Things I Enjoy..and Things I am Missing

Sunday July 8, 2012

Before I left Seattle, my cousin told me to let her know what foods I’m craving as I near the end of my trip. I can say for sure that I’m craving cold milk, fresh oven-baked bread and fish. The meat isn’t bad here, but they sure do eat a lot. I feel like I should have told them I was vegetarian because at home I generally eat meat only about twice a month. Here, it’s twice a day—yak and sometimes sheep.

They only serve hot drinks, and since I can’t keep up with their tea drinking, they usually give me hot water instead. I happened to meet a student this morning who invited me to his friend’s house where I was served hot water and then a heaping spoon of butter on top. Then this afternoon, I met another student while out shopping and he invited me for some tsamba. That’s the Tibetan staple food, roasted barley flour with bits of hard cheese, a lot of butter, and black tea poured over the dry stuff.

Tsamba

Food around here lasts a long time—the cheese is mostly completely dry so it just sits out without going bad. The butter has a distinct smell… some say a rancid smell… and it seems to sit out a long time too, so I’m assuming a lot of the liquid is out of it. Along with the meat, I’ve been trying to counteract my yak butter intake (which seems to be in everything) with lots of walking up mountains.

Yak Butter 

Churra is Tibetan for cheese. There is basically only one kind here-- and some of the larger pieces will nearly break your teeth if you don't let them soak for long enough. Droma is what some people call sweet potato, but they are tiny little things, and are bought dried hard like beans and then boiled. They taste a little sweet, and the consistency is a little like a potato, but they don't taste like sweet potatoes to me. They usually serve them with sugar and, of course, butter on top. Sometimes we eat them with yogurt or in a soup with rice and the hard churra.

Churra

 

 Droma, Dri, and Red Sugar

 

I had my friend Tenzin here until today who was always up for walking. I was very grateful to have him around because having lived in Lhasa and India and having worked at restaurants and coffee shops where lots of foreigners were, he had a good idea of the things I might have a hard time with here, namely the food differences and the cleanliness factor.

With no running water, I’ve never gone so long without a shower, but it’s not much of a problem since it’s not hot enough to sweat. I still wash my hair (in a wash basin) once or twice a week which I decided is as much as I can handle. I only do it on sunny days so I can sit out and let it dry. I’ve got two wash basins in my room, one for my face, and one for the rest of my body. Every few nights I fill up a giant thermos with steaming hot water. It’s amazing because the thermoses here (which everyone uses) keep things hot for over 24 hours—yes, still steaming a day later. Even 48 hours later the water is still warm. I also have a large paint bucket that I fill with cold water from the well pump in the yard—washing hair, clothes, hands, brushing teeth.

There is a washing machine, but since I have so few clothes, I usually just decide to wash them by hand. The washing machine is not like any giant American appliance. This is a portable machine: one person can carry it to the yard, fill it with water, plug it in and go. Then everything line dries. It’s really pretty simple, and then again, most things here are.

 

 Before I came, I was told there was a toilet here, but since I’ve been in China, I’ve learned to never expect something of white porcelain with running water when someone mentions “toilet”, and also never expect any paper products or even a way to clean your hands. The toilet here at home is outhouse style, two rooms with two rectangular holes each, which I have come to really appreciate when I compare it to the rest of the houses, stores, and restaurants here with nothing. It’s just outside to… anywhere… the ditch, the road, the river, the field.

 

some food and dancing

Today was my last day in Xining and another long one, so I'll leave you with some photos:

the only milk I could find, and quite good

dinner time

not sure what these are, but they are good

tortillas: the real thing

I've always been an adventurous eater, thanks my mom and all the variety I ate growing up. However, one type of food I have never been fond of is Mexican food. Still, the entire time I lived in San Diego, I was amazed at the women in the Mexican restaurants there who always seemed to be making tortillas. In many restaurants, especially in Old Town, you could watch them cooking, and so many at one time:

http://www.winsomeworks.com/keyword/food/1/1037327286_5ampJ#!i=1037327286&k=5ampJ

 

Even so, tortillas as we know them, and increasingly as many in Mexico know them, are much different from what they used to be. Take flour for one thing-- traditionally, tortillas were always from ground corn or maize and wheat flour was not introduced until Europeans came along. The process of making tortillas has also changed greatly as well.

http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ng_corn.jpg

 Starting at least by 1500 B.C., corn kernels were soaked in lime or wood ash overnight. Though it was known that this act aided in softening the corn for grinding, we now know today that it also has added nutritional benefits: it helps release niacin, and the added lime increases calcium intake! Many people who grow their own corn, especially in Central America, still make their tortillas in this way. In the morning, the corn is ready to wash and grind, and fresh tortillas are made, usually from the wet meal.

