One of the things I like most about China is that, even though I’ve lived here for two (!!) years now, there are still surprises. For instance, when I found gummy penguins outside my office a couple of weeks ago. And then, in another instance, today, when I was at Wal-Mart after work buying the […]
Technically, there’s no cooking involved. I know I’ve been complaining about the rise of food prices lately, but avocados are cheaper (for now)! I found them at the grocery store for 9.5 kuai ($1.47) each over the weekend. Usually they’re 15 kuai ($2.32) each or 55 kuai ($8.50!!) per kilogram. So naturally, I indulged and bought […]
I made this last night: It looks like bread loaves because I only have mini-loaf pans. But it’s still pretty tasty. Why haven’t made this before? All it takes is apples, flour, sugar, eggs and butter.
Black Friday sales have long since started, and I’m now just wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving! Don’t worry, I hardly forgot about my favorite holiday. The past two weeks, I’ve been running around town getting prepared for the big meal — deciding on dishes, hunting down the ingredients, buying necessary host-wares. It was exhausting, to […]
I was going to make cookies last weekend when I ordered an electric mixer off the Chinese Amazon. Little did I know, next-day delivery wasn’t going to be next day. Anyway, it came the day after that, on Monday, even though I had specified to deliver only on weekends. Fortunately, one of my roommates was […]
Main ingredients: Bread, milk, cinnamon. Special flavorings: Honey, which usually sells for 25 RMB ($3.71) for a jar. While it’s comparable to U.S. prices and doesn’t seem very expensive, I do live in a country where things are usually a small fraction of American prices. Still, it’s better than using maple syrup, which goes for […]
Ever since I saw the preview for the Pixar movie, I’ve always wanted to eat ratatouille. Not that the movie really explained what it is, but I came away with the impression it was some sort of lame, poor-man’s vegetable stew/soup that is undergoing a rediscovery. Vegetables — good! Then I started to look at […]
Hachis Parmentier is, apparently, the French version of shepherd’s pie, that I baked in my mini-loaf pans: Pretty delicious, though nothing memorable. Nothing especially French about it, either. So, meh. Main ingredients: ground beef, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, parmesan. Special flavorings: nothing special. Total cost: 40 RMB ($5.91) for six servings. Yeah, pricey. For shepherd’s pie.
We had a lot of lettuce leftover from the hamburgers, so naturally, we used it for a salad. (Is there anything else you can make with lettuce?) I used to make this kind of salad a lot at home because it was easy, cheap and delicious, so I don’t know why I never tried to […]
My boyfriend got it into his head that he wanted to be like Rocky and eat Rocky hamburgers, which are big manly burgers that clog your arteries just by being thought of. Basically, we made hamburger patties (fried in a pan, not grilled, because we don’t have a grill), then piled on all sorts of […]