Many countries around the world drink raw sugar cane juice and China is one of them. Most often, we see vendors who you can buy a piece of sugar cane from. They cut the outer part off, then you chew the pulp, suck the juice out, and spit the pulp back out once you’ve gotten all of the juice. I tried it years ago and wasn’t crazy about the pulp chewing. Sometimes, you see stands where they have machines to extract the juice, then you can buy a cup or bottle and just drink it. It’s really not bad, and is actually lower than Coca-Cola on the glycemic index! Coke is in the 60’s, raw sugar cane juice in the 30’s -40’s. This stand is at a Food Festival at the shopping plaza near us. We bought a small bottle for 5rmb ( 75 cents usd). Just took a few sips, but I’m going to try it as a sweetener in some baking.
Life in China: A Picture A Day, February 17, 2016
In China, it’s fairly common in casual restaurants to have to pay for your napkins. They usually come in a little box or plastic package of about 6 napkins and cost 1 or 2 rmb/15 to 30 cents usd. Yesterday, the restaurant we went to advertised free snacks and fruit, free water or tea, and free WIFI, then when we got the bill, we were charged for our dishes! 2 rmb per setting! This was a new one for me, but I don’t even attempt to question it! Also, the “3 free of charge (charoe as they wrote)” were the only English words on the menu other than the name of the restaurant, “WIFI’, and another section that said “2 commitments.” See more about Chinese menus in my blog post today. www.myownchnesebrocade.com
Life in China: A Picture A Day, February 16, 2016
Roasted chestnuts! I wish I could take a picture of the way that warm little paper bag feels and smells! But, sorry … I can’t L Roasted chestnuts are my second favorite winter street food after sweet potatoes. I’ve thought of trying to roast them myself and then I think “Why??? These are readily available (except for last night when I asked Jim to get me some at 9PM on a chilly Monday night and the vendors had finished for the day!). So, today when Leah and I were out, we got some. They have a wok style pan with a rotating blade in which the chestnuts are roasted with little black pebbles, supposedly to keep the temperature even. A paper bag full (contents on the plate pictured) costs 15rmb or about $2.30usd. The Chinese also use chestnuts in cooking and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Being gluten intolerant, we regularly use chestnut flour for our baking.
Life in China: A Picture A Day, February 15, 2016
Pomelos are very popular during Chinese New Year because the Chinese word for pomelo sounds like “to have.” It is also used as a decoration in people’s homes and symbolizes “family unity.” It is a large citrus fruit, native to southeast Asia, and tastes kind of like a mild grapefruit. Great for eating fresh, I like to score the peel in quarters, peel it off, then separate the sections, peel the membranes off, and enjoy the fruit! I’ve read that it is good sprinkled with salt, but I haven’t tried that. It has a very thick skin which can be dried and used, often candied or made into marmalade. I remember on one of our trips in China, we saw a fence full of pomelo peels hanging to dry. I enjoy a Korean tea made from pomelo peels (another picture some day!). The fruit is also made into a paste for cooking. I paid 7.80rmb, or $1.20usd for the pomelo pictured, we used it with breakfast two days and still had some for snacking.
Supermarket Fun
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, Feb 13 - Saturday Night at the supermarket…. A giant live Kinder egg, pandas having hot pot, furniture polish without the spray cap (we had to go to customer service and have them get it and put it on?), and chocolate covered taro candy …. there’s ALWAYS something new to find when grocery shopping in China!
Fish Decorations and as Food
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, Feb 7 - One of the most popular sayings for Chinese New Year is “Nian nian you yu 年年有余” The basic meaning of this is “May you have abundance through every year.” The word for abundance, surplus, or plenty, is “yu余.” This sounds the same as the word “yu魚 ” which means fish, so, you can see why fish are such popular decorations during Spring Festival! Today is New Year’s Eve in China and families will gather for their “reunion dinners.” A very important dish to serve is fish, usually served whole as a symbol of prosperity, with the head and tail representing the beginning and ending of the year. A portion of the fish is saved for finishing in the new year, indicating that there is “surplus” for the New Year!