These tend to be thicker but smaller in size than the flour tortillas we buy at the store, but as a staple food, they are eaten with everything. And then the process begins again, each and every night.

shelf life of pepper: forever and two days?

Because I love oatmeal, I decided I'd like to try something new today: savory oatmeal. After looking around the ever-helpful internet, I  settled on simple hard cheese, salt and pepper. Now, the recipe I found insisted upon having the freshest and best ingredients in order for the full effect. That got me thinking, and I realized the black pepper I have has been sitting in its little owl-shaped shaker for six, yes SIX, years. (Clearly I do not use a whole lot of pepper...) Then add to that the fact that this pepper was left behind by a previous roommate! 

After coming to this somewhat embarrassing conclusion, I returned to the internet to see what others though about the shelf life of pepper. Some say one year, some say one year is too long, and yet one other brought up the fact that the entire beginnings of the spice trade were such that people awaited spices that had been on a trade route for around two to three years.

Either way, my pepper still tastes like pepper to me. I've got other spices and herbs I'm sure are past their prime as well although they still seem to do their job just fine, so I'll keep them. They do say, if you decide your spices are not up to par, rather than throwing them out, you can sprinkle it into your grill to use up any lasting flavor. Good to know.

And by the way, savory oatmeal is worth a try!

http://www.tastespotting.com/features/basic-vinaigrette-recipe-salad-oats

 Interesting, huh?

yasai yaki soba

After a long winter break, and a long time not posting, I'm back to work! It's my final semester of school, so I'm preparing for the busiest semester, especially since in addition to classes I will be working on my final paper and looking for jobs. I am SO looking forward to having free time in my life after I'm finished-- not coming home in the evenings only to have more work to accomplish.

One thing all this schooling has (indirectly) taught me is how to be extra efficient in the kitchen. I've come to learn to either make mass amounts of food on Sunday evening, and spread the leftovers over the week nights, or I've found dishes I can make in a snap. My newest endeavor is "The wagamama Cookbook". I didn't know it at the time I bought it, but apparently wagamama (no, they do not capitalize...) is a Japanese restaurant located in the big cities of the world (except the U.S.) and so this cookbook is a collection of their recipes, conveniently portioned for two-- great for me since I'm only cooking for one. Anyway, restaurant-style recipes = fast! After practicing all this week, I've gotten one recipe down to 14 minutes flat, from the time I walk into the kitchen to when I am ready to sit down and eat. And hey, it's good...


Yasai Yaki Soba
(adapted from "The wagamama Cookbook")


9 oz. soba noodles (these are buckwheat, although I experimented
          with egg noodles and they were good as well)
2 eggs
1/2 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 green onions, sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
handful of bean sprouts
sesame seeds
3 T light soy sauce
1 T sugar
   
Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the soy sauce, sugar, and garlic. Mix. Add the vegetables to this egg mixture and mix to coat.
Heat a wok (regular frying pan also works) over medium heat and add vegetable oil. Add the egg mixture with vegetables, and the noodles. Stir-fry for 3 minutes. 
Divide between two bowls and top with sesame seeds. Easy!

Sockerkaka med Applen

I was in the mood for baking a cake this afternoon, but I wanted something simple, not too sweet or time-consuming, so I settled on a Swedish apple cake. Here's the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
 2 apples: thinly slice one with skins on, peel and dice the second
Apple or other preserves for glazing

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a baking dish, 9" pie pan, round cake pan, whatever you prefer. I used a ceramic tart pan that was large and so added some extra flour along with some milk.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in one bowl.
3. Beat together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and butter in another bowl.
4. Combine dry and wet ingredients and add in the peeled/diced apples.
5. Pour batter into pan and arrange the sliced apples on top in some pretty way.
6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes. If you like, you can heat up some preserves, mix with a bit of water, and spread over the top to glaze.

And there you go!

recipe time: cari chay

Here's a great recipe for cari chay, a Vietnamese vegetable & tofu curry. I brought a curry cookbook with me to California, and living so close to what I call the Wal-Mart of Asian grocery stores, it's been easy to find anything I need for the recipes. This recipe doesn't require too much out of the ordinary.

(adapted from Curry Cuisine)
Ingredients
3 T oil                                                            2 stalks of lemongrass
2 garlic cloves, crushed                             salt
1 shallot, thinly sliced                               2 lb of firm tofu, cut into 1" cubes
1.5 T curry powder                                    1 large bamboo shoot, thinly sliced (or 1 can of shoots)
1 T palm sugar (or white)                        2 Asian eggplants, halved lengthwise and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 liter coconut milk                                   cilantro or basil leaves
juice of 1 lime

1. Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the garlic & shallot for about 5 minutes until golden. Add the curry powder & palm sugar and continue to stir-fry for 1 minute.
2. Add the coconut milk, lime juice, fish sauce, and lemongrass. Add salt to adjust taste. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low.
3. Add the tofu, bamboo shoot, and Asian eggplants. Simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes until the eggplants have softened. Garnish with cilantro or basil.

