So I’m slowly getting back into the cooking/eating mood. My boyfriend recently moved in with me, and I’ve been having fun playing house. This has led me to try to build up a library of recipes that I can make without too much hassle. The caveat: China.

We’re not very picky eaters, but we do miss our Western dishes a lot. Also, I’ve not had much experience cooking Asian cuisine, aside from chao fan, chao mian and mostly just things that can be chao‘d (i.e., stir-fried).

Thus, the things we can make have been constrained by:

• things we actually want to eat: We like Western staples, such as soups, pastas and salads — mostly because we’re accustomed to them and they’re easy to make. But we’re also trying out Chinese recipes now, because we like Chinese food, too. And we’re in China, and Chinese ingredients are (theoretically) cheaper and less of a hassle to obtain.
• ingredients we can find at our local supermarkets: I live right next to a Wal-mart and a couple of bus stops from Carrefour, which have a good selection of meats and produce (that aren’t always the best-looking). While they do have an imported foods aisle, they still don’t sell all of the things needed to make a lot of foods, so finding a recipe that doesn’t require me to go across town to the Western food market is pretty rare.
• the prices of said ingredients: China is supposedly cheap, but some things can cost a lot to make. Factor in the time spent making it, it’s a wonder how some places can charge so little for the same dish. Pre-packaged meat, which I buy because I’m not quite sure how to ask the butcher for what I need, can be especially pricey. Western food is even pricier just because of the ridiculous import markups.
• the tools at our disposal: We have a small gas stove, a small toaster oven and a microwave. We have about 2 square feet of counter space. It’s hard to make soups with no blender. And forget about baking! I have yet to find muffin and cake pans small enough for my oven.

So my new challenge is to find ways to make foods I like here. And learn to cook Asian. This, I presume, will involve substituting Asian ingredients for things I can’t get here without spending a fortune, and — hopefully — great bursts of creativity and genius.