So I’m in love! Yes you read that correctly, Kayte Reagan has fallen and fallen hard. The object of my affection is a gift of the gods, the ultimate in take out food and the one thing I shall spend the rest of my life craving. The direct translation is Fire Hand!

The woman who started it all...

Yumm street food, just thinking about it makes me hungry. Hou Shou 火手is a sandwich of sorts that comes in a myriad of varieties. My two favorites, egg & pork and beef & chilies.  The filling is stuffed in a pita like bread that has been warmed.

I'd devoured half before I thought of taking a picture.

Outside of the middle school I teach at on Monday and Tuesday is the most delicious Huo Shou 火手. The woman is there every morning with here cart that is attached to her scooter. She fires up the grill and we’re in business. Plenty of grease, a herb mix to die for and a I”m in heaven. For Y2 really can you ask for anything more?

I few few weeks ago I decided to branch out and try a new variety. I think it might have eclipsed my love for egg and pork. It is juicier and the bread is always fresh rather than rewarmed.

Okay now I want one...bad.

The beef and chili is sold by the vendor next to the other woman but I’m pretty sure their related so no hard feelings for the switch.

At lunch they are not there so I go for a deep fried chicken version, smack, delicious. Oh yes, I’m in love.

The Qingdao Beer Company had a three week mini festival outside of Jusco this month. Kelly and I finaly went to check out the festivities, come to find out, on the last night. Now I know and boy am I looking forward to next year, I’ll be there everynight! The BBQ is amazing and cheap!

The entire area in front of Jusco was taken up by a massive stage and surrounding stalls.

Kelly tried her hand at darts!

The stage - the tables were packed

There were a variety of performances, from the alto clarinet to very very bad karaoke.

At one point the MC turned into a auctioner, the scrolls were beautiful.

Good Food and Excellent Company

During the summer, BBQ restaurants pop up all across town. Wendy had told me, Peter and she loved the BBQs along Shui Ke Lu. Kelly and I joined them for dinner and had a wonderful time. The BBQ restaurants are really just huge tiled areas with low tables and folding stools out front. They are a cultural phenomenon. When the evenings cool off people head to the BBQs to socialize and eat, sometimes for hours. Wendy said a single restaurant can clear over ¥50,000 a summer.

The BBQ here is delicious, skewers of thin slices of meat, vegetables and tofu. Most of the BBQ’s come from the north western province of Xinjiang. The spices are an earthy herb mixture with plenty of kick. The meat is typically mutton or goat as Xinjiang has a high Muslim population.

The game in the background.

I was shocked to find the extreme enthusiasm for soccer in China. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a screen playing the games at night. It seems like I’m back in Argentina. The BBQ place had a projector out front and the tables were full with engrossed fans. Peter and I stumbled through a Chinglish conversation about of favorite teams. We both agreed on Argentina!

I know this is breaking at least a dozen health codes but hey why do I care?

While waiting for our glasses to be finished I talked everyone into McDonald’s for lunch, mind you I’d eaten there for breakfast. Yeah, yeah can’t get much unhealthier than that. I’m determined to get a complete set of World Cup glass cups!  

Our wishes - mine was slightly selfish "I wish to travel the world!"

We went in and were debating what to order when two employees approached Katie and asked if she would be willing to participate in a craft corner. We were a little confused about the request but figured we didn’t have anything else planned for the afternoon. We sat down at a long table and we were given strips of construction paper. After writing down a wish we were instructed how to fold the paper into the shape of a ‘zong zi’ (a rice tamale of sorts). Today is Dragon Boat Festival, traditionally zong zi is eaten today. 

Our finished wishes all neatly folded

There were three Chinese girls who joined the party. They wrote their wish in Chinese of course but with the exception of two words “Short-Hair”. I have no idea what that was about. 

Once we finished the craft they asked if we had eaten. We said no and then asked a rather puzzling question. 

“Would you like to make your own Big Mac?” . . . Seriously. Again we didn’t really know what we were getting into but said yes. 

We were soon ushered back into the kitchen and proceeded to make our own Big Macs. 

Washed and gloved, ready for action.

The assembly line.

Now for the best part - two beef patties!

A job well done and oh so delicious.

Almost complete I need 2 more cups.

You really are treated so differently as a foreigner, anything goes it seems. They asked us to tell our friends and invited us to return to once again make our own meal. Humm fun experience once yes, but I’ve never wanted to work fast food for a reason, I prefer to pay someone else to make my food. Rather than pay a restaurant to allow me to make my food. 

