Yangshuo: Living at a Cooking School

I've now been in Yangshuo for 48 hours. So far, things are pretty awesome.

I apparently have a talent for arranging internships for myself in the most beautiful and scenic locations in the WORLD - the village of Chaolong (which is about 6 km outside of Yangshuo), where I am staying, might be the best yet.

On Tuesday morning I left Guangzhou for the airport, after a breakfast of some mushroom dumplings (I didn't really understand how it worked, and I accidentally bought about 25 of them for about $1) The taxi to the airport was only ￥120, much less than i had expected, so that was nice - flight was right on time, and was quite quick (about 45 minutes in the air) and soon I was landing in Guilin! The pointed hills looked really cool from the airplane.

I was picked up by a female taxi driver who had a sign with my name. She spoke almost no English, so the hour long car ride was quite quiet, but nice. The highway between Guilin and Yangshuo is in very good condition - at parts it looked no different than the Merritt Parkway, except in gaps between the trees and hills there were rice paddies!

I met Pam when I arrived - I am staying at her house, which is attached to the original cooking school location in the village of Chaolong. She will only be here until Monday, when she leaves for Australia, so I will be taking over her tasks here once she is gone. This mainly includes doing the shopping for the school every morning at the market in town, but also includes helping book customers, organizing/coordinating and then just helping out in general. I am here to learn about Chinese food and also to learn the language, so my plan is to hang out at the school as much as possible to observe and learn as much as I can.

After settling in, Pam and I went to a nearby hostel where we rented a bicycle for me - for the next month it appears that I will mostly be traveling around by bicycle or on the back of someone's motorbike - either a friend's or a motor-taxi, which are quite common and cheap.

The Yangshuo Cooking School has been in Chaolong for over 5 years, but last year Pam and Kelly, one of the teachers, opened up a new branch of the school by the Li River in the main town. This location is quite nice too, and is convenient. Kelly is the primary teacher here, while Leo (her boyfriend) is one of the main teachers in Chaolong. Right now I am in Kelly and Leo's house using their computer, since Leo has a card reader. Both of them are about my age, are super nice, and speak great English.

The four of us had dinner on Tuesday, then went out to a local bar, then to a 6-year anniversary party of a friend's massage parlor. So there was lots of food.

I can't even remember everything I've eaten here so far, but some highlights have been an AMAZING mushroom soup, cold salad of local ferns (similar to fiddleheads!), crispy pork (much like chicharron), pumpkin stems w/ garlic, and a pig's stomach soup (sounds not-so-great, but was in fact delicious). This doesn't include the things we have cooked at the school, which I will get to later hopefully.

On Wednesday I got thrown right into helping at the school, since there was a very large group of 8th graders in town from the International School in Hong Kong. I stayed in Chaolong and helped out as both Leo and Sally (another teacher) taught in the two classrooms, about 17 people in each one - in both morning, and then again in the afternoon.

The kids did a pretty good job, but it was a bit stressful at times since the kids often forgot the directions - but I definitely felt useful, as there was a lot to help out with.

This morning was much calmer - I went to Kelly's class and got to cook along with four others - this time adults - we tried out a new menu which included steamed dumplings, sweet and sour pork, tofu w/ mixed vegetables, greens with garlic and spicy chicken w/ star anise.

Hopefully I am going to be good at cooking some Chinese dishes by the time I'm back in the US!
I've learned a lot already, so that's good.

There are swimming holes in the river about a 5 minute bike ride from where I'm staying - it's really hot here, so I went for a swim with Pam yesterday and it was really great - and in just about the most scenic location possible, next to rice paddies and with views of the pointed hills jutting out of the valley.

Oh, and I have gone to the market in the morning twice now with Pam, and I am attempting to learn which stalls she goes to, how much things cost, how much of what to get, and how to say things in Chinese. The language part might be tricky, but hopefully I'll be okay.

The local market is great - small enough to be manageable, but big enough to have a good variety, mostly local ingredients. I'll eventually be able to take some pictures.

