Mint and Green Onions Recipe

I realize it is a little early in the year for a recipe calling for massive amounts of mint, but we are rolling in it here. I made this the other night and it was awesome! Just a little taste of Yunnan for you.  

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

3 cups chopped fresh mint, leaves only

3 cups chopped green onion, both white and green parts

1-2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

Method

Heat wok and add oil. Wait until oil is hot and add the mint and green onions. Stir-fry for two minutes or until the greens are almost cooked, but still bright green in color. Add the remaining seasonings and mix thoroughly, continuing to cook for an additional minute. Transfer to a bowl and serve hot with other dishes and steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Dad and Mom in China!

As I type this Eric is Seoul, Korea for an AP World History conference. He left in the early hours of yesterday morning and will be gone until Monday. His departure removes all excuses for me putting off this blog update any longer.

February has been a great month for us.

Feb. 1^st my parents arrived and were our first official visitors! We were so excited they made the journey. They spend 11 days with us and we did our best to present them with an idea of what our everyday life looks like, all the while showing them all that Kunming has to offer.

 The day they arrived was our last day of school before Chun Jie (Spring Festival with the climax being Chinese New Year.) KIA has a tradition of holding a giant high school pep rally the last day before break. KIA pep rallies are nothing like the pep rallies your high school held. They are not associated with sports teams or big tournaments; they are simply a showcase for fun games and silly class skits. Eric and I are class advisors to the 9^th graders and 10^th graders, respectively, and we both participated in the pep rally skits. Eric stole the show (I am not just saying this because I am his wife) with his rendition of a K-pop (Korean pop music) dance. It was the single funniest performance all afternoon! Thankfully, my parents arrived just in time to see his skit.

We spent the rest of Friday catching up, hearing about their funny travel stories, and allowing them time to settle in and unpack. We took them to dinner at a local squatty restaurant. Squatty is an affectionate name given to the traditional, open-front, short tabled Chinese restaurants that are found on almost every corner. You sit on straw cushions and depending on your age and the condition of your knees, they are not the most comfortable. We wanted to introduce them to real Chinese food and I think they both really liked it, although my Dad did not love the chopsticks.

Saturday we picked up a scooter that a fellow KIA teacher lent us for the week. This was no ordinary scooter, but what we term an “Old Person Scooter” because it is a three wheeler with a bench seat behind the driver. This was the super hip way my Dad got around while in China! Eric drove him and Mom and I biked behind. We showed them around the neighborhood and took them to Wal-Mart so they could experience the Chinese take on an American store. I think it was the abundance of chicken feet available that surprised them the most.

Sunday we took them to Fellowship and then out to lunch with a big group of our friends afterwards, before making our way slowly back home and taking it easy that afternoon. That night we all went out with a big group of people for Hot Pot. Hot Pot is a food eaten exclusively in the winter. Everyone sits around a table with a large, boiling pot of broth in the middle and you dump in vegetables and meats and they cook in the pot before you fish them out with chopsticks. It is fondue Chinese-style.

We don’t have Super Bowl Sunday here, but we did enjoy Super Bowl Monday! I was so happy to be able to take my parents to a Super Bowl party at our friends, the Rodgers’, house. They were able to TiVo the game and had a big party so we all could enjoy it! We had a relaxing afternoon after the game.

We started our touristy stuff on Tuesday by taking them downtown to the Bird and Flower Market, a huge market selling everything from, you guessed it, birds to flowers. There are stalls selling tea, ethnic minority crafts, window cleaning supplies, fish, pipes, clothing, carvings, gardening tools, and on and on. We roamed around for a while sampling the street food. Our favorite was the friend rice dough with bananas and sweetened condensed milk. So good. We made our way then by bus to an area of town near the university that is locally known as “Foreigner Street” because of all of the expats in the area. The area was originally the only place that foreigners could live after China was opened. There are shops and restaurants all around that cater to westerners and it is kind of nice to know that when I am having a hard China day, I can go somewhere where English is widely spoken/understood.

