food

I just woke up and ran straight to my computer because I can’t wait to tell you about last night. Wowza! What a night it was!! So fun, and exciting, and LOUD… and very special because we were able to spend such and important holiday with a very sweet local family. I should point out to you that it is really a huge honor to be invited into someone’s home like we were. Imagine if you invited some foreigners that you barely knew into your home to share your family Christmas. Same thing. Yes, it was a real honor.

So, New Year’s Eve can be summed up with 3 words: Family, Food, and FIREWORKS!!! I write that last one in capital letters because I promise, you have never seen fireworks like these. I know I hadn’t. As a matter of fact, the experience was so insane, that I decided to capture it on video instead of trying to describe it to you. Words will not do last night justice.

Family: Like I said before, this is China’s biggest holiday of the year, and one to be celebrated with family. In most homes, families will gather around the TV to watch a 4 hour long variety show called The Spring Festival Gala. About a billion people watch this program every year. In my opinion, this is true for 3 reasons:

1) it is produced by the government and therefore shown on every channel

2) since it has been airing for over 30 years, it has become a tradition

3) propaganda goes really well with fireworks.

Food: Chinese dumplings are one of the most important foods of Chinese New Year. Since the shape of the dumpling is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, they symbolize wealth. Traditionally, the members of a family get together to make dumplings during the New Year’s Eve (now, while watching the Gala). Very traditional families may hide a coin in one of the dumplings. The person who finds the coin is supposed to have good fortune in the New Year.

After making the dumplings, we sat down to a feast of local Qingdao seafood.

That last dish is made of sticky rice and is topped with the Chinese character, Fu, a character which pops up alot during the Festival. Most families hang a large paper Fu upside down on their front door. This is the only time when a Chinese character is written upside down on purpose. Why?? Because the Fu character means lucky or good fortune.  In Chinese, saying “fu dao le” (foo-dow-luh) means “luck or fortune has arrived”. But the word “dao” can also mean to fall down or turn upside-down. So, literally turning the character Fu upside-down is a play on words implying fortune has arrived. Pretty cool, huh?

Fireworks: A little background… The legend goes that every New Year, a man-eating sea monster called Nian (which coincidentally means “year”) shows up to attack the villagers and kill their livestock. The bright lights and loud noises of the fireworks are said to scare him away.

There is also a tradition involving burning money in the streets for your dead ancestors. I’m still a little fuzzy on this one because they obviously don’t burn real money, and I’m not sure why dead people need money anyway. Maybe by next year I’ll have this one figured out (but at least this sort of explains the men building a fire in the road on the video).

The experience is impossible to explain. Just watch the video. Things to remember as you are watching:

1) Anyone, anywhere can shoot fireworks, so they are going off in every direction. Literally thousands of people are shooting fireworks at the same time around the city. You are surrounded by fire, and noise, and chaos. Thus, the screaming (mine).

2) The fireworks go on ALL night, and continue throughout the entire festival. Yes, 10 days. Some people I know that have been living here for years, now leave China during the holiday just to escape the noise!

3) The Chinese invented fireworks. Don’t know if that is really relevant to the video, but I thought I needed a third point. I blame my Southern Baptist roots.

I know the video is a bit lengthy, but I think that if you watch the whole thing you will get a taste of what the night was like for us. Again, WOWZA!!

Bo and I are officially on vacation!

Yippeeeee!

A full 10 days off work!

Yahooooo!!

Okay, enough rubbing it in.

I am really looking forward to lots of blogging over the next week as Spring Festival unfolds. We have many exciting things planned during our time off this week, including going skiing and holding a Catan night at our apartment. I know that some people might not share our excitement about Catan night, but trust me, it’s exciting if you belong to our family.

So, more later…for now, I am off to bake my 3rd batch of muffins. During the Festival, when you visit friends, you must always go bearing gifts. And the homemade kind are the best!

If you ever visit China, be sure to eat at least one meal at a hot pot restaurant. Sort of like Chinese fondue!

You start out with hot oil, you get to choose 2 different flavors that basically determine the level of spiciness-we ordered one plain (white) and one medium spicy (red). I was with a girlfriend, so I actually got to sample both flavors. If I had been with Bo, I wouldn’t have been able to eat the burn-your-tastebuds-off spicy oil that he would have ordered.