After the market, we go to a small stall next door for breakfast of rice noodle soup w/ a delicious pork broth - you get to choose which pickled condiments you want to add to your soup, and you can also choose a meat. They also throw in some crunchy soybeans. Very good and tasty breakfast for about $0.40

That's all I have time for now....I've included some pictures.

If anyone has questions, post them in the "Comments" section and then I can answer them. Also, leave a comment if you read this. Aside from my parents, I dunno if anyone is even reading this, so it would be nice to know my audience so I can try to customize the posts to fit your interests :)



View of the garden from the entrance of the cooking school.


Pam's house, which is where I'm staying. The cooking school is actually part of the house too.


A small road between the house/school and the swimming hole.



Countryside near Chaolong.


View of the valley from nearby the swimming hole (about 5 minute walk from where I am living)


View of the Li River from the cooking school in town. This is the river that many boats sail down from Guilin. The swimming hole is on a smaller river.


A meal that was cooked by one of the 8th grade teachers. The table is in front of the garden.


A better look at the meal from the cooking school. Counter clockwise: rice, steamed chicken w/ ginseng and chinese dates, eggplant Yangshuo style, pork w/ mixed vegetable, green veggie w/ garlic, and then something else (I don't know who made that or what it is - it might have been made for the staff)


8th graders cooking!


More 8th graders cooking!



Leo and Pippy (his and Kelly's dog) on his motorbike. This was just before I hopped on to come over here to write the blog entry!

Guangzhou: Dim Sum in the City Where It All Began

Willa told me that dim sum would be good in Guangzhou, and it didn't disappoint. We ate at Guangzhou Restaurant, and here are a few pictures.


The second floor of the restaurant.


Fried milk.



Saltwater fried dumplings, turnip cakes.


Willa pouring tea - we shared a table with three older ladies, including the lady in this picture.

Waitress preparing the tea.

Looking down from the third floor of the restaurant.

Third floor view again.

Guangzhou: The China Adventure Begins

I can't believe I'm really in China. I'm already glad I decided to come here - there is a lot to see, observe and attempt to understand, though I already feel that on this trip I'll only scratch the surface.



I didn't really know what Guangzhou would be like, but I pictured it as a big, polluted, dirty city with crowds of people and chaos. In reality, this city (formerly known as Canton) is quite different than how I pictured it.



The first thing I noticed here is how green it is. In Hong Kong, and even in cities like New York and Boston, you see lots of brick and steel, but not a lot of green (unless you are in a park). Here there are nice parks and gardens, but there are also hundreds of tree lined streets - oftentimes, the trees are so tall and big that the street is completely shaded. Here is an example:





These streets aren't necessarily residential side streets - they are often main roads with shops, restaurants, apartments, etc. So it's really quite a beautiful city.



Between the big streets, there are lots of neighborhoods, many with alleys and pedestrian-only walkways like this one:



These neighborhoods are really neat - on my first afternoon here, I wandered around near my hotel into a neighborhood like this one, and ended up at a local wet market, where local residents were buying raw and roasted meats, vegetables and fruit. I took a picture of some dragonfruit.







And here's a picture of the street outside the market.






The other main thing I noticed right away here is that there are almost no other foreigners. Not very many people speak English, although many street signs (and signs and announcements in the metro) are in Chinese and English.



Before meeting up with Willa yesterday evening, I managed to buy a jasmine milk tea with tapioca. In order to do this, I had to whip out the Cantonese phrasebook and look up 'jasmine' in the dictionary. Once I figured this out, the kids working at the tea stand understood what I wanted. Everyone had a good laugh about the lack of understanding - but at least the phrase "bye-bye" is the same in both Cantonese and English, so even if I can't talk to people, I can at least say goodbye.



Here's a picture of my bubble tea.



Last night Willa came and met up with me at my hotel at 5:30. We walked around a bit through some more random neighborhoods, then eventually took the metro to a Hakka restaurant she had picked out for us to eat at - we met up with a few of her friends, who brought along others, so we were a party of six for the meal. Hakka food isn't too common outside of southeastern China - here's a link to the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_cuisine

My favorites included a braised stuffed tofu, salt-baked chicken and steamed loofa with garlic. After a leisurly dinner, four of us went to another place by the Pearl River for dessert. We sat on a balcony overlooking the river, as river cruise boats floated by, and ate two orders of banana pancakes. Willa's friends are regulars at this place and they always come for the panckes, which are fried in butter - they are much like Chinese scallion pancakes, but with banana instead of scallions. Yum.

