Ma La Girl Adventures: Hot Pot At Home

Ma La girls like hot pot. I had a hot pot dinner party at my house this past week, with spices I brought home from Chongqing. (I saved the wrappers and I'll be taking them to the Asian market to see if they can order more for me.)

Here is the food table, next to the eating table. In China the plates of food for hot pot come out on a multi-tiered cart, but because I don't have one of those, I used a card table. There are meatballs, little smokies, lotus, rice sticks, quail's eggs, noodles, squids, and two kinds of tofu. (We also had golden mushrooms and chicken pieces but those were already on the table.)

Here is a shot of the table set up. I bought an induction cooker to use in my apartment, because that's the kind of cooker I had in China and I found I prefer it to the convection cooking more popular here in America. I used it that night for the hot pot; not only is it portable to the table, but inductions don't get hot like convections so no one was going to burn themselves. It worked really well.

Hot pot tables in China are built into the table, like this:

I wonder if they would be considered a fire hazard here in America, due to the open flame below the table? I'll have to ask the next firefighter I see. I'd love to build a hot pot table for my house.

 The small white bowls on my table are filled with the sesame oil/garlic/cilantro/msg mixture you dip the cooked food into before eating. They all loved it!  I was really happy to be able to share this part of Chinese culture with them, and of course eat deeleeciours hot pot.

Just the smells of hot pot brought back so many memories! My most memorable hot pot was when I ate bull penis, and my second most memorable was eating it at 4 AM with friends after leaving a club. I knew I was a real Ma La Chongqing girl when I could eat hot pot at 4 AM.

A Few Random Pictures

The English says 'dogmeat', but the Chinese says 'ground meat.' Not sure if it's a euphemism or a mistranslation. (And I think we'd say 'black eyed peas' but that is perhaps a regional English thing.) In any case, I didn't buy it.

Random Transformers character outside a club chain called '88.' (8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.) There was a sign next to him but all I could make out is that he was some kind of party monster from another planet who was coming here to throw the best party of all time. Might be a New Year's Eve thing. There were still too many characters I didn't know. (I hate that, but good study motivation!)

Chinese grandparents are the nation's babysitters. All day long, it is common to see babies and grandparents, shooting the breeze, feeding some pigeons, etc. This picture is a little bit blurry, I know, but check out those mouse ears and stocky legs. Chinese babies are delicious little butterballs in the winter, due to the layers and layers of clothing they wear.

This line of people stretched all the way around the square. I was shocked there was an orderly line. I walked to the end to see what they were waiting for: discounted light bulbs. I know I have not experienced the kind of hardship in life that makes standing in an hour long line for a discounted light bulb worth it.

All That's Missing Are The Cook's Butts

We had a long dinner to kick off our weekend of shenanigans-- over four hours long. We ate around 20 dishes of food, consumed 40 bottles of beer, 4 bottles of wine and countless shots of Chinese sangria. ("We" meaning the dinner party-- I don't drink any alcohol.) In short, a typical Chinese dinner. I passed the kitchen on the way to the bathroom and took a peek inside. Here's what a little Chinese restaurant kitchen looks like:

In the little restaurant we often go to for lunch, the cook always has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and there are butts all over the floor. I wonder how much ash I've eaten. Believe it or not, your body gets used to this style of cooking. We all got sick our first few weeks/months here, but now it's just minor discomfort, if we even get sick at all. Whoever said, "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" must have been talking about Chinese food. By the way, the food is delicious! It's worth being sick a few times for. This is my favorite dish, Pao4 Jiao1 Rou2 Si4. I'd never heard of it in the U.S., but I'm going to ask for it when I come back. It's pickled hot peppers with pork and a cool vegetable like celery, cucumber, or bamboo. (This is bamboo.)

And something else I thought might interest you: this wooden barrel is used for storing rice. A nicer restaurant will make fresh rice everyday. Others don't. (You can ask them when they cooked the rice to decide if you want to eat there, but I never ask.)

And here is a shot of our table after dinner was over. Dinner in America is going to seem so boring after two years in China.

3 Random Things

1. Further adventures in the breakdown of my mother tongue: I was with a friend tonight and pronounced the word 'oregano' as 'oreGANo,' as if I were saying the word 'Oregon' in Spanish. Then I said it a few times both ways, trying to figure out which way was right. We both thought it was quite funny; I cried, I laughed so hard when I realized what I'd done. I'm sure the Chinese around us were wondering what was so funny, but it is funny to hear yourself losing the ability to speak your native language properly.

2. I had this for the first time tonight, and it's my new favorite treat: a fresh mango smoothie. (Sha1 bing1 mang2 guo3.) Just crushed ice, fresh mango and honey, blended together in a big cup of awesome. It's $1.00 USD, which believe it or not is a little expensive for us to have very often, but ohhh... it is oh so good on these 95 F, 95% humidity days. I might have to readjust my meager Peace Corps food allowance to include a 'mango' column.

3. I was at a big bookstore tonight, too (I know, fun night, right?) and saw this book in the English books section. Barack Obama is very popular here; my students were actually assigned to read his election night speech as homework by their Chinese teachers. (His inauguration speech was cut off mid-stream by the local media as soon as he uttered the word 'communism,' however.) And now, an English study tool. Kind of amazing. (Click picture to enlarge.)




That's all from me for a bit. There's a weekend party being thrown by two volunteers in another city (one of them is this guy) so I'll be gone playing for a few days. I'm not sure what kind of shenanigans will be had, but oh yes, there will be shenanigans. Hope y'all have a great weekend!