Comments on: Food for thought

By: Living in China is Easy… | A China Blog on Suzhou Expat Life | The Humanaught

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:47:52 +0000

[...] Maggie largely handles all the shopping (in part because of our new cooking arrangement), and for a long time – like most things “China” – it didn’t get to [...]

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:57:25 +0000

I’m (slowly) teaching myself how to cook. It doesn’t always taste good, but I enjoy experimenting with food. Like the time soon after we arrived in Suzhou when our fridge was basically empty; I made an omelet of eggs, “Laughing Cow” cheese, green olives, and picked red peppers. It wouldn’t win any awards, but it was edible. (my wife may take issue with that assessment…)

Re: Stuart: “that westerners live on bread and beef”, when I read this I immediately thought of all those times my Korean students asked me what Canadians eat… and how there was no easy answer to this questions. I always started by mumbling something about poutine and maple syrup and then stumbled my way into a discussion about Canadian ethnic heterogeneity. In the end, my poor fourth graders were annoyed, bored, and still had no idea what Canadians eat. Next time it comes up, I think I’ll just tell them Green Olive Omelets and leave it at that.

By: stuart

stuart — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:05:07 +0000

My culinary skills are very basic, so too my wife’s. Fortunately she is very open-minded about the food she eats and has taken to baguettes and pasta with a passion.

It irks me considerably that Chinese people generally turn their noses up at any food unfamiliar to them, having been indoctrinated with the idea that their food is superior to any other country’s, and that westerners live on bread and beef.

Further, ‘What to eat’ is the number one concern voiced by my students when asked about the difficulties of living or studying overseas, and that includes those heading to Italy. Go figure.

By: ChinaMatt

ChinaMatt — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 04:06:29 +0000

My mother-in-law cooks for us–really good Chinese food. But I’ve also managed to get in the kitchen a few times. I got them to enjoy gumbo, shepherd’s pie, and some other oven-baked meals. Fortunately, my wife is an adventurous eater and loves trying non-Chinese cuisine…still can’t believe I got her to like pastrami on rye when she visited the US.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:26:12 +0000

Maybe you could try posting a few of the more successful recipes?

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:45:13 +0000

I know how you feel about the ayi. Actually, the apt I’m in now already had an ayi when I moved in. I continued the service until I realized that most of the time she was here cleaning, I was sitting around or just being lazy. I had to man up on that one.
Also, I actually don’t mind cleaning. It gives me an excuse to blare music for an hour or two.

Once I’m busy enough to justify it, I’ll consider a cooking ayi though. The prospect of home cooked food on a regular basis is just to hard to resist…

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 02:41:19 +0000

@Jason: Despite loving to cook back home, I didn’t cook in China for a long time; mostly for the same reasons you mentioned – just not having a well-prepped kitchen.

I don’t much have that excuse anymore. Plus, because we live in a pretty swank neighborhood there are few, if any, cheap Chinese eateries and so cooking at home is, once again, a cost saver.

I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me to check out Rice Again, a fellow Suzhou expat, for recipes. I should pay more attention to the blogs I host haha.

The aiyi thing is something we’ve considered (for cleaning as well), but it just seems wrong. I’m middle-class, I have no right to have servants.

As a zuofan laoshi though, that’s a thought.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 01:56:51 +0000

I cooked to pay my through my uni and over time, I really began to enjoy it. I went from getting to paid to cook to paying for it. (much to the delight of my lazy ass roommates)
As it stands now, I’ve been in China a little over a year and I’ve hardly cooked at all. I’ll eat in, but I haven’t been cooking for scratch. There’s a lot of reasons for this (I work a lot of nights, my kitchens not great…er, blows, I haven’t done the proper utensil/cookware shopping run yet, etc)
Anyway, I’m thinking once I get a little more settled in I’m going to get back behind the pans.
One thing I’m considering is hiring a cooking ayi for only a few days a week and seeing how that goes. I’m not sure how long I would keep the service, but it would be a great way to learn some Chinese ancient techniques (ahem, recipes)
Check out Rice Again for some ideas.
Good luck and may the force be with you.