Today was a day of exploring Guangzhou. Willa and I met up at 11 and walked from my hotel to a big pedestrian street in the center of the city.

For some reason this picture makes it look dark, but it was actually quite hot and sunny out.

We walked through a big square (sorry I don't remember names of any squares or streets)

We also walked through a jade market, and through a street with lots of food stands - including some more interesting items, like scorpions, baby squids and larvae:

I did not try any of these, since I was saving room for dim sum! :)

Willa took me to a place called Guangzhou Restaurant, a popular tea house founded in 1935. This was a true dim sum palace - multiple floors, an internal courtyard, dozens (hundreds?) of waiters and waitresses. We ordered some items from the menu, and I also went down to the 2nd floor (we were seated on the 3rd floor) where you could choose out items yourself.

I will post dim sum pictures in a separate post - but this dim sum easily beat out what I ate in Hong Kong and Macau - we had full tea service too, about 6 dim sum dishes, and also ordered an item off the menu: fried milk.

Here's a NYT article about fried milk: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03EEDB1F3EF93AA35754C0A96E9C8B63

This version had shrimp and scallops, and was topped with a crunchy nut that tasted somewhat like pistachios.

The meal was a lot of fun, and the place was completely full (despite being Monday. Willa said the wait is usually quite long on weekends)

After a nice lunch, we walked around some more. Some streets have traditional gates at the start of the street.

We walked through several markets. I didn't take many photos since many people in the market didn't want us taking photos of them, or their products. But I did take a few.

We passed this stand that was selling turtles, frogs, toads and snakes. They were not being sold as pets.

We went to a market with lots of medicinal herbs and spices. I took this picture of star anise (below) and dried tangerine peel (above).

Another market we went to had dozens of stalls selling dried seafood: abalone, shrimp, scallops, seahorse, mussels, and sharks fin (shown in this picture)

Here are some guys with bicycle carts near the dried seafood market.


There's a lot of construction going on Guangzhou - huge buildings (malls, apartments, shopping centers) are going up right next to small alleyways filled with tiny shops and apartments. It's an interesting contrast. There are lots of big roads cutting through the city as well, many with pedestrian walkways to cross over.

In the afternoon we walked around Shamian Island, which had very nice gardens and a beautiful looking Starbucks. The US Consulate is here, and this is the only neighborhood in the city where I have seen other Americans visitors.

In the evening, Willa and I headed toward the eastern side of the city for dinner (see my previous post). It was really nice that Willa was able to show me around the city today - I learned a lot and she was an excellent guide! So Willa, if you're reading this, thanks!!!

I was very impressed with Guangzhou, and I'd definitely consider returning here someday.

Tomorrow I am off to Guilin - I leave for the airport in the morning, and I'm excited. I will miss Cantonese food though - it's been delicious. But I'm excited to see what other great meals I'll have in the rest of China.

Guangzhou: Hunan Food and Dry Cleaned Socks!

I am kind of going in reverse order here with my blogging, starting with the most recent event: Monday night's dinner.

Willa and I headed on the metro to the eastern side of Guangzhou, which generally is a newer part of the city. We walked through a huge mall, and saw some big skyscrapers....then decided to eat dinner at a Hunan Restaurant across from the mall called Xiangcunguan Restaurant. It seemed a bit trendy, but it looked popular.



The menu was a big picture book, and everything looked good. I considered asking the restaurant if I could take a menu home with me - it would have made a lovely coffee table book. There were certainly some more exotic items on the menu (frog, snake, etc) but we ended up with dishes that weren't too different than things I have had before in the U.S. Overall, our meal was excellent - lots of strong flavors, though perhaps they dumbed down the spiciness for us a bit, since nothing was too hot.

Part way through the meal, we were asked to put away our cameras, so I only got a few food photos here.


Eggplant and string beans.


