This is more or less a no brainer, but I think this one gets the proportions just right.
Ingredients:
3-4 cups leftover cooked rice [It really does have to be cold.]
2 carrots, chopped and cooked [I microwaved with a little water for 3 minutes.]
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped [Chinese garlic is weaker than American- you might try 3]
3 eggs, scrambled
2 Tbs oil
3 Tbs dark soy sauce
1. Cook the garlic and onions in the oil until the onion is clear.
2. Add rice to wok, mixing well with onion. Cook until rice is warmed through, stirring constantly.
3. Add soy sauce, mixing well.
4. Add eggs and carrots. Cook 1 minutes longer.
5. Serve warm.
You can also add other veggies like bell peppers or snow beans. Thick vegetables do best when cooked ahead, but thin things like sprouts and pea pods can just be tossed in and cooked for a minute or two.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Recipe: Smashed Cucumbers
I have acquired a Chinese cookbook which I am deciphering one recipe at a time. I figure since I'm pretty much translating them for myself already, I might as well share. Here's the first, alternatively translated as "smacked cucumbers."
Ingredients- This all to taste, so the measurements are my own.
Cucumbers (I used 4 Chinese ones which are small- 1 big American one or 2 medium)
Garlic, minced (3 cloves)
Soy sauce (about 4 Tbs)
Vinegar (about 4 Tbs- this is Chinese vinegar- maybe use rice wine vinegar?)
Salt (pinch)
Sugar (pinch)
1. Cut the ends of the cucumbers. Smack them. [The idea is that jagged edges hold the dressing better, I think. The recipe says to use the flat side of a heavy cleaver. I used a small frying pan with moderate force. If you have big cukes, you might want to cut it in half first. Or you could just slice them like carrot sticks.]
2.Mix the cucumber pieces and garlic in a bowl. Add soy sauce and vinegar, then sugar and salt.
3.Toss and serve.
Ingredients- This all to taste, so the measurements are my own.
Cucumbers (I used 4 Chinese ones which are small- 1 big American one or 2 medium)
Garlic, minced (3 cloves)
Soy sauce (about 4 Tbs)
Vinegar (about 4 Tbs- this is Chinese vinegar- maybe use rice wine vinegar?)
Salt (pinch)
Sugar (pinch)
1. Cut the ends of the cucumbers. Smack them. [The idea is that jagged edges hold the dressing better, I think. The recipe says to use the flat side of a heavy cleaver. I used a small frying pan with moderate force. If you have big cukes, you might want to cut it in half first. Or you could just slice them like carrot sticks.]
2.Mix the cucumber pieces and garlic in a bowl. Add soy sauce and vinegar, then sugar and salt.
3.Toss and serve.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Surreal...
So I finally got to meet all of the foreign teachers at my school. Counting me, there are four. The crazy thing is, one of them is from the same hometown as me! She grew up down the road from me, and we went to the same high school at the same time, but we didn't know each other then. We know quite a few of the same people and everything.
It's completely surreal to move around the world and find your neighbor.
In other news, I started taking Chinese class/tutoring again today. There are two exchange students in my school, and the school has agreed to let me go to their Chinese lessons. I'm teaching during some, but I can go to others. It's wonderful because the teacher is great and it's really just a tutoring session for the three of us. I think it will help my Chinese a lot.
It's completely surreal to move around the world and find your neighbor.
In other news, I started taking Chinese class/tutoring again today. There are two exchange students in my school, and the school has agreed to let me go to their Chinese lessons. I'm teaching during some, but I can go to others. It's wonderful because the teacher is great and it's really just a tutoring session for the three of us. I think it will help my Chinese a lot.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Aaaaand I'm back!
Sorry to have been remiss in my blogging duties. It's been a busy several weeks! Quick review:
-We had hotel week, the consolidation of trainees from all the training sites into one place. We stayed at a really nice place in Chengdu. You could tell that most of us are recent college grads or had been employed in the non-profit sector by the way our jaws all dropped at the giant marble panda fountain, the gold and marble lobby, and the small army of neatly uniformed service personnel. These last folks were utterly horrified when we started schlepping our own bags across the vast lobby and came literally running to meet us, armed with burgundy and gold luggage carts. They bodily took our luggage from us and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. This was very nice of them, especially seeing as how there is no tipping in China, but created a bit of a problem when one tried to remove my hiker's pack from my back, not realizing the hip belt was still fastened. ^_^
-Swearing In! I have now officially graduated from being a Trainee to a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). It's a little hard to explain why, but it's a big deal. All sorts of tiny technical details change, and it signifies that we successfully passed the rigors of training. Hooray! The ceremony was magnificent. The new US ambassador to China came to swear us in. It was exciting because this was his first public act since arriving in China. He was very friendly to us all (though my wittier friends quipped, "He's a diplomat- he's not going to show up grouchy"), and his Chinese is excellent, even if he does have a terrible Beijing accent. The program was topped off by a slideshow of photos taken during training and was touching and hilarious in turns.