But for the books, who can say they’ve made their own Big Mac while never being employed by McDonalds?

The Shandong Vegetable Festival

The decorations around the exhibition halls were all out of vegetables.

So some signs are great because of the poor wording, this one well the water is less than a foot deep you figure it out.

 

Between the vegetable beds were long covered trellises.

As I walked from exhibit hall to exhibit hall I could only think of you Dad. You would have loved it. I’ve never seen such thriving plants. The trellises were spectacular. It was like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Vegetable Version.

A piano made of egg shells.

  

Mr. Cheung, Mr. Kobayashi, Me, Kelly

The overhead decorations looked leathal.

 The overhead veggies were a little too large for my taste. Seriously some looked pretty ripe and a little to close to falling off the vine.  

Some of the art was large and intricate.

The mosaics were composed of corn kernels, beans, and chili peppers.

My zodiac - the Bunny

Another sculpture

These looked like sleeping bats to me. Not exactly something I was thrilled to walk beneath.

Never really considered corn kernels optimum mosaic material but I've been wrong before.

Nothing like a vegetable house, Hanzel and Gretal - healthy version.

The pumpkin patch was a collection of the largest pumpkins I've seen in real life.

Life is complete! I've found a tomato tree, I'll take two.

 There were a number of plants shaped into trees to optimize the fruit bearing surface area. I believe the tubs were filled with water rather than soil.  

Rotating Hydroponics, innovated.

There were a dozen different methods of planting being shown off.

More amazing murals of kernels and chili peppers

This is a model of the China Pavilion at the World Expo 2010.

So these two random strangers asked to take a picture with me so I insisted on a picture with them.

 Living in China you have to get use to being stared and pointed at, but being asked for a picture is not something I will ever get use to.

Kelly and James showing off their new purchases

At the Festival vendors were selling the spidery metal head scratchers all over. They were a huge hit. People were walking all over with them resting on their heads. Kelly and James couldn’t resist the urge.

The Festival was wonderful. It reminded me of home and the Central Valley.

Our new favorite restaurant is a Uyghur Barbecue eatery down a back alley. Katie and Thomas have always been the adventurous ones for which I am most grateful. For their guts have introduced my stomach to some scrumptious food. The latest of which was this Northwestern Uyghur cuisine.     

Thank you for your adventurous side.

Nothing beats a great BBQ

The main dishes are skewers of meat and vegetables.  As the Uyghurs are typically Muslim there is no pork. The meat is typically beef or goat. The vegetableselection is varied but our favorites are the potato and eggplant.   

The restaurant uses a combination of spices that is mouth watering. It is all prepared in front of the restaurant. After 6pm the restaurant often remains packed until well into the night. It is among a few restaurants to remain up open until well into the mornings on the weekends.   

The cooks are constantly trying to keep up!

Tubs and tubs of prepared skewers are constantly being prepared. Once ordered the skewers are moved to the long BBQ in the the front. It is a long narrow channel that has hot coals continually added.   

The skewers are laid across the top, spices are added and then they are rotated to the perfect doneness.   

Anyone up for a game of pick up sticks?

It is not uncommon for the skewer count by the end of the night reach well over 100.    

And before my vegetarian family members comment on that count, its the veggies that contribute the most they come on double skewers.   

My latest favorite is the fried mantou (steamed bread). It’s the closest thing to toast I’ve been able to find in this county.   

               ——                   

The following pictures are NOT for the faint of heart nor for non-meat eaters. I’ve added these pictures for completeness sake but warn, you view at your own risk.

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

↓

I'm pretty sure this was our dinner.

  The meat is often slaughtered and cleaned in front of the restaurant. This is a picture of the goat that would soon become our dinner.     

I had to take a double look when I first saw this.

In America we are often far removed from the animals we eat, in China this is not the case.   

To most American’s it seems meat is just a food group. As we are accustomed to boneless skinless meat that bears little resemblance to the original animal it is often hard for me to stomach meat here that still has the head attached or in this case in the front of the restaurant.

In China I’ve come to accept certain facts of life, the following being one of them…

There is the Original, the homemade rendition, then the jerry rigged-strange substitutions-something is definitely off China version of everything.

Hello, my name is Kayte and I'm a Chocoholic.