Willa in the restaurant.



A hot skillet with smoked tofu, slivers of fatty pork, with lots of chilies and scallions.

We also had a beef dish, where the beef was also smoked, and tasted a lot like hickory smoked bacon. And a sauteed cabbage dish with black vinegar - a bit oily, but very tasty. I also had a watermelon juice with the meal - it was very good.

Back at my hotel this evening, I found that the laundry I dropped off yesterday had been hung up in my closet - it was a bit expensive because everything (even the socks!) was dry cleaned!

I promised Willa I'd take a picture of this, so here it is.

Here's another picture of my room. I'm staying at the Hua Tian Hotel. It's quite a nice room in general - the bed is quite hard (apparently this is common in China - Willa says it's good for my back). But for the money, you get a LOT more here than you do in Hong Kong.

Guangzhou: Entering China

This morning in Macau, I changed some money and then needed breakfast before departing for China. Since it was Sunday, dim sum seemed like a good choice, so I chose a place very close to my hotel which was crowded with people. No one spoke English, and it was hard to figure out where I could sit - none of the hostesses seemed to care that I was there. Eventually I went to a table near the entrance and sat with an elderly man (seemed like a local) who was dining alone.

Ordering was done on a card here, which was all in Chinese, but the man across from me helped me check off 'har gau' and 'char siu cheung fan' which were the two best things I knew how to say (other than shumai, but I didn't want shumai). Then when the waitress came I walked over to a neighboring table and pointed to some translucent rice dumplings that they had, so I could get those too.

The dim sum was good - the char siu cheung fan had pieces of sweet roast pork, cilantro and chives wrapped in rice noodles, and the dumplings had bits of pork, celery, bamboo shoot and pinenuts! The har gau had big chunks of shrimp - quite good. This was plenty of food.

I packed up, checked out of my hotel and went to the bus ticket office to buy my ticket to Guangzhou. The woman here didn't speak any English either, but managed to communicate that I'd be picked up at 10:50, then brought to customs for Macau, walk through, enter customs in China, then get a bus again on the other side which would leave at 12:15 and arrive in Guangzhou at 2:45.

The woman knew exactly what she was talking about - the bus to the border was quick, but customs had long lines (Chinese tourists going home after a weekend in Macau) and then there were forms to fill out for entering China (no, I have not been in contact with a pig in the past week) I got through just in time to get my 12:15 bus, which sure enough DID arrive exactly at 2:45 in Guangzhou.

The ride was nice - I had a front seat in the bus, which provided nice views - the Pearl River Delta is very green, with lots of small gardens and banana trees, with pockets of development all over the place. Approaching Guangzhou was like approaching NYC - it looks massive, and it is: more than 10 million people.

I got dropped off at the big Marriot, which was good because I was able to go inside and speak to someone in English. I got a map of the city, and then caught a cab to my hotel.

My hotel is very nice - paying less here than I paid for my tiny room in HK, and here I have a queen sized bed, huge bathroom, big TV, AC, desk, etc. It's a 3 star business class hotel, and my room costs about 24 us dollars a night - i decided to go this route because the youth hostel was $20 per night! There are tons of business hotels here, and hardly ANY western travelers, so I guess this makes sense.

So I arrived safe and sound in Guangzhou! It's a very interesting city, I like it a lot so far. I'm off to bed now, so I'll be back with more updates tomorrow! There is a huge computer gaming hall on the 2nd floor of my hotel (about 250 computers) so internet access will be easy for the next day while I'm here.

So, more soon!

Macau: For the Sake of Anthropological Research

You have spent the last hour wandering through the narrow streets of Macau. The sun is setting, and you arrive in a plaza near the southern tip of the peninsula, where there is a temple and a street lined with Macanese restaurants. Even though you just finished lunch at 3 PM, and you're not that hungry yet, you decide you should eat. You've heard that people tend to eat dinner on the early side in Macau, so it's better safe than sorry.

