Food in China is incredibly varied and made in millions of ways.

I took this picture in my neighborhood.

I have no idea what kind of meat it is.

Continue Reading "Drying Carcass"

My brother and sister arrived from Ethiopia over the weekend. I am so happy to have more family here.

Continue Reading "More Family Here"

Having the little guy "cook" along side me is fun. He is such an enthusiastic chef.

However, he now wants real ingredients in his "dish". He can still be satisfied with wilted lettuce, mushroom stems, and dried orange peels.

Continue Reading "Toddler Cooking: The Coming Ingredient War"

Sometimes I am astonished by what I find my son loves to eat.

A while back he had a lint habit. He used to pick them off sweaters, put them in his mouth, and pretend to chew on them. Thankfully, he stopped.

Then he picked up toilet paper.

Yes, toilet paper.

He still takes a big bite when I wipe his nose!

And no, we have not figured out how to stop it.

I am starting to suspect our horrified reaction has a lot to do with him continuing to perform this stunt because he laughs every time. We may have to put him through the 12 steps to get him to stop this strange addiction!

Continue Reading "Buchela's Inedible Habits"

Turkey day was a regular working Thursday for us folks here in Dalian, China.

But we were invited to a church potluck dinner. We know the pastor's family really well and are good friends with them. So it was nice to get together.

Continue Reading "Thanksgiving Day in China"

I know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself... well, that shouldn't be a problem given the fact that I live in China.

It is.

You know why?

Because I want cheap American, food court, Chinese food!

I want Orange Chicken with Chow Mein! I want it so badly I could cry.

Continue Reading "What I Really Want"

Perfectly chewy and yum!

So rare I thought was that chance, to fully take advantage of it, I wolfed down, not one, not two, but nine cookies.

I didn't feel well for the rest of the day.

Continue Reading "Cookie Love"

My father has been pretty good about trying new types of food; my mother... not so much.

Every time my father ate some unknown creature my mother cringed, crossed herself and said a little prayer.

But Buchela's father and I managed to get her to try seaweed and blue-grey eggs whose source we couldn't identify. She has also eaten some octopus.

My father on the other hand has gone as far as eating chicken feet (nails and all).

They have really taken their vacation here as a chance to expand their world view. I am very proud of both of them.

For More Photos, Click on the Continue Reading link at the bottom.

Continue Reading "Sea Critters and Blue Eggs"

After enjoying a delicious meal at a local restaurant, I go to the cashier, who happens to be in the bar area, to get our change before we leave.

I then see these bottles with wholly pickled hummm ... see for yourself!

If given the opportunity, how many of you will take a sip?

On America's birthday, my husband asked me "Do we really not know any Americans?", as if to double check, hardly believing the fact that we don't know any.

We have fallen into a great little Canadian community and have become very comfortable.

On the fourth of July, we went out with some of them to a Japanese restaurant and had a big old feast. No hot dogs or hamburgers.

But we did get to try snails.

The next day, Doug and Sue, our very first friends here, left China for good.

We will miss them very much.

After looking around the milk isle for a while, I give up and decide to attempt communication with one of the uniformed grocery store staff.

I think it would be a piece of cake since I know how to make cow and sheep noises.

I get a hold of one of the girls standing around idle, pick up a cow milk package, and say: "Mooooo Moooo Moooo NO. Baaaa Baaaa. YES." shaking my head vigorously.

She laughs and goes to get another person. I repeat what I said before, only this time my Moos were Moooooooooooo Mooooooooooooo and my Baaas were Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

By the time I realized it was not working, there were five sales girls looking at me as if I were insane.

Just when I begin to walk off, a tiny Chinese woman who has been watching me make an ass of myself approaches me with a smile and says "excuse me! What do you want?"

From then, I was led to the proper location of the sheep milk with no problem.

This is what I have been reduced to.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

wahhhh! Wahhhhhhh! Wahhhhhhhh!

ha ha!

Oy!

About a week ago I came home with a bunch of fruits and vegetables. We have eaten everything except this melon.

The Buchela got a hold of it when I was unloading the grocery bags and thought it was his new ball.

Since then he has been pushing it, rolling it, and kicking it with his feet. It has been on the floor since the day it came to our house.

Of course, soon enough it is going to start rotting and I am going to have to throw it out. And he is going to be upset when he can't find it.

But until then I am going to let him enjoy it.

On Saturday, we went to visit a Chinese couple who just had a baby a month ago.

As a general rule, Chinese couples usually live with the husband's parents. So, most children in China grow up with one set of grandparents.

The wife's parents visit, of course, but they don't get the privilege of living with their children. This is one reason why there is a huge preference for boy babies. Boy babies are expected to take care of their parents when they grow up. And since people could only have one child, they would rather that child be a boy.

The couple we visited had a boy.

In the picture below, I was taking a lesson on how to make dumplings from our friend Kevin (the Chinese usually have "English" nick names) and his mother.

After trying to get me to do it correctly for a half hour, they gave up.

It looked simple. I thought I could easily learn, but when it came down to folding the dumplings with the stuffing in place, I sucked. I could tell they were a bit put off by my inability to grasp the simplest folding instructions.

What can I say? Me not the sharpest tool in the shed!

After walking around in Liugong Village under the hot sun all morning, we were all hungry and tired. So, we decided to eat our lunch there.

We didn't know what to expect. We didn't think it would be good. And we knew it will be different.

What ended up on our table was some pork and potatoes (hummm finger licking good), plain noodles, sautéed bamboo shoots with some sort of meat, and a bowl of leafy greens covered with fuzz.

Oh yes. It was good.

And I can now say I have eaten bamboo!