Dad and Mom downtown

Wednesday gave Eric and me the opportunity to do something we hadn’t yet done: visit the Stone Forest. If you Google sites to see around Kunming, or even Yunnan, Stone Forest would be near the top. The area of Yunnan in which we live is a part of the China karst- a geological landscape formed by the dissolution of limestone. Stone Forest is a forest of huge slabs of limestone through which you wander on a narrow, winding path. It is a pretty amazing sight! That afternoon we visited the Jiuxiang Scenic Area caves. They too are made of limestone and are pretty spectacular to walk through. There were huge stalactites and stalagmites and terraced pools made of limestone. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries about 5 minutes into the cave so I have photos of none of this! The worst part of the day was the rickety ski lift we took from the cave exit back up to the parking lot. It was terrifying.

At Stone Forest

Thursday we biked/scooted to Xi Shan (Western Mountains) and rode a gondola up to the side of the mountain before getting on another ski lift and riding to the very edge of the mountain. Our goal was to reach the Dragon Gate, a temple carved into the face of the mountain over a period of 75 years. The ski lift was not so terrifying and the view of Kunming was spectacular. We hiked from the ski lift endpoint area down a stepped path to the cave entrance of the Dragon Gate. After the short cave we came out on the side of the mountain next to an open temple carved into the rock. It was beautiful. We hiked all along the path through the different temples and ended back up near where the ski lifts started. We rode back down on the gondola and took the rest of the day off!

Eric loves picture time!

For a more relaxing outing, on Friday we headed to Anning with a big group of friends and spent the day in the hot springs at Anning Spa. The spa is in the forest and has a couple dozen stone lined hot pools. They are set to varying temps and some have special scents- coconut milk, mint, lemon, rose petal, sugar cane (which really looks like Coke), and strawberry. If relaxing scents are not your cup of tea there is a pool of fish that you can dip your feet (or whole body) into and they will eat your dead skin. Since that pretty much sums up my idea of torture, I steer clear of this pool.

Chinese New Year’s Eve was Saturday and we could feel the excitement in the air. We took a bike ride (or scooter ride in Eric and Dad’s case) and ended up back downtown. There were families out together and people were buying gifts for friends and relatives to give out that night. We had time to kill and were somewhat hungry so we ended up at McDonalds and ordered some of the desserts unique to China (or at least Asia). We got the tiramisu McFlurry, pineapple pie, taro pie, and red bean pie (as noted in an earlier blog, red bean is a very popular flavor here.) With the exception of the red bean pie, which wasn’t as disgusting as I had anticipated, they were all pretty good. Later we saw a fruit vendor and decided to try durian. If you are not familiar with this popular South East Asia fruit, it is known for its rancid smell (it is banned in the Singapore subway system), its custard-like consistency, and its oniony taste. It tasted just as horrible as you are imagining it to taste and worst of all, the taste stayed with you!

This is what they thought of durian. No poker faces here. 

That evening we headed to Curt and Solveig’s house for a New Year’s Eve party! There was a big crowd there and we ate and played games and talked until the big event at midnight. Not that we needed to wait until midnight for fireworks- we heard them periodically all afternoon and then as soon as it got dark, there were fireworks on and off every few minutes. But midnight was the real show. We all climbed up to the roof of the building and watched as the sky around us lit us and the noise! Wow, the big, booming filled the air and shook the ground. We could see all of the car alarms going off below in the parking lot. The night lived up to the hype and was pretty fantastic.

Because we didn't get to bed until about 3am, Sunday was a slower day. We had brunch with our friend's Michelle and Lacey and spent the morning sitting on Michelle's sunny desk drinking coffee, eating, and laughing. Our afternoon was spent at a local park. We were there with what seemed to be all of Kunming. 

Monday brought Dad and Mom’s departure. We had a great time with them and I think they really enjoyed it. We are seasoned hosts now, so visitors welcome!

A Few More Photos...

Street food at Bird and Flower Market. Rice dough with banana and sweetened condensed milk. YUM.

Taking a breather at Green Lake park

Dad and Mom are here!

This is for real. This is how my Dad travels- on the back seat of an old person scooter.
 

Street food- pineapple!

 

Just a few pictures to prove they made it. I will post more when they leave (I would hate to waste my time blogging when they are here!)

Chunjie!