Serve with baguette or rice. (The Vietnamese actually eat many of their meals, and especially curries, with a French-style baguette, as a carry-over from the French colonial period in the mid-1800s to mid-1900s. For a long time I couldn't figure out why the Asian grocery, which is mostly run by Vietnamese, was selling bread from a local French bakery!)

Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once. It is an insult to creation not to experience it fully. --Stephen Fry

Today, for the first time in my life, I ate a fresh fig. I was never able to find them in Kansas, but at Trader Joe's today, I found these, grown somewhere in California:

They're every bit as good as I imagined, and it makes me want to grow fig trees even more! It's really great to see the foods people grow here, even in their backyards. There is a docent who has shared with everyone else at the museum bags and bags of the juiciest oranges from his trees, and just the other day I was given a nice large avocado from his yard as well. He also grows pommelos, like giant grapefruits, that he says are on a tiny little tree, and tangerines, lemons, blood oranges... I was even at a coffeeshop the other day that had a basket of free lemons, just from the owner's own yard.

Another new experience for me was jackfruit. I frequently visit the Asian grocery, as it is the cheapest grocery store near my house, and I see all sorts of new fruit that I have usually only heard about in recipes. The jackfruit itself is a little intimidating, so I opted for a canned version.

Okay, so the jackfruit in the store wasn't quite this large, but these things can reach up to 80 pounds! The taste is difficult to describe, but it's sweet and somewhat fiberous, sort of like a mango.

Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of fruit lately!

it's the end of an era: no more free pancakes

I've left the hostel! I was really quite used to staying there, and I even miss it a little. Especially the free pancakes in the morning. And meeting so many different people. It makes me want to go on a trip far, far away. Today's acquaintance was an older lady from Victoria, Australia who is finishing up a 10-week "holiday" on the west coast. She was a lot of fun to talk to and eat pancakes with.

I'm somewhat moved into my new place with four other roommates, and I feel at home-- probably because I spent the last week sharing one room with up to 9 other girls, so it's nice to have my own space again. Little did I know that at this new place I'm actually sharing a bathroom with two guys. I thought just one. I also thought no one had been using the bathroom when I walked in to unpack because there was nothing to be seen except for some shampoo in the shower. I opened one medicine cabinet and nothing. I opened another and found toothpaste and a razor. It must be nice to be a guy.

I'd say I packed rather efficiently, wouldn't you?

My tiny Ikea mattress. There's just something nice about being able to cram it into the back of a Subaru and it's just as comfortable as any other bed. I had to buy an extra wool blanket (from Ikea...) because it has been COLD here.

New bracelets, plus a not-so-new favorite.

sorry Zen Zero

I just had the best Thai food ever, and it didn't come from my beloved restaurant Zen Zero in my beloved city of Lawrence. But that's alright. I've come to the conclusion that San Diego has some of the best restaurants I've been to, and surprisingly there are places even college students can afford.

Today was a work day. I started it off with more free pancakes at the hostel, and I noticed the Kazakhs I taught how to make pancakes yesterday had not progressed much past another 3-lb pile of a mixture of burned crispies and sloppy batter. At the museum, I did more of the same at work in terms of collection cataloging. Not much to mention in that department.

The trolley adventure today was just that-- an adventure. At least I managed to get on trolleys all going in the desired directions, even though I missed one thinking it was going opposite where I wanted when in fact it was the exact one I wanted.

I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I got lost this evening. If you know me, you know I never get lost. Even so, I wasn't really lost because I knew I was on the right street the entire time-- I just happened to walk right past my hostel and kept on going, thinking I would see it. All the people out enjoying their Friday nights were distracting, as was this fellow:

And he was good! Good enough I gave him $1. I've got a three day weekend, so that means I'll finally spend some time sightseeing. I've seen lots of sights from the boat I sit on every day, which mostly consists of this type:

On the inside of the boat, the upper deck of the museum is where the ferry seating is. The boat was built in 1898 and took 1700 people at a time from Oakland to San Francisco. It's got beautiful stained glass windows (except they aren't stained, they are some other thing that I can't remember that is better than stained, but still colored). Anyway, it's gorgeous. People use it for their wedding receptions. Not a bad idea...

Today was windy ("windy" at about 15 mph), and the water choppy. The museum (boat) was rocking, which I was unsure whether it could do or not until today. I'm amazed at how consistent the weather is here. It's cool in the evenings (60 F), and mostly sunny throughout the day (70 F). And that's the 10-day forecast from weather.com!

du fromage, but not of the French variety

Alright, it's time to learn to make cheese! This is an Imeruli cheese, from the Republic of Georgia, but a simple farmer's cheese and probably the easiest to make as far as cheese goes.

