Routine... Kind of

I guess it's been a bit too long sense I last wrote, and a lot has probably transpired... but you wouldn't know because I didn't write it down. Well I guess I'll start with today then.
Life is slowly moving into a routine. I woke up arou 830, had a breakfast of zhou (which i think we call congee), which is a pretty rich meal of (in this case) rice (different kinds if you're feeling a bit crazy) and I through in some beans as well (small red beans). Then you cook it like you would rice, except you use a lot more water... I use chicken stock because it makes it so much more tasty. It's actually very similar to the Italian dish risotto, except a lot easier because you just let it simmer for an hour letting the stock slowly seep into the rice (and beans). Then you can top it with veggies or some meat. This morning I just added some pepper/salt and some spicy oil. But I had it again tonight for dinner and added some heated Duck confit (which also easy to make and good - duck cooked and stored in its own fat!!!). So it's a pretty easy but tasty and potentially diverse dish.
After breakfast I went into the lab where I'm working. Right now I dont really have any labwork but am helping write a few papers and doing some background research on potential projects that I may be initiating. We're working mainly on diagnnosing TB and because of my relatively amazing skills in English (actually everyone in the lab has pretty amazing reading and writing english skills), I get to be apart of a lot of different projects, helping to write up reviews and analysis of data. I personally want to work with a company that has been developing with potentially our help a new TB diagnostic for under-served populations. It looks pretty promising and I'm hoping to help them analyze it and redesign if necessary.

For lunch I had some small wontons (pasta wrapped meat, like dumplings, in a simple broth), and some steamed dumplings (which are basically like wontons without the soup). After that I took one of my lab friends to a cafe to give them a taste of my work ethic - which during my Northwestern years involved many hours at Peet's coffee. Although the coffee shop was not quite Peet's it had it's own flavor. In fact it's owned/run by a young Chinese man that I think just loves coffee and wanted to start something unique. It is American or European in coffee only but represents a Chinese spin on the small cafe that we see (although more seldomly) back home. It's in an old shanghai neighborhood of completely brick houses that were likely built by the british in the 1930s. Down one of the alleyways in thsi neighborhood there is a small sign that reads 162. It only differs slightly from anyother address indicating set of numbers and I'm not really certain that it has any other meaning than an address. But it distiguishes the shop from residences around it and that is the only way I find it evertime I swing by. Inside is just one room large enough to fit a small barista bar, a couch one large table and two small tables. The large table is usually occupied by a large group making cookies, which is the breilliant bit about this cafe. Because Chinese do not typically have an oven the cafe offers groups the chance to come in and make cookies using an oven that they placed in a retrofitted shack outside the cafe. Brilliant really. So that's where I like to go when I have a bit of computer related work to do.... Its a taste of home through the coffee but authentically china.
Dad, Mom and Aunt Catherine will be here on Friday!!!! Should be pretty fun!!!

Bombs Bursting in Air

I’m sitting in my kitchen waiting for my stew, made of practically every remnant of food that I had laying around. Actually not quite as spontaneous as it sounds. I had some hongshao duck (dug legs stewed in a aromatic soy sauce base), a potato, some duck wings, half of a small bright orange pumpkin, some threaded chicken and chicken stock… that combined with some salt pork I bought and some big white beans (and other odds and ends) is going to be my supper…. Hopefully it turns out… As it stands now it’s a bit too sweet…but full of flavor. But I guess that’s Shanghai style… My hope was for a rough Chinese-style cassoulet – the French would not be happy.

Last week was the Chinese new year – the year of the Ox (or cow as I’m more fond of cows and the word in Chinese could go either way). I spent the 24^th and 25^th at a friends house in Northern Shanghai. Her parents were kind enough to let me crash the family celebrations and the mother of the house let me hang out in the kitchen while she prepared the New Years eve meal. Reminded me of home. She continually commented on her particular technique - why she cut the fish the way she did, how to fry the shrimp etc. and also why she didn't use MSG. MSG came into use shortly after the 'Great Leap Forward', when Mao sent rural farmers into factories to make China an industrial superpower. Everyone was forced to eat at large cafeterias, where simple food with basic dietary requirements were dished out with robotic expediency. Unfortunately, because farm efficiency and production dropped China experienced a horrible several year famine where whole towns were decimated by starvation. I believe that i read somewhere MSG started in this era where it gave a meaty taste to an otherwise tasteless meal. So not only were lives lost during this period but also a cultural heritage of eating and cooking. Restaurants were seen as a luxary of the upper-class and were closed or forced to serve basic meals to the masses. Luckily not all of China has forgotten the culinary style of the past.

On the 26th I got to see an old roommate of mine Lily who is from Shanghai and was visiting during the holidays. Her father cooked us a meal with several dishes, but the highlight was stewed pork and tofu, that was slowly stewed throughout the whole day. I actually first met her family 3 years ago on my first trip to China and they nursed me through one of the worst bouts of food poisoning I've ever had - luckily her father is a doctor and gave me special privileges at the hospital he works at. Dont let that scare you about the food though, I haven't been sick in China ever since.

Fireworks have been going off for the last 2/3 weeks. A hallmark of the new year, they are becoming quite annoying but should be over soon. For some reason people think it's a good idea to shoot them off all day but especially at 6 or 7 in the morning! Doesn't make a whole lot of sense because they spend a decent amount of money on extravagant, professional grade fireworks and then shoot them off in the day when you can't see them....

New Years Eve was a most exciting display of the power of firworks but also of private over public funds. As it turned over to the new year at midnight the frequency and number of fireworks and fire-crackers reached a level that was almost unbearable. There are 20 million people in Shanghai and I would imagine there were very few who did not take part in the celebration. I lit a few fire-crackers with my friend and her dad, but quickly returned to the apartment in fear of being consumed in the colorful madness. Instead I stood on the 6th floor balcony watching the spectacle explode around me. Every alleyway and street is fair game to create your own fire-works display, and as I walked out the next morning, I fond the main street near their house completely covered in the read wrappers and colorful boxes that had been decimated in the display of fire-power wielded by every day citizens. I'd love to see how much money is spent on fireworks every year by the Chinese.

It's been a little warmer here, and I think today some of my colleagues will return fromt he holidays, which is good because I'm getting a bit bored. Then it will be time to do some work!