Culinary Endeavors

Cooking in China

Some have expressed an interest in how we have fared in our Chinese culinary experiments. Some of you may be surprised by how much we are able to find here in Beijing. Some of you really won’t care, so stop reading now.

Upon first moving into our apartment we had no dishes or cookware, so we became familiar with some of our local restaurants. In the mall across the street from our complex there is a McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, a noodle place, Korean food, a Hot Pot restaurant, a fast food place and Keep In Touch, which we would say is traditional Chinese food. Our local grocery store also has an area in the back where various chefs will cook fresh items for you from noodles and tofu to baozi and jiaozi (different kinds of dumplings and potstickers). We have a lot to choose from, and most of it is very reasonably priced (and yummy)!

We don’t want to eat out all the time, however, and so once we acquired some kitchen implements we began to experiment. At first we had only bowls, silverware and a microwave. The ramen noodle aisle in our market is extensive, so we tried a variety of noodles for our first “home-cooked” meal. Soon we added a wok and a saucepan into our arsenal, and I made a simple stir fry using pork and fresh green beans seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper. I boiled the rice in my saucepan. At the time it seemed that our burners only had two temperatures: hot and flaming hot, so the rice was a bit scorched.  I have since learned how to make the heat go much lower than I originally thought I could.

 

Tacos were next. I bought some chicken breast and R. chopped it and seasoned it with dried cumin, salt and pepper before stir frying it in the wok. We chopped some red onions and cilantro and put the mixture into homemade flour tortillas. Our market had a brand of salsa that was pretty zippy and we also found some Frank’s Redhot sauce. Mmmmm…now we’re cookin’! I have since discovered that our market also carries Bimbo brand tortillas. They are fair, but the homemade ones are better.

On the following day I used my Chinese dictionary to ask after some ground beef in the meat section. I mixed it with freshly chopped garlic, salt and pepper, shaped it into patties and fried them up in my cast iron wok. The burgers cooked up on the sides of the wok and all the juices ran down into the center. I cleaned out most of the drippings and then fried some sliced red onion in the remainder. Our grocery store also carries a type of hamburger bun and one type of butter (The butter is not very good, but I’ve recently discovered another brand at a Japanese-owned market that is a bike-ride away. It’s worth the trip.). I toasted the buttered buns in the hot wok, and when we added some thousand island dressing, fresh lettuce, tomato and the grilled red onions, we had some burgers to be proud of. I also sliced and fried a couple of potatoes, but they were unevenly cooked.

A rice cooker, a non-stick frying pan and an electric oven (I haven’t tried any baking yet.) soon joined the family. We’ve had success with crepes, scrambled eggs with ham, cilantro and onion, pancakes, hoisin chicken and duck (the duck was an accident), and toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. A morning or two a week we just have oatmeal and fruit, and we can also have peanut butter and jelly with white bread for lunch. Ian says that peanut butter on Ritz crackers is his comfort food.

One thing we just can’t find much of is cheese. It is easy to find American cheese slices, but no one in the family cares very much for American cheese. When we first moved here we could find “Beijing Cheese” in the grocery stores.  It was something like a sharp white cheddar and was around 35-40 RMB for a small package. That’s about six dollars, so we would use it sparingly. Now, however, Beijing cheese has gone missing! At the Japanese market I found another kind of white cheddar that tastes okay, but is even pricier than B.C., so we only use a little bit at a time. It’s pretty strong in flavor, so it works out alright. I check for the Beijing cheese whenever I go to the store. Maybe it will make a comeback.

 

Tonight it’s chicken tacos again, but this time Ian and Amy each made a batch of tortillas and we’ll see which recipe turns out the best. We bought bananas to freeze for smoothies for dessert!

Oh, and we can find bacon!