We have one week of school left before Chunjie (Spring Festival) which is the two weeks surrounding Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is to the Chinese what Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Independence Day are to Americans. It is the biggest holiday of the year and it is common for people to have the entire two weeks off of work during this time allowing them to travel back to their home villages to celebrate with family. This means that Kunming, our city of over 6 million people, will essentially shut down for a while. This year the date for Chinese New Year falls on Feb. 10 so on Feb. 9th we have been told that we will experience a fireworks show like none other. At midnight the entire city lights off fireworks and they don’t stop until morning!

We are currently in the year of the dragon and are moving into the year of the snake. I am not sure what this all entails, but we will see! We went out and purchased a few traditional New Year’s decorations and put them up on our door. While our decorations are pretty modest, some homes in our xiao qu have gone all out with huge red lanterns, large red eternity knots, and banners.



Our front door. I have no idea what it says.



One of the traditions at Chinese New Year is for people to give each of their relatives a hong bao (literally “red envelope”) containing money. While this seems like a wonderfully generous tradition, in reality many Chinese simply cannot afford to hand cash to each and every family member. Out of desperation some turn to theft to raise funds for their envelopes- this is preferred to the alternative which is to deal with the shame of not giving out hong bao. The two weeks leading up to Chunjie are the worst for bike/scooter thefts and purse snatchings in China. While Eric and I have not personally had anything stolen recently and have felt perfectly secure wherever we’ve been, we know three people who have had their scooters stolen in the past week!

On a lighter note: my parents are coming Friday (6 more days!) and we are SO excited to see them and show them around the city and countryside. They will be here for 11 days before heading to Thailand. We have all sorts of activities planned and I hope they will be able to get a good idea of what life in Kunming is like despite the fact that the city will be comparatively empty.

Model United Nations Trip to Shanghai

Last week Eric and I, along with four of our high school students traveled to Shanghai to attend the 4^th annual Concordia International School Shanghai Model United Nations Conference. The conference was two and a half days long and was attended by over 450 students from around Asia and beyond. We left school at the bright and early hour of 5am in order to get to the airport on time. We flew three hours directly to Shanghai and took a van to the conference site. Upon arrival at the conference we attended an opening ceremony where all of the 24 schools were individually welcomed and asked to stand. We were publicly acknowledged to be the smallest delegation, but delegates were warned not to take us lightly. This was followed by a speech by Concordia’s MUN director, on the “Peace Imperative,” the theme of the conference. He stressed to the students that their generation played a vital role in furthering peace in our world.

After the opening ceremony the real work began. The students broke into their individual committees and prepared to give their opening speeches. There were three General Assembly Committees represented at CISSMUN, and three specialized Councils- Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice, and Security Council. Each of the three General Assemblies specialized in specific topics. One student represented Philippines on the GA 1^st Committee and her issues all had to deal with Disarmament and International Security. Two students represented Philippines and Czech Republic on the GA 3^rd Committee dealing with Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural issues. The final student represented Cuba on the GA 4^th Committee and worked on Special Political and Decolonization issues. Each delegate gave an opening speech following a general format and briefly outlining their country’s stance on an issue important to them. All of our students did a fabulous job.

After opening speeches the Lobbying and Merging portion began. Each of our students prepared two written resolutions from their country’s perspective and it was their task to find other countries that agreed with these stances. They then either merged resolutions or agreed on one and all signed on to it. The agreed upon resolution then had to be submitted to one of the committee Chairpersons and approved. Upon approval the resolution then moved to a Director Approval Board. If approved there, the resolution was ready to be presented on Friday. This process lasted until 6pm on Thursday. At 6pm the committees broke and we had dinner together in the CISS cafeteria. 

That night we braved the bitter cold (really, it was freezing!)and took our four students to the Bund on Shanghai’s riverfront. The Bund is a walkway on the waterfront that was originally a towpath for dragging barges of rice and eventually was transformed into a Wall St. type area. The other side of the river features the ultra-modern buildings and skyscrapers of Pudong (a newer area of the city) while the walking side is lined with huge colonial era buildings in the neoclassical style. It is a beautiful walk at night watching the ferries go up and down the river against a backdrop of city lights. When we could no longer handle the cold on the riverfront we headed away from the water up Nanjing Lu- a walking street with shopping and restaurants. Ironically, we ended up having dessert at Haagen Dazs ice cream. 