You choose a restaurant that was recommended in your guidebook, knowing that it might be pricier than the types of restaurants you normally go to. This is, after all, probably the only time you'll ever visit Macau, and this is your only dinner there. You open the door of the restaurant. You feel a bit silly because you are wearing a button down shirt that you bought yesterday at the market in Hong Kong - a "Nautica" shirt (doubtful) that still is creased from the plastic packaging that it came in. But then you see that someone else in the restaurant is wearing a t-shirt, so you feel better.

Next you feel awkward because at the entrance to the restaurant there are stairs going up, and then you have to go down again after passing over a small balcony, where everyone in the restaurant will look at you - it's like the grand entrance that you really would prefer to pass on, but have no choice. You briefly re-consider the whole thing, thinking back to the last time you dined alone in a semi fancy (read: cloth napkins) restaurant while traveling abroad - 6 years ago in Bolivia when you had Italian food in Santa Cruz and you paid with credit card but forgot to sign the receipt and then the waiter had to chase you down in the streets to get you to come back and sign it and you were very embarassed and felt like an idiot and vowed never to eat in a "fancy" restaurant by yourself again.

But then you decide that you are in Macau, and for the sake of anthropological research, you should get a table for 1. So you do.

The menu looks good, and you can't really decide what to order, and even though the dishes seem large, you decide you should probably try at least two things. You ask a waiter what he recommends, and he suggests the Portuguese style clams as an appetizer, and the African Chicken as a main dish. The table next to you has both of these and they look good, so you agree. Each costs 90 Hong Kong dollars, which you need to divide by 7.5 to figure out how much that costs in US dollars, which is too much math at the moment, but you decide it's fine.

They don't have glasses of wine, only bottles, and a half-bottle of Portuguese Vinho Verde is only 80 Hong Kong dollars, which is cheaper than the watered down drink you had in Hong Kong last night, so you get that too!

The clams arrive - there are approximately 50 small clams in a lovely broth with whole cloves of garlic, olives, chilies and plenty of butter and wine. Your waiter tells you that it's good to dip your bread in the sauce - which means you did a good job pretending to be interested in nibbling on your bread prior to the arrival of the clams so it wouldn't be too obvious that you CLEARLY were planning to do lots of bread dipping and never even CONSIDERED using any of the butter provided. Ha.

You take a picture of your clams.

You eat about 1/2 of the clams and you are already getting full. Your wine is chilling in an ice bucket (!) next to your table and the waiters refill your glass regularly. The African Chicken arrives - this is a Macanese specialty, which is a huge serving of chicken (1/2 of a chicken, in fact) in a creamy sauce that reminds you of a cross between tomato soup, chicken tikka masala and Indonesian gado gado - except not really any of those. That combination sounds gross, but this is really good. You are also served rice, which is good because the sauce is rather spicy.

You take a picture of the African Chicken and the rice.

You are asked if you'd like your plate for clams taken away, and you say 'no' because you still might want more clams. In fact, you do. You also want more bread, and get some, and dip it in the broth from the clams again. You are getting very full, and also a bit tipsy because you are hot and the wine is cool and refreshing and you keep drinking it. You start focusing on not being too drunk. You DON'T knock over your wine glass as you reach across the table to grab one more clam. You DON'T absentmindedly stare at people at other tables. You DON'T let your eyes start to close.

You are happy when a waiter asks if you'd like to take the leftovers home with you - you agree, figuring that at least someone will eat them, but you decide to just take the chicken because leftover clams wouldn't be that good. You are definitely tipsy but luckily you don't have to talk to anyone, you just have to sit at your table with your glass of wine and take deep breaths and enjoy the restaurant. You are probably too full for dessert. "The Rivers of Babylon" starts playing in the background, which you find funny.

You decide to go to the bathroom, which is upstairs, and you focus very hard on holding the handrail and not doing anything dumb on the way up or down the stairs. You are successful. You come back down, and you think that you are all alone, on the other side of the world, and you are drunk and you are a kilometer from your hotel, and you have never been in this situation before. You decide that maybe the best solution is dessert afterall.

You ask to see the dessert menu, at first thinking that you might not really order any, but then you decide that sitting in the restaurant longer is probably a good idea, so you ask which dessert is best, and the manager says to get the serradura - she says this without hesitation, so you decide to do it even though you don't always like creamy desserts. After you order, you turn to the waiter and ask him to not serve the dessert for another 5 minutes because you are still too full.