Some things you will need:
• Milk – 1 gallon, whole
• Buttermilk - 1/4 cup (or ½ cup plain yogurt)
• Rennet: 1/4 tablet rennet (e.g. Junket brand, though it's not specifically for cheese, it's usually the most easily available (at Whole Foods)) or 10 drops of liquid rennet (cheesemaking.com)
• Salt: non-iodized sea salt


• A food thermometer (that measures at least 60 to 100 F)
• Large wooden spoon
• Stainless steel pot with lid-- MUST be stainless steel! Sterilize it by boiling little bit of water for about 15 minutes and then draining it.
• Strainer
• Cheese cloth, also sterilized

This cheese process takes place over two days, so plan accordingly! It's quite easy to take 15 minutes before you go to sleep to start, and then it's ready to go in the morning.

Day 1

1. Warm the milk to 68oF in the sterilized pot and put aside.

2. Blend in buttermilk. Cover with the sterilized lid and let sit at room temperature overnight (or 8-10 hours).  

Day 2

3.Warm milk up to 86oF (constantly mix with the spoon).  

4.Dissolve ¼ tablet of rennet (or 10 drops of liquid rennet) in ¼ cup (120 ml) cold water. Add dissolved rennet to warmed milk and mix with the spoon. Remove from heat.

5. Cover the pot and set aside and DO NOT DISTURB! After about 40 minutes to an hour, take a look and test the milk for completed action of rennet ("clean break").  To test for “clean break” put your index finger into the milk and lift the top layer of the milk up (which should be like a Jell-O). The mixture should be firm and should have a crack when the finger is lifted. If it’s not ready, allow more time without stirring or disturbing the pot. 

6. When it’s ready, cut the curd with a long knife into half inch cubes (cut straight down to bottom repeatedly parallel to the previously cut side. Then rotate the pot 90 degrees, cut as before. Repeat this once again.
7. Place pot over a very low fire, stir curd with cleaned bare hand by reaching down to bottom, gently lifting and stirring. Cut larger curds as they appear. Do not mash or squeeze.  

8. Continue stirring for 15 minutes until the curds are about 95oF warm. Heating higher will make for a harder cheese. You can also add some salt in at this point if you like. Remove from the stove.  They should look like your typical curds and whey after all the stirring:

9. Place curds in a cheese cloth and over a strainer. Squeeze the mixture together to remove almost all the liquid and give a desired shape.  

10. Leave the cheese over a strainer for a few hours (or even overnight) to ensure that excess liquid is removed. I've been pretty creative with this part, constructing my own cheese press out of a plastic food container with poked holes and placing a can of food on top for weight. It's not necessary and you can certainly simply use cheesecloth only and form a ball, but it's fun to experiment!

11. Sprinkle some salt on the cheese from both sides and store in a container with a lid. Leave the salt to achieve desired flavor but once ready, wash the cheese with cold water and remove the salt.

early St Lucia's Day

So I'm still going through Ikea withdrawal, especially after getting an email about their "Swedish Holiday Smorgasbord". Because of that, I decided to make Lussekater, or Saint Lucia buns! I always remember St. Lucia's from reading American Girl books when I was little. St. Lucia's Day is a Swedish holiday celebrated on December 13th. It was around before Lucia was even a saint (as in, before Christianity), and was traditionally the day of the winter solstice (I suppose before they realized it actually wasn't?). In the book I read when I was little, the Swedish-American was Kirsten, and she wore a wreath with candles on her head and gave her parents breakfast on the morning of St Lucia's Day, which happened to include St. Lucia buns, all because she was the oldest daughter. Plus she had two looped braids hanging from the side of her head, which were awesome. See?

And here they are:

They are AMAZING! And you should try them, so here is the recipe, from the cookbook "The Swedish Table".

Lussekater
16 rolls

1 T sugar
1/4 c warm water
1 pkg. dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 c butter
3/4 c milk
1 t saffron
3 c all purpose flour
1/4 c sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten with 1 T water
raisins

In a bowl, combine 1 T sugar, warm water, and yeast. Let sit 10 minutes or until yeast begins to bubble.

In a saucepan, combine butter, milk, and saffron. Heat until warm and the butter is melted, but do not boil. Let sit until temperature falls below 110 degrees F.  Add milk mixture to yeast in the bowl. Add flour and 1/2 c sugar and stir until combined and the dough is smooth and workable. If necessary, add more flour, up to 3 T.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled (or buttered) bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Divide into 16 pieces. Roll into 1" X 6" lengths. Coil ends in opposite directions, forming tightly curved S-shapes. Let rise for 1 more hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush buns with egg yolk and place raisins in center of curls (two for each bun). Bake 10-15 minutes, but don't let the raisins burn!

Evidently they freeze well too. I kind of feel like making a whole bunch and sharing them with everyone, because they are that good!