chinese people are still confused about to what to call it:

Bagels are not yet a familiar part of the Chinese consciousness. They have a variety of translated names, including 焙果 (beiguo) and 贝果 (also pronounced beiguo). And one of the top searches for “bagel” on google.com.cn is “bagel是什么” (or “What is a bagel?”), which is described here as “doughnut-shaped Jewish bread.”

Mrs. Shanen calls her bagels “贝谷” (beigu). Hegel’s Bagels has “高级面包” written all over its bag — but that just means “advanced bread.” But while the Chinese figure out what to call it, I’m just going to add bagels to the growing list of yummy Western staples I can order from at work.

Picture inside. (more…)

In Communist China, man eats shark

September 15th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food

Wal-mart sells shark!

Rawrrrrrrrrrr.

OK, not my Wal-mart. That would be too cool to see.

Candy addiction back on track

August 20th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food, Life

A good part of my day is devoted to finding and buying online food I like to eat back home. For example, I frequently order pies and cupcakes, which are made by foreigners, so they pass a certain standard for deliciousness and authenticity. Last week, I found Bonbon Bins and ordered some gummy candy. This week, I ate them all.

Bonbon Bin

Gummy bears, gummy pandas and gummy dinosaurs.

Tasting the rainbow

August 7th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food

About a month ago, my boyfriend brought me a special treat.

Sour Skittles with Chinese characteristics

Sour Skittles with Chinese characteristics.

Yes, Sour Skittles have made their way to China! The Chinese name for them is 彩虹 (caihong), which means “rainbow.”

I don’t know how long they’ve been here, but my boyfriend noticed them in his neighborhood store one fateful day. He says a store near his office also has them. Since then, I’ve found them in the impulse buy aisle at Wal-mart.

And so now, I’m forever buying them on impulse for 3.5 kuai (51 cents) each.

On beer

July 25th, 2010 by Johanna | Leave comments | Filed in China, Food

I haven’t seen a bottle of this Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844 (going for 300 kuai for a 750-milliliter bottle, or more than $44) yet, but Evan Osnos’ story about the appearance of Pabst in China reminded me of a single can of P.B.R. I saw last year in Dandong on a cart selling various snacks and beverages outside the train station. I’ve kicked myself so many times for not buying/taking a picture of it. Pretty sure it would have been a lot cheaper than the 1844.

If you need a counter to Chinese officials’ constant claims and “reassurances” of China’s commitment to free and open trade, look no further than the beer options. At the supermarket, Chinese beers go for about 3 RMB for a 730-milliliter bottle. For a proper Western brew, you’d have to fork over at least five times that for 330 milliliters. Leffe sells for about 15 RMB; a Duvel is 19 RMB. We did find a not-very-good-in-fact-really-bad German beer (they do exist – at least in China) for about 8 RMB a can.

OK, on further thought, it’s not protectionism — just the market price of these beers. They cost about the same in the States. It just seems more expensive here because of the cost of living.

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