 



Pudong

 

Colonial era side

 Friday morning began with a little more time for countries to get their resolutions approved and then the presentation of resolutions began. Resolutions were presented by the main contributing countries and then the floor was open to debate and questions. There is a very specific process that must be followed for this to work properly and our students did a good job of knowing when and how to speak. This process took the entire day. We broke in the late afternoon and that night we took our students to the French Concession area of Shanghai. The French Concession was formerly a neighborhood made up of prostitutes, old time gangsters, and revolutionaries, but now is an area of narrow brick alleyways filled with cafes and shops. We had a great time walking through the lantern lit pathways and looking in on different shops. We had dinner at a tiny Thai restaurant that I think had more vertical square footage than horizontal. We passed by miniscule dining spaces on each floor as we climbed the narrow staircase up to the top floor. Each floor we passed had room for about two tables.  



The French Concession



 

On Saturday morning all of the committees continued with their resolutions. In the early afternoon the committees broke and everyone attended a closing ceremony. We were treated to a traditional dragon dance and all of the delegates were given time to walk around with their country placards and have their new friends sign them and say goodbye. We had dinner in the neighborhood at a real Mexican restaurant (this is RARE) before leaving for the airport that night. We made it back to school at about 2:30am pretty much exhausted.



In front of CISS's living wall

 Going into the trip I had some reservations about how the students would interact with each other and wondered if we would spend three days in silence. But, despite the fact that we were a very random group of six (one Chinese, one Korean, one Russian, one Taiwanese, and two Americans) Eric and I felt like the group meshed well and we spent much of our free time laughing and getting to know each other in a more personal way than one usually does in a school setting. The students had a good time and told us as much which made me feel like the trip was a success. 

Sichuan Eggplant Recipe

·         Prep time: 10 minutes

     ·         Cook time: 10 minutes

This recipe calls for asian eggplants, or Japanese eggplants. They are long and thin compared to a European or globe eggplant, and much more tender and delicate. If you can't find them you can substitute globe eggplant.

Ingredients

·         1 1/2 lbs. asian (long and skinny) eggplant

·         2 tablespoons peanut oil

·         1/4 cup chicken stock

·         2 teaspoons sugar

·         1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

·         1/2 - 1 1/2 tablespoons chili bean paste*

·         2 teaspoon crushed sichuan peppercorns** (optional- I leave these out)

·         3 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

·         5 garlic cloves, minced

·         1 teaspoon corn starch

·         2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

·         4 scallions, roughly chopped

·         Cilantro for garnish (optional)

*A lot of grocery stores have Asian ingredient aisles now. You should be able to find chili-bean paste, a mixture of preserved chilies mixed with mashed soybeans, there or at any Asian market. (Do not confuse with black bean paste or chili-garlic paste.)

**Sichuan peppercorns are available at some stores and online for quite cheap. They aren't spicy like other peppers but rather have a citrusy flavor and induce a tingly, numbing sensation like a carbonated drink.

Method

1 Begin your mise en place. Quarter the eggplant lengthwise and chop into large batons and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the chicken stock, sugar, and soy sauce and set it aside. In a second bowl, mix together the chili bean paste, garlic, ginger, and sichuan peppercorns and set it aside. In a third bowl, mix together the cornstarch with a tablespoon of water and set it aside. Lastly, in a fourth bowl, mix together the scallions and vinegar and set it aside.

2 Place the oil in a wok or large sauté pan over medium-high heat until the oil is almost smoking. Add the eggplant and sauté, allowing it to sit for a few seconds each time you move it to allow it to brown and blister. If the eggplant absorbs all the oil and some pieces don't get any then add a little more oil.

3 Add the chili bean paste, garlic, ginger, and sichuan peppercorns and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken stock mixture, turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 90 seconds. Add the cornstarch mixture and stir together until the sauce thickens a bit. Add the scallions and vinegar and cook for 15 seconds to diffuse their harsh flavors a bit. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

Yield: Makes 2-4 servings.