-Lanzhou. Here I am, and here to stay. The day after swearing in, all we Gansu folk all got on the same train and headed north. It was an enjoyable train ride, since most of us were together in one car along with our school representatives. It was nice to relax and chat for a while. When we got to Lanzhou, we discovered that several things in my apartment had broken between site visit and now. I was moderately dismayed, thinking that I would have to wait for business hours to have them repaired. Not so! Even though it was a Sunday afternoon, four repairmen showed up within two hours, and everything was fixed straightaway.
-Work! The day after arriving, I got my schedule for this semester. I'll be teaching oral English to freshmen and sophomores, and one section of writing for juniors. Since the freshmen have almost a month of orientation, and the juniors have seven weeks student teaching that I don't deal with, I'm only working two days a week right now. Things will definitely pick up, but I have a lot of down time at the moment. In a way, it's been nice to have a chance to get my bearings, explore, and get settled, but I'll be glad when I have a more filled out schedule. I do like structure in my life!
The school is great, and everyone has been very supportive and helpful. There are a handful of other foreign teachers, and they have been kind enough to help me navigate the paperwork. Also, my counterpart, assigned to me in a sort of Big Sister fashion, is wonderful. She's fun to hang out with and has the lowdown on all the information that I need to know, like schedule changes and the different temperaments of different classes.
-Final thoughts- Everything is going well. There are a lot of new things to get used to (like unrefrigerated eggs!), but a lot of things about teaching are familiar. I can tell that I'm going to really enjoy getting to know my students. I've met several people who live near by that I think could become friends, etc. It's a lot of work, starting over from scratch in a new place, but with a little luck and patience, I think it's going to be a great two years!
-We had hotel week, the consolidation of trainees from all the training sites into one place. We stayed at a really nice place in Chengdu. You could tell that most of us are recent college grads or had been employed in the non-profit sector by the way our jaws all dropped at the giant marble panda fountain, the gold and marble lobby, and the small army of neatly uniformed service personnel. These last folks were utterly horrified when we started schlepping our own bags across the vast lobby and came literally running to meet us, armed with burgundy and gold luggage carts. They bodily took our luggage from us and wouldn't take "no" for an answer. This was very nice of them, especially seeing as how there is no tipping in China, but created a bit of a problem when one tried to remove my hiker's pack from my back, not realizing the hip belt was still fastened. ^_^
-Swearing In! I have now officially graduated from being a Trainee to a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV). It's a little hard to explain why, but it's a big deal. All sorts of tiny technical details change, and it signifies that we successfully passed the rigors of training. Hooray! The ceremony was magnificent. The new US ambassador to China came to swear us in. It was exciting because this was his first public act since arriving in China. He was very friendly to us all (though my wittier friends quipped, "He's a diplomat- he's not going to show up grouchy"), and his Chinese is excellent, even if he does have a terrible Beijing accent. The program was topped off by a slideshow of photos taken during training and was touching and hilarious in turns.
-Lanzhou. Here I am, and here to stay. The day after swearing in, all we Gansu folk all got on the same train and headed north. It was an enjoyable train ride, since most of us were together in one car along with our school representatives. It was nice to relax and chat for a while. When we got to Lanzhou, we discovered that several things in my apartment had broken between site visit and now. I was moderately dismayed, thinking that I would have to wait for business hours to have them repaired. Not so! Even though it was a Sunday afternoon, four repairmen showed up within two hours, and everything was fixed straightaway.
-Work! The day after arriving, I got my schedule for this semester. I'll be teaching oral English to freshmen and sophomores, and one section of writing for juniors. Since the freshmen have almost a month of orientation, and the juniors have seven weeks student teaching that I don't deal with, I'm only working two days a week right now. Things will definitely pick up, but I have a lot of down time at the moment. In a way, it's been nice to have a chance to get my bearings, explore, and get settled, but I'll be glad when I have a more filled out schedule. I do like structure in my life!
The school is great, and everyone has been very supportive and helpful. There are a handful of other foreign teachers, and they have been kind enough to help me navigate the paperwork. Also, my counterpart, assigned to me in a sort of Big Sister fashion, is wonderful. She's fun to hang out with and has the lowdown on all the information that I need to know, like schedule changes and the different temperaments of different classes.
-Final thoughts- Everything is going well. There are a lot of new things to get used to (like unrefrigerated eggs!), but a lot of things about teaching are familiar. I can tell that I'm going to really enjoy getting to know my students. I've met several people who live near by that I think could become friends, etc. It's a lot of work, starting over from scratch in a new place, but with a little luck and patience, I think it's going to be a great two years!
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