After a while your dessert is served - serradura is fresh whipped cream, topped with a cookie crumb powder, the texture of sawdust. You take a picture of it. It looks pretty, but you are unconvinced - until your first bite.

The serradura might be the best dessert ever. It reminds you of the ice cream pie that your aunt Betsy makes during the summer, except the chocolate crumb crust has become vanilla sawdust, and the ice cream has turned into 'just plain cream' and it's in a bowl. You finish the dessert in 1 minute. You strongly consider ordering another one, because it's only 30 HK dollars which is only about 4 US dollars, which is totally worth it because this dessert is ridiculously good. You scoff at the notion that at one point you actually considered NOT ordering dessert.

You sit for a while longer and you feel a bit more sober now and you ask for the bill. You look around and you notice that there are at least two other tables taking pictures of their food. You are glad that at least you have this in common with the Chinese tourists. It is not weird here to take pictures of your food in restaurants.

You go to the bathroom again. You forget to check whether or not your napkin has been folded for you when you are back at your seat, which your friend Thomas says is a mark of a 'fine restaurant.' You wish you had noticed. But you think they probably folded it.

You pay with a credit card, and you stay put in your seat and remember to sign the receipt before you leave. You have spent more on this meal than you will on your hotel room, but it was worth it - again, for the sake of anthropologcal research. You walk outside into the muggy night air and get ready for the walk back to your hotel.

In general, you don't love dining alone, but you realize that it isn't always so bad.

Macau: A Quick View of Macau

Macau is really interesting so far. I'm staying at a place in the heart of the old city, which is really nice - my room is MUCH bigger than the one I had in Hong Kong, for about the same price. I had lunch with two Colombian guys who are staying at my hotel, then went exploring.

The Portuguese influence is quite evident - it feels like I'm in South America, but everyone is Chinese! There are a ton of tourists, it seems like most are from mainland China. But the overall feeling here is much more relaxed than Hong Kong, with lots of European-style narrow streets to explore. So it's quite fun walking around.

Here are a few pictures:


Among other things, I had this roast pork noodle soup for lunch. Very good, the pork was very sweet.


A cathedral in Macau



View from the fort in Macau

Cannon in the fort in Macau

Ruins of another church in Macau. I didn't pay much attention to which church was which. Sorry.

Tourists in Macau

Macau is known for its egg custard tarts - here they are caramelized on the top, while in HK they usually aren't. This was easily the best egg custard tart I have ever had. Super flaky crust, and perfect texture/sweetness of custard. I will probably have a few more of these before leaving tomorrow.

Macau: Last Day in Hong Kong

I'm in Macau now, but I have a few more photos of Hong Kong. They are uploaded in a somewhat nonchronological order, so I will put descriptions beneath each one even though it's not sequential.


This is a typical street stand in Hong Kong. They sell all sorts of snacks, many involving squid or fish. Thanh (a friend from Tufts who lives in HK) recommended that I try the curry fishballs (the floating balls in the darker liquid). They were very good and spicy! The stand like this near my hostel also had stinky tofu, which wafted toward you every time you exited the elevator in my building. I am not a fan of stinky tofu.


A view of the market near my hostel.



Fruit stand in the market.

Dim sum with Thanh and Carine. We went to a restaurant that both of them had been to before. It was fun to get dim sum in Hong Kong, though it wasn't any better than what I've had in Boston and San Francisco.

Our table.

Xiao long bao at dim sum. These were quite good. I'm excited to eat a lot of these in Shanghai next month!

Broccoli from a restaurant in Temple Market. I came here with Shawn and with another guy who I met at my hostel. We sat next to two women who told us the place specialized in vegetables and seafood, especially snails. This broccoli was cooked perfectly, and was in fact some of the best broccoli I have ever had.

Whelks from the restaurant in Temple Market. I didn't like these that much, but I was glad I tried them. The sauce had a lot of chinese five spice and I got tired of it after a while - my dining companions did not help eat very many, so I was left with a lot!