When I returned to China, among the exactly 99.6 lbs of luggage I brought back, I lugged a six pound bag of Toll House Chocolate Chips. I’ve yet to find Chocolate Chips in any import section in China and chopping up Dove bars gets expensive quickly. I’ve been hoarding my American food but finally realized if I don’t start eating it I’ll be home by the time I do.

So I went online found my favorite recipe and went to cook. I was soon back at my computer looking up substitutes when I realized I didn’t have baking soda. By some stroke of luck I lucked out inheriting a container of Glabber Girl Baking Powder with my last apartment and discovered that by tripling the baking powder it will substitute for baking soda, the taste will be affected according to the website but I didn’t see any other viable options.

Next the sugar. Finding a decent sugar in China is like trying to find a decent boy to date in Tulare. Okay that was harsh, there are some usable sugars in China you just have to hunt for ages then pray that brand will still be there the next time you go to the store.  Our current white sugar is on the moist side while the only edible brown sugar won’t pack, for all the tea in China. Once creamed it maintains its granulated texture and never fully blends with the butter.

I was smart enough to bring back my own vanilla extract another product not to be found on the import shelves at, Jusco, Tesco, Walmart, RT or Carefour. Eggs are still abounding in our apartment, although the bottom of the second box is beginning to see some daily light. Land o’Lakes butter has become a household name here thanks to our frequent visits to Qingdao.

yumm nothing says delicious like chocolate chip cookie dough

Once all was creamed and the dry ingredients added the dough lover that I am dived right into to the bowl. I know Mom, one day I’m going to die of salmonella p0isoning but not today. As if eating raw egg in the states wasn’t unhealthy enough you’d think I’ve strong sense to stay far away from Chinese raw eggs. But the allure of cookie dough is just too strong for this girl. So if I do die of salmonella one day at least I know I went out with a smile on my face and the great taste cookie of dough.

I’m still trying get the hang of our oven. I’m sorry I just don’t understand the Celcius system. But from experience the temperature dail straight up for 10  minutes makes for chewy cookies.

Bei Da Huang has become one of my favorite restaurants. Unfortunately, tonight it did not hold up to all the hype I’d dumped on it when showing it off to Katie and Thomas. They still enjoyed it and promised to return but I was disappointed in the usually fantastic meals. 

One of the reasons I love it so much is the amazing picture menu! You don’t need to know a character to order your favorite food.  I had originally planned the dinner so Wendy and Peter could meet Victoria but Wendy didn’t feel well at the last minute. I hadn’t backed out of the dinner knowing with out Wendy I could still order clearly. That seems to be the catch at trying to restaurants.

Pumpkin Fries dipped in sugar

This dish is the reason to live. Yes, Pumpkin fries dipped in sugar. The two best things to happen to food, a deep fryer and a sugar coating. This is the costomary results of the dish, delightful deliciousness. 

Today however the oil was old and saturated with the previous dish FISH. Yes it was as horrible as it sounds.

Luckily Katie and Thomas knew no better and enjoyed the rest of the dishes immensely. I guess we will just have to return to remedy the bad experience.

Oh how a simple herb packet can mean so much.

Kelly made dinner on Sunday and it was delicious! She brought herb and marinade packets and now we’re reaping the benefits.

Its simple western seasonings that I’ve taken for granted my whole life that I now treasure so dearly. The oven we purchased has begun paying itself off quite nicely. I can’t wait for future dinners!

This evening Peter and Wendy came over and cooked a delicious meal! I’d been telling Kelly about Peter’s amazing cooking when we went out to dinner last week and Wendy volunteer for an encore!

My two favorite Chefs!

They came around 6 and insisted we just sit back a relaxed, Wendy would come ask for help if they needed anything. Kelly and I waited in the offices as tantalizing smells drifted in from the kitchen.  My mouth was watering by the time Wendy announced dinner!

The dishes included (clockwise) top, 100 year eggs, potato slices (my fav), tomatoes and eggs (another fav), yam slices and the final dish a sliced onion dish.

100 Year Eggs - about as delicious as they sound.

Peter knew my two favorite dishes, Tomatoes and Eggs and Sliced Potatoes! I must admit I did miss good Chinese while I was back in the States, not so much the above dish.

Dinner was most enjoyable as usual. Peter and Wendy are always a pleasure to spend time with. Peter’s English pronunciation is getting really good. I can finally compliment his cooking in complete sentences! After some rather comical stumbles we agreed that our language skills are about even. Although I still think his English is a little better.

I don’t know what I would do without those two!