GwaiLoDown 鬼佬向下

I’ll never understand moon cakes 我永远也不会明白月饼

Archive for category Food

Very busy these days

Nov 26

Posted by Gwailo in Family, Food, General Thoughts, Holidays | 4 Comments

Lots going on. Aside from my normal work I am also deeply mired in the re-design of my company’s website. The current website was supposed to be a temporary measure, but that was almost 2 years ago now. 

Somehow, I think it is a little sad that a web design company like mine has to have such an ugly website. But that is what happens when all of your time is spent making great sites for other people.  But I have finally forced myself to set aside the time and the manpower to create the new site.  And it will be one that I can be very proud of. 

Aside from work I have been trying to spend more time with my boys.  But that hasn’t been as successful as I would hope.  During the week I am lucky if I get to see them for two minutes before I have to rush out the door.  Normally by the time I get home they are already asleep.  Weekends are a mixed bag. I get to spend a little more time with them but a lot of my time is still spent working in my home office.

Speaking of my boys, I picked up their American passports the other day.  They are now officially American citizens.  I don’t know how long it will be before they get the chance to go to the United States, but the thought of transporting 2 eight-month old babies on a 14 hour flight seems like a very difficult thing to me.  I will probably have to wait until they are a little older.

In a couple days is Thanksgiving. Of course it isn’t really celebrated here, but there are a few restaurants where American expats will gather for what passes as a traditional Thanksgiving meal here. But the food doesn’t really matter that much.  It is the chance to be around friends and people who share a common culture with you for a little while.  You would be surprised just how much that can mean sometimes.

Anyway, enough of these boring random thoughts.  It is time for me (and probably you) to get back to work.

Spork, spork, spork…

Sep 16

Posted by Gwailo in Food | 1 Comment

Tonight I will go home and do something that I haven’t done since I came to China over 2 years ago.  I will be having a steak and, wait for it, eating it with a real fork & steak knife!  How cool is that? 

No longer will I have to give into the pain of eating a steak with a fondue fork and a butter knife.  I will be able to cut through a juicy steak in about 3 strokes rather than the 20 I have become acustumed too.  

Happy, happy.  Joy, joy.

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Nothing but chip

Sep 16

Posted by Gwailo in Family, Food | 6 Comments

 

This weekend my wife and I went shopping for western*1* food at a store called Metro*2*.   Armed with a shopping list that could choke a horse we went shopping for our supplies.  

 

While my wife was rapidly filling up our cart with everything baby related, my goal was slightly more self-centered.  The best question of the day from my wife: “Do you think it is worth buying 600(!) diapers so we can get 10 free rolls of toilet paper?”

 

Odd questions aside, the one of the things I really wanted to pick up was BBQ flavored Pringles.  In the US I would rarely buy these but here they serve as a comfort food on the rare occasion that I can find them.

 

We went down the aisle after aisle and I found a vast array of Pringles and Lays potato chips.  My taste buds went into overdrive at the mere sight of the familiar packaging.  Seconds later my junk food junkie dreams were crushed as I started to read the labels.

 

Here are some photos*3* that I took of what they had to offer:

Black Pepper Rib Eye Steak Flavor

Braised Pork Ribs Flavor

Crispy Prawn Flavor

Crispy Roasted Chicken Flavor

Hot & Spicy Aromatic Grilled Corn Stick Flavor

Italian Red Meat Sauce Flavor

Mexican Tomato Chicken Flavor

Spicy Seafood Flavor

Tomato Flavor

 

No BBQ flavor Pringles to be found.  I left the store chipless and disappointed in their selection of western flavors.  But I did score a bunch of chocolate candy and a 2 kilo (4.4 pound) bag of shredded mozzarella cheese.

 

Some day, when I am feeling brave, I will show you some of the unique ice cream flavors I have to choose from here.

 

*1* ”Western” food is the very loose term they use here for anything that isn’t Chinese, or that they want you to think isn’t Chinese but actually is.

 

*2* Metro is like the US store chain Costco.  Metro is huge, membership only and has everything from clothes to electronics to foreign food.  They even have sides of beef hanging on hooks.  Want a specific cut?  Just point and the butcher will cut it off the frozen cow right in front of you.

 

*3* Sorry for the quality of the photos.  They were taken by my iPhone which really is a poor excuse for a camera.  Next time I will take a real camera.

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Moon Cake Madness

Sep 12

Posted by Gwailo in Food, Holidays | 2 Comments

Imagine my surprise when I found out that there are actually moon cakes out there that I like.  Let me rephrase that, there is actually A moon cake out there that I like.

With Mid-Autumn festival this weekend, China is being flooded with moon cakes.  Everyone, everywhere is either selling, buying, giving or assaulting people with moon cakes.  In my opinion it is the Chinese equivalent of the western fruit cake.  Except people here actually seem to enjoy them.

Moon cakes traditionally come in one of two types.  The first is made from mashed up, compressed lotus seed.  In the middle of this lotus seed is an egg yoke.  So you basically end up with a round hockey puck looking thing that kind of tastes the way a you would expect a hockey puck to taste.

The other type is made in pretty much the same way except that it is made from a combination of 6 different nuts and ground up meat.  Not much better tasting than the lotus seed version.

Every time I tell one of my Chinese friends or employees that I don’t like moon cakes, the answer is always the same.  “You just haven’t tried a good moon cake.  The ones from (insert name of home province here) are famous in China.”

My answer to their response is always, “I have tried many moon cakes.  They always taste like compressed bricks of wax.”  This answer doesn’t seem to make many people happy.  But they always turn their noses up at really good pizza, so I feel it is fair.

There are also a lot of non-traditional moon cakes made from every ingredient you can think of.  But the only one I have ever liked is the ice cream moon cakes made by Hagen Dazs.  These are VERY expensive but if I am going to be forced to eat moon cake, then these are the moon cakes I want to be forced to eat.

To the moon cake lovers out there, I do apologize.  I am not insulting moon cakes, nor am I saying that moon cakes are bad.  I am just saying that I don’t like them.  Simple.  You are free to tell me what foods you don’t like and I promise not to get mad.  See.  We can all be friends.

So Happy Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival to one and all.  Have a great weekend.

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