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.

Shanghai and New York City and Me

Well, according to your comments, of those who stated a preference, half prefer window and half prefer aisle. You window people, I admire your bladder control!

In my last post I mentioned that Shanghai is more developed than NYC. I’ve never lived in NYC, only visited two or three times a year for work or pleasure. I’ve been once to Shanghai. So, that’s my background in both cities. Here are a few reasons I think Shanghai is more developed:

1. The maglev train. As of this writing, the maglev in Shanghai is the fastest train in the world. It runs 268 - 310 miles per hour. There’s a station at the airport, and it takes seven minutes to get from the airport to the city. Now, can you imagine arriving at JFK and getting to Penn Station in seven minutes, for $6.00? How nice would that be?

2. Transport cards. In Shanghai, you can buy one refillable card and use it to pay for the subway, buses, or taxis. So convenient! I especially love that you can pay for a taxi with them, I hate carrying a lot of change. And they use hot spot scanners instead of turnstile runners, a little faster and less error prone.

3. Bus stops on the street have electronic signs telling you how many minutes until the next bus on that line will arrive. Subway trains arrive every 5-10 minutes, every time. (Hello 6 Train, can you hear this?)

4. The subway is super clean, super brightly lit, and super safe. My favorite feature is the ceiling to floor glass walls separating you from the train. It’s quiet in the stations because the glass walls muzzle the noise of the train. It’s like being in a space station in 2001: The Shanghai Odyssey. (Quiet except for the people, of course.)

5. In every taxi, there is a sign for a city hotline you can call if you are having trouble with your taxi driver. They print the sign in English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Maybe NYC doesn’t have this because it would be overloaded? I wanted to write down the number and call it from Chongqing, but I forgot. Next time!

(I’m sure you know people in China don’t vote, so all of this is done based on what the government, not the people, choose.)

But despite how developed Shanghai is, here are reasons I still love New York City more:

1. Diversity. Shanghai does not have the diversity of foods, population or thought that NYC has. Until you can get falafel, tacos or hot dogs on a single street corner in Shanghai, NYC will always win.

2. Beauty. In Shanghai, they tear everything old down and build new. Historical preservation can be taken to an extreme, but I love the old architecture of NYC. If you haven’t seen my youtube video of NYC firehouses on the historic register, you can see it here. It’s still one of my favorite photographic collections I’ve done. And don’t even get me started on the NYC bridges: gorgeous. If you want to see my general NYC photo collection, click here.

3. Personality. NYC has an arrogant confidence that is appealing. It’s dirty. It’s crime-ridden. But it’s where millions of people from all around the world with little to their names came to start a new life. It’s where people still go to really succeed. It has a world renowned fire department and beautiful architecture. It’s one of the greatest cities in the world, despite it’s flaws and scars. (I also think it has more eccentric, crazy people, but maybe that’s just the romantic in me.)

I leave early tomorrow morning for the dentist, wish me luck!

9/11

On 9/11 I had no idea what to say publicly. I hurt inside for those that still hurt. Especially for the ones I know personally. It's a difficult day for so many. I lit a candle for them in my living room. I wish I could tell them I was thinking of them that day.

Firehouses

Firehouses are beautiful to me for their unique architectural and historical place in society. Unlike office buildings, restaurants, and sometimes even churches, no two firehouses are exactly alike even though most of them provide the same services. Pretty cool!

 

Many firehouses in NYC are listed on the historic register. Using a historical register guide, I took myself on a walking tour, taking photographs along the way. (The picture at left is one of them.)  Once or twice someone working inside saw me taking pictures and talked with me about the history of the fire companies and the firehouse in that neighborhood. I loved hearing more about the neighborhoods and the people who have lived in these houses. 

If you want to see more of my pictures of NYC firehouses, click here. 

Brass Couplings and Card Catalogue

My dream living space has these two items in it: 

Brass fire hose couplings, as bookends or paper weights:

An old library card catalogue, as a storage space for desk supplies and odds and ends:

I love the idea of using an old item meant for one thing as something else. Also, recycled items. I think it brings a nice ambience and karma into your home to have items that were used and loved by someone else. 

Naughty Apron

Some friends made me this apron. I already thought it was hilarious, and then I saw the backside:


Who the hell makes fabric of a guy pulling his pants off? What exactly do they think you'd make out of this? A quilt? Anyway, it's my favorite apron anyone's ever given me. My friends, they rule.