Chinese Breakfast Burrito

One of my favorite street snacks in China is their breakfast burrito. A lot of street stands sell it, but very few do it right and with consistency. This guy is one of the few. He is located in Zhuji about a block away from my school. It is a quick and cheap breakfast to grab if I am in a hurry. Only costs 7 RMB ~$1. The burrito tastes sweet and soft like a crepe. Inside you can get any combination of chicken, Chinese hot dog, egg, lettuce, garlic, pickled cabbage, chives, dried seaweed, and cilantro. Once your burrito is filled you can get a sweet bean paste or hot chili paste and a crunchy waffle thingy. Super delicious, warm like blanket, lots of great flavors, soft crepe on the outside, and crunchy waffle on the inside. You really can't go wrong with it. Check out some of the photos.

Here's my guy. He starts by throwing a glob of raw dough from a large bucket onto a hot metal top and spreading it around in a perfect circle. 

Steam rises as he spreads the dough. My mouth begins to water.

Here are the eggs. He cracks the egg onto the dough as soon as it's spread out. He knows I like 2 eggs.

Next step is the meat. I always get the marinated chicken. 

Here are all the ingredients, or where they should be. He was running low on the cabbage, garlic, cilantro, and seaweed but this is where they would be. The tin bucket with the dark sauce is the sweet bean pasta, so delicious.

As he spreads the eggs around here are the crunchy waffle things. Not sure what they're called but they have a great crunch.

Quick video of his technique. He can make a full one in about 45 seconds. 

Final product in a bag on my desk :)

Here it is in all of its glory. Perfectly brown on the outside.

About to take the first bite. Cilantro, green onions, crunchy waffle and chicken all in eye's sight. Mmmmm.

Western Cooking Class

Today I had the great pleasure of teaching Tianma International School's first Western Cooking Class, along with my fellow foreign teacher Sharon. We taught our students how to cook pasta and tomato sauce and how to make salad. One sauce was vegetable based and the other was meat. The students were from grade 5 to 7. This was my first time teaching a cooking class and it was a lot of fun. I love food and love to cook so the opportunity to share my hobby with my students was a pleasure. Everyone had a great time and my students loved the food. Check out some of our pictures.

Kitchen is hot! Bacon is frying for the sauce, pasta is steaming, and vegetables are being chopped. 

Everyone posed for a quick photo, except for King, he's the one too focused on frying the bacon. Smart man.

Here's Sharon's table almost done cooking. 

Here everyone is eating the pasta. Kelly is the Chinese teacher saying that my pasta is BETTER than Sharon's, that's right. At the end of the video the kids run over and maul the pasta bowl.

King serving the students. He is a natural leader. Smart and rebellious as well.

Salad! They were sceptical at first but once they tried it they couldn't stop. Here they are scraping the bowl for all the green. A few third graders smelled the goods and snuck upstairs for our food too. 

Bill and David enjoying their pasta. Seventh grade students.

Lanky and Anna mid-bite.

Eva and Mike happy with their salad. They are some of the third graders that snuck into the class.  They're both extremely smart and their English is at about an 8th grade level. Angels.

Coco didn't seem to happy being documented eating her food. She is a teaching intern.

I haven't posted here in a while, then again I haven't done anything interesting during that time either. However, I did manage to snap a picture of something interesting and funny on my way to work.

3 men on a motor bike on the way to work. A morning commute can be tough sometimes.

An old photo somewhat related. This was taken back in August during my visit to Chongqing. This is what all the train stations in China look like during the National Holiday. It was about 90 degrees fahrenheit that day, super humid and our train was delayed.

I took an interesting trip to the city of Yiwu this past weekend. Yiwu is about 30 minutes from my town of Zhuji and is well known for its large Arab population and culture. The reason for this is because Middle Eastern business-men have migrated there for international trade. This effect has created a strong Arab culture with many Arab restaurants in the city, many of which are concentrated in downtown Yiwu.

Walking through downtown Yiwu is unlike anything I have experienced in China. There are more Arabs in the streets than Chinese, there is an abundance of middle-eastern restaurants, hookah bars, and more street BBQ than you can shake a skewer at. You really feel like you are not in China anymore, but instead in some kind of Arab-Asian fusion world. My girlfriend is Turkish and cooks amazing authentic Turkish/Middle Eastern food, so you can imagine how excited I was to try the food in Yiwu. 

Here are a few photos and videos I captured. Notice the amount of meat and smoke from the street BBQ in the videos. What was interesting is that all these restaurants cooked all their meat outside on their own BBQ's, instead of in the kitchen. This helps with all the smoke created from the grilling and is a great way to advertise a restaurant's meat.

Turkish Restaurant.

Colorful street stand selling a variety of beans, grains, and dried meats.

Our dinner. Meat was very tender. Yogurt was very tangy. Bread was a bit salty and greasy.

Here I am at the Grand Buddha statue in Leshan, Sichuan, China. I visited it during the National Day holiday, China's Independence day.

The site was truly spectacular and mind blowing. The size of this statue is incredible and the amount of tourists were of the same magnitude. For those that don't know, National Day in China is one of the biggest holidays and many people get up to a week vacation. The Grand Buddha is a popular site to visit during this time, and EVERYONE goes. This was the first time I was able to grasp just how many people live in China. The tourists in the video are 99% Chinese. I mean there were literally thousands of people lining up to see the statue either by boat or to walk to the bottom. In the video you see a line of people on the side of the rock. They are walking down to the bottom of the statue. That line of people continues back for A WHILE. If you don't want to wait in line then your only view is from the top, as I had in the video. Still a great scene, but man did these people really want to get to the bottom of this statue. Some of them were waiting 4 hours! I get that Buddha is their religious leader and there is a lot I don't understand about Buddhism, but they must really love this guy.