As the oil heats up, and slowly comes to a boil, the servers bring the meat and veggies to the table. My friend wanted me to try EVERYTHING, so the food kept coming, and coming, and coming. It was hilarious!

Once the oil starts boiling, you just start dumping stuff in. After a few minutes of cooking… bon appetit!

Note: I have always loved vegetables, and since I have been here, I have discovered a whole new world of veggies that I never knew existed. I didn’t realize that we Americans were so deprived!!

Today was a big day. Today I had to find my own lunch.

Yesterday was Bo’s first day back at work, but he met me for lunch to sort of ease my transition into the reality that I am living in a foreign country and trying to fend for myself in a city where hardly anyone understands my language.

So today I ventured out into Qingdao in search of food. I have eaten a lot of yummy stuff here, but so far hadn’t had lunch like a local. But now I have. I left my building and browsed the many street vendors selling food that I don’t recognize (I don’t recognize anything here, yet). I decided on a little sandwich cart.

An old lady was chopping meat (don’t ask) and vegetables on a hot grill, then putting it on a flat roll and adding some kind of sauce. The whole thing reminded me of Steak Escape back home, so maybe that’s why I was drawn to it.

Anyway, I walked up to the little cart and held up one finger, indicating that I wanted one sandwich. The man that was also working at the cart looked at me and said “buy two, very delicious.” And I thought, ‘I’ll never be able to eat two of these…but hey, he spoke ENGLISH to me!’ So of course I bought two.

2 sandwiches for less than a dollar. Not bad.

As for the taste, the food was great…but HOT! The sauce nearly burned my taste buds off (red pepper, I think). However, I can’t complain because I’ve been fighting sinus and allergy junk for a week, and I think the sandwich pretty much cleared me up. 

My first day in Qingdao was great. Surprisingly, my plan to avoid jet lag worked, and I adjusted to the 13 hour time difference with no problems. Bo picked me up from the airport and we took a 30-40 minute cab ride into the city. I was quite impressed as Bo spoke Mandarin with the cab driver, navigating him to our condo. He has really come along way with the language in the past 4 months.

After being in airports or on a plane for 36 hours, pretty much all I cared about was taking a long hot shower. If you know me, you know I am a germ-a-phobe (and I fully expect China to cure me of that), so sitting, sleeping, being in so many public spaces for so many hours in a row was giving me the heebie-jeebies.

Once I felt human again, I was ready for my introduction to downtown Qingdao and my first authentic Asian meal. Bo took me to a Korean place right around the corner from our building, and he showed me the ropes of dining in China. It was fun. They brought us a pot full of stuff I couldn’t identify. Then we stirred in a tasty red sauce. I didn’t ask too many questions, just tried to be brave. mmmm. Luckily, I am pretty good with chopsticks, but drinking hot beverages (usually tea) with every meal is going to take some getting used to.

Okay, I know it is sort of a cliche to post funny Chinese signs where they mess up the English translation, but I couldn’t resist posting this. (Notice the sign behind Bo. The circled part is the text that I magnified). Keep in mind that I had to stare at this “typo” all the while wondering what was actually in my bowl!

My friend, Hannah, was kind enough to send me a video of some of the shenanigans that went on during the 7 weeks that Bo and the FIU crew spent at Qingdao University. Hannah is shooting this mouth-watering footage, while the rest of the gang is cheering him on and encouraging this…uh…experiment? I think that is a good word for it since apparently no one even knew what was on the plate.

Notice all of the cameras flashing. The others were getting quite a kick out of watching someone else do this (you can hear Warsha saying, “go ahh” to show off the yuckiness). And I can’t understand why, but Bo seems to be enjoying himself.

Watch out Andrew Zimmern!!

Bo Eats Gnarly Food from Rebecca Dotson on Vimeo.

