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We had our first disastrous meal over the weekend. We tried hot pot (Mongolian Hot Pot), a common dish around here. We observed the table next to us and tried to duplicate what they did, but we asked for the spicy sauce. We happily, innocently dropped all of our meats and vegetables into the boiling cauldron only to find out the food was inedible. A bit of visual research revealed a layer literally a 1/4 inch thick of Sichuan hot peppers, covered with a layer about 1/8 of a n inch thick of whole black peppercorns. We had thrown our precious food into the equivalent of Flint's hot BBQ sauce. Lesson to be learned: when the waiter at the Chinese, Korean, Indian, or whatever restaurant says that the food may be "too spicy for western palates," maybe you should listen up. Our waitress may have indeed been saying that, but it would of course have been in Chinese.
Spent Sunday with a friend of Deng. Deng, as some of you know, is the Chinese visiting scholar I used to meet with every Tuesday afternoon to help him practice English. The friend and his wife took me to the Summer Palace--by far, without rival, the most beautiful part of Beijing. It was "liberated" by Mao at about the same time as the Forbidden City. It's as if the Emperor (or, in this case, the Empress) collected all the most beautiful trees and flowers and lakes and rocks and boats in the city, moved them to the northeast corner of Beijing and put a wall around them.
The couple were very nice and we spoke in both languages. They have a six-year-old daughter. She lives in Xi'an with her grandmother because both parents are too busy at work. They see her for two weeks during the Chinese New Year. I was simultaneously astonished and horrified by the story, although this is not the first time I've heard such a tale.
There's a dish that's been ordered for me twice now that I can only describe as deep-fried banana chunks. The platter comes sizzling hot, heaped with the equivalent of maybe 3 bananas' worth of sugar-battered chunks. The fruit is so damned hot that a small bowl of water accompanies it. One dips one's chunks into the water to cool the banana and solidify the caramel. The dish must be eaten quickly, before the chunks solidify on their own, congealing into a solid mass of cooked banana-caramel sludge. Of course, eating sugar-coated molten banana chunks very quickly isn't really the solution to this problem--my stomach has informed me that, sooner or later, the chunks do indeed solidify--somewhere. Urp.
Now that the people of China are free to travel within the country, I see many more minorities around. Most, from the looks of them, are from Mongolia and southwest China.
To answer some of your questions:
Malka, you were intrigued by my food options and asked whether I could find you a kosher dairy caterer for your wedding (what's the date, by the way?). "Dairy" here is Mongolian yak cheese and in their kosher cooking, they don't add any meat when they cook the vegetables in the lard. Want me to get you a few names?
To my lurker friend, Art (by way of explanation, to save me some processing time and money, I've encouraged the development of sub-mailing lists. Nicole has been kind enough to forward these missives to various and sundry at Kaiser Permanente and Mom has begun her own mailing list of friends that she'd like to share these with): at last count, there are 44 McDonald's in Beijing. No, that's not a typo: 44. There's one down the street from my university. Any idea, Art, how many there are in Oakland? The current exchange rate is about Y8.2RMB (called Renminbi, yuan, or kwai) to $1 US. On the surface, prices resemble US prices: a meal for Y8-12, a t-shirt for Y10-20, a pen for Y2, but when you realize those are yuan and not dollars and you divide by 8.2 (yeah, right, like I go around dividing by 8.2), you realize how far the dollar goes. As far as your questions about Disney and other American brands, yeah, they're all over the place here, at super low prices, but I'm sure they are all counterfeit. If you like, I can bring a few samples home and have my friends at Levi's or my parent's friend the trademark infringement attorney, have a look. Sorry, I can't answer your questions about public employees, etc. I would need a translator to talk to anyone not a student and the public employees don't seem too open to interviews.
And, yes, dim sum and Cantonese are not found a bit in Beijing. There's plenty of street food, as you've read, including the steamed buns (bao zi) of dim sum fame, and duck feet is on most menus, but dim sum as a species is about as common as cheese fondue. And no one here knows the words gai lan, bok choy, or har gow.
Annette, you write, "Sid broke the third toe on his right foot yesterday scoring a win for the Eagles." I hadn't realized there was a Zeff on the team...?
Grace (Loh), you asked how the Chinese feel about Tibet, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (was it just a slip or did you mean to call Taiwan "China"?). Just yesterday, my friend Hu told me that there are 1.2 billion people in China. He said that that number does not include Hong Kong or Taiwan, because they're special, but it most certainly does include Tibet. When the subject of Tibet comes up, the Chinese become very defensive and talk about the slavery that preceded the liberation. Tibet appears to be thought of as the place where religion reigns. Religion--and I get this from my questions about Chinese Jews--seems to be considered lower-class or foolish. And, Grace, your Chinese looks pretty good to me. It appears you're at about the same level as I am. Wo jia you liang ko ren he liang ko mao.
Mom, you asked for my mailing address. You can try to get a physical object to me by writing (all caps is preferable and yes, that is a 6-digit zip code):
DEBRA GOLDENTYER
DORMITORY 14, ROOM 408
BEIJING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE UNIVERSITY
15 XUEYUAN ROAD
HAIDEN DISTRICT
BEIJING, 100083
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
But make sure it's not essential that I ever see this object and do give me notice that it's coming so I'll look for it. One story that I haven't even tried to tell via email (it's too long) is the package-from-Mark story. All I'll say is that it was Federal Expressed on March 4 and not in my hands until 9 days later. Ask for the story by name when I return home, ok?
Oh, and Grace Loh, again, you asked about American television shows. I get Star TV in my dorm room--it's the English language Hong Kong channel. We get all the shows--3rd Rock, Murder She Wrote, Newsradio, etc. I think each episode is a few years old. Last night, Hyun Zhong, Janus and I watched the x-files together. They were completely absorbed despite the fact that it was entirely in English without translation.
This just in: Vivian is writing my biography for an assignment for her English class. I'll try to get a copy and share it with you when it's done.
Love you all.
Debra.
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