Overall it was an awesome experience. I hope my video captures the moment well.

This is a significant post, for me at least. It is significant because it was what I originally intended this blog to be about. Now it has grown into more than that, and I am happy that it has, but it started out as a small idea in my head. That idea was to explore China through true authentic Chinese food from the perspective of one particular foreigner. However, it wasn't only the food that I wanted to share, it was the culture surrounding the food. Where was the food being made, who was making it, why were they serving that particular dish, and what ingredients were being used were all questions I wanted to answer and share through the power of photography and writing.

For those who have been reading since day one and those who are just starting, I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am living and sharing it with you. [Small moment of reflection]. Now to the goods.

If you have been reading my blog since day 1, you should remember my second post about Chow Mien (if not, scroll all the way down and check it out). In the post I said that not only is this dish at this particular noodle shop one of my favorite dishes in China, but that I would post pictures of the actual shop later. I took the pictures as promised, but some of you doubted I would do it. So this post goes out to all the haters, keep a hatin' and I'll keep a postin'.

This is the outside of the noodle shop around 7pm. This is what your average noodle shop looks like from the outside. 

Here's a shot from the inside. Small chairs with no back and an A/C+Heater that isn't on. Looks like I'm the only one here tonight.

Oh look another customer! There's also a fridge with a few soda's, Chinese rice liquor, and other  foods for the kitchen. 

Here's the counter with the menu above it and what I believe is a dish steamer next to it. You can also see the kitchen behind it and a small window where the order taker yells commands at the chef.

This is what's on each table. Tissues, ground red chilies, an ash tray, dark vinegar and toothpicks. Pretty standard, although every shop has there own version of the hot chili sauce.

Right next to the counter is noodle maker, husband, father, and owner. ALL this dude does all day is make noodles and they are damn good noodles. On his table is flower, a big glob of dough, a big heavy metal spool that he uses the flatten the dough, and a knife to cut it into noodle slices. A true man of his craft.

Here is an interesting sequence I caught. The chef/wife didn't have any noodles in the kitchen so she came out and got some directly from him.

She's got the product and now she's off to the kitchen to make some magic happen.

Here's a shot from behind the glass looking into the kitchen. I believe the woman standing behind the chef is her mother.

A mother watches closely as her daughter cooks noodles.

A table in the kitchen with raw ingredients. Pork, cabbage, and rice. Also notice the stairs in the top right. Those stairs lead up to their apartment above the shop. Having an apartment above or behind a shop is very common in China. Really makes you realize how much a family like this depends on the success of their store.

Ah the final product. The delicious Chow Mien. This one looks and taste exactly like the one in my first post. Consistency is key.

Things You Will Probably Only See In China

An old man smoking a cigarette while sifting through sweet potatoes at the supermarket. A true OG.

A security guard sleeping on the job in the middle of the day. Somebody give this guy a break. 

What: Hot Pot

Where: Chengdu, Sichuan, China

How Much: 30 RMB/Person

Description: Hot Pot is a popular style of family style eating in China. The name Hot Pot comes from the pot of boiling liquids in the center of the table. Usually it is square and has four sections of flavored liquids, like the photo. What you cannot see is the gas-fueled flames beneath the pot that keep the liquids boiling throughout the meal. The premises of the meal is to boil the raw ingredients until they are cooked and then eat them.

      The meal is broken down like this. You and your party sit down. The waitress brings the pot over, places it in or on the table and turns on the gas from below. In the four sections of the pot there are 2 different types of liquids. The red one has red chili peppers and is obviously the spicy one. The white one has tofu and bean sprouts and is more mild. They both balance each other out and there are two of each of them. You then order several different RAW dishes from the menu such as raw bacon, ground pork, ground beef, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes, bread, chicken, etc. Once the RAW food is served, you place them into the now boiling liquids and let them cook. Each person is also given a small bowl of oil. Those are the bowls of red liquid you see in the photo with the chopsticks on them. You can add garlic, cilantro, and green onions to the bowls of oil to give them more flavor as well. Once the food is boiled and ready, you take it out, dip it into your oil and devour. 

My Thoughts: The food is good, but boiling meat isn't my favorite way to it eat. The oil adds good flavor but after a while becomes very heavy in your stomach. Not surprisingly it is a very HOT meal. You're eating food right out of a boiling pot and the steam from the pot is very close to you while you eat. I ate this on a hot day, which I don't recommend. I was sweating the entire meal.

     Not my preferred style of eating, but a fun way to spend a meal with friends and family and definitely a culinary experience. I am aware that they have them all over the world, including the United States.

Matching outfits are a huge hit in China. Usually it's a couples thing, but sometimes you will see it on a parent and child. It's a very unique and comical fashion trend. It's also a way of showing how much you love someone. As in, I love my significant other so much that we wear the same articles of clothing. Or I love my daughter so much I want us dress the same. I always get a good laugh out of it and try to snap a picture when I spot this trend. Here are some of my models.

A couple wearing matching windbreakers with 90's themed colors of baby blue, purple and yellow. Thats' the bomb.

Mother and daughter wearing Angry Bird outfits. Yes that's right, Angry Bird hoodies and sweats. Shout out to Rovia Entertainment, the Finnish company that created Angry Birds. I'm half Finnish.

Couple wearing matching Paul Frank outfits. PF is still really popular in China. They caught me snapping a picture.