I’m sitting in my favorite restaurant, Lisa’s, after a long day at work. You’re going to find me here many times during the week, especially when I need a break from Chinese food. When I am here, I usually see Italians, French, Swiss, and other Americans. It’s rare to see Chinese here, but they do come sometimes. Right now, sitting in the booth on the other side of me are French Olympians and family. Actually, some Olympians from the Netherlands are walking in as I write (I hope a fight doesn’t break out.) So, we’re all here relaxing in front of the TV watching the French clean up in the women’s Judo Olympics. We’ll have to suffer through the fencing to get to the China vs. Angola basketball game. Go China! That’s a no-brainer, though. They’re good!

When I first got here, all of my meals were eaten at Chinese restaurants. There was a little dive right next to our university dorms where I ate nearly every day. I got the same thing nearly every time I went: the gung bao jiding, which in America we call kung pao chicken, and the dan chao fan, which is fried rice with eggs. It was delicious on the way down, but my stomach had to build up the tolerance, if you know what I mean.

At first, I thought it was very important to eat only Chinese food. If I was going to learn the Chinese language and culture, I felt it important to do what they do and eat how they eat. As far as the food, that moment has passed. I’m in the middle of a Chinese food hiatus. Gotta take a break!

Two sites that I’ve found very helpful in my search for “normal food” are www.myredstar.com and www.thatsqingdao.com. These are websites specifically for expats. They have lists of expat restaurants that have gotten me through the past few weeks. My favorite restaurants are The Diner (American) Lisa’s, Casani (Italian), La Villa (Italian), Bamboo (Tai food), La Tortillas (what do you think?), Pizza Hut, and KFC.

I read an article this week that said that you shouldn’t and mustn’t do what the Chinese do in order to understand the culture, because the Chinese expect you to be different. In other words, see it, don’t be it. Not sure if I agree, however. Let’s take Hollywood for example, you have talented stars like Daniel Day Lewis, Heath Ledger, and Liam Neeson who are referred to as method actors. These are actors who not only play a role, but completely submerge themselves into the embodiment of the role they’re playing for the purpose of a convincing performance.

Daniel Day Lewis, when shooting “Gangs of New York”, never quit playing his role – even when they were off-set. They would go out to eat or to a bar and Lewis would still be speaking in the accent of his character in the movie. These are very serious, skilled performers. They’re very good at what they do because they believe in order to truly understand your character, you must be the character.

So, do you think they would say the same thing about understanding contrasting cultures? A great question I’m still trying to find the answer to. But until I find it, it’s mostly expat restaurants for me.

Right now, from the window of our 20th floor condo, I’m watching the sailing teams gear up for an Olympic race. I feel blessed to be here during such a wonderful time for China. The spirit here is one of pride and excitement. Two nights ago, I went to a friend’s home to have a party for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The girls cooked us gan chao niu he (sautéed rice noodles), song hua dan (preserved duck egg), jirou (chicken), Beijing kao ya (roast Peking duck), chao jidan xihongshi (fried eggs and tomatoes), pig nose, and a couple of other things – all washed down with Tsingtao pijiu (Tsingtao beer). It was all quite good. We ate while we waited for the show to begin.

From the first moments of the broadcast, my friends were mesmerized. Everyone was so proud & moved watching the ceremony. To them it meant everything, because they know that this marks the beginning of a new era for China. It was a very special moment for all of us. If you watched the opening ceremony, you know that it was amazing & moving. But to me, it was even more so, because of the company I was with. At times, some of my friends were nearly in tears. 

We Americans might not fully understand their emotion because the Olympics have been to America a few times. We’ve been center stage. But to them, they’re the center of the world for the first time & everyone is watching. Because it was their first time for the Olympics, 5000 years of Chinese history was summarized in brief illustrations, to show the world where they have been and where they want to go. 

It would be as if the US told the story of our founding fathers, the American Revolution, the Boston Tea Party, the Civil War, the first World War, the second World War and its reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, and everything that has brought us to where we are now. Sure, we would be moved. We would feel great pride in knowing that the world is watching our story – our history – and they’re gaining a better understanding of who we are. But the feeling and emotion is even stronger for China. For the first time, the world is able to understand and appreciate them and their heritage. 

On August 8, 2008, China was finally formally introduced to the world. And I was proud to have the best seat in the house – in China with Chinese friends.