Celtuce
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, Feb 1 - How many years have I been looking at this in the markets and didn’t know what it was???? Well, I finally learned! Most commonly, it is called “celtuce” or “stem lettuce,” and “wosun” 莴笋 in Chinese. It is also called "asparagus lettuce".
I learned that the thick stems are peeled and then sliced or chopped for stir-fries (or steamed), and the leaves are good for soups. So, we did just that! A stir fry with pork, mushrooms, and celtuce, turned out very good… celtuce has a mild taste, somewhat like celery (I didn’t think it tasted like asparagus like some said), and it kept a nice firm, crispy texture. We added the leaves into vegetable beef soup, and although I can’t say they added much flavor, they added a nice dark green color. I read that they can be bitter. Supposedly, the young stems and leaves can also be used raw in salads. Found in most (southern) Chinese stores/markets with produce (not sure about other areas?). For those of you outside of China, check your Asian markets!
Pepino Melon
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, January 22 -We like to try different fruit when we can; I figure it’s a safe food to experiment with! This morning, we had “pepino dulse” for the first time. It’s originally from South America, and is also called the pepino melon or melon pear. “Pepino” is Spanish for cucumber, and it did taste like a cross between a cucumber and a melon. Although the skin is edible, it isn’t usually eaten, so it’s recommended you take it off before eating. Unfortunately, we didn’t really like this fruit, so probably won’t buy it again. But…if you love cucumbers, and happen to see it wherever you live, give it a try!
Sweet Potato Leaves
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, January 14 - Flexibility is a necessity when living somewhere that you can’t speak or read the language! Tonight, I went to our little store nearby to get some things for dinner: we had decided on having beef slices, onions, mushrooms and spinach. Easy?… sure, I’ve done this lots of times! Well, when I got home and started washing the spinach, I realized that it wasn’t spinach, so I called to Leah that I wasn’t sure what I had bought for our dinner! She came and looked at the label and announced it was sweet potato leaves, and simply added “I’ve been wondering what they’re like”….. so, we had beef, onions, mushrooms and sweet potato leaves for dinner! I wasn’t crazy about them, think I’ll be more careful to choose spinach next time! Here are my sweet potato leaves :-) That’s one way to try new food!
Luo Han Guo Tea
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, January 9 - Luo Han Guo, or Monkfruit, is one of my favorite Chinese teas. I like to buy the whole dried fruit, cut it in fourths, add it to my Chinese tea cup (with infuser and lid), add hot water, steep, and enjoy! It has a delicious natural sweetness and I have been told it is good for respiratory problems, cough and sore throat. You can refill for about another 2-3 cups from the same fruit….so you get at least 12 cups from one dried fruit (which costs 1-3 yuan or 15-45 cents usd). Recently, luohanguo powder has become available in the USA as an alternative sweetener.
Starbucks
Life in China: A Picture a Day 2016, January 5 - I remember that one of the things I was surprised by, when we first came to China, was that even Western chains have Chinese names. For some reason, I expected these places to be called by their English names! This is the Starbucks in Songshan Lake. In Chinese, Starbucks is called “Xing ba ke,” pronounced “shing baa (like a sheep would say!) ke (the “e” is kind of like the “oo” in foot). “Xing” 星 means “star”, the “ba ke” is basically a transliteration for “bucks”, but if you do look the meanings up, “ba” 巴 can mean “hope anxiously” or “wait earnestly for”, and “ke” 克 can mean “can” or “be able to.” So, to me, it seems like they intended it to mean you are “anxiously awaiting getting your Starbucks coffee!” (My interpretation, not official!) The menu is much smaller than in the USA, but they do offer specials: today’s were Peach Blossom latte, a White Chocolate Chestnut Mocha, and I enjoyed the Chestnut macchiato (made with decaf coffee and soymilk).
Sweet Potatoes
Life in China: A Picture a day 2016, January 2 - Street food is very popular in China. I don't eat it often, partly because of my food allergy issues and partly because of food safety reasons. However....baked sweet potatoes are the exception, they are delicious! I'm not sure about other parts of China, but in our area, where there are people, there are sweet potato vendors :-)