Little Panda...Big City

Nǐmen hǎo,

This week one of my students invited me to their home to have lunch with their family. After lunch, I asked the student if his mother would teach me how to make these quick and easy dishes. She said yes!!! So later this week I went back to his house and she taught me how to make 5 more Chinese dishes!! I’ve officially learned how to make 8 Chinese dishes!!!! Whoo hoo!!! I have even started my very own Chinese cook book :)

Here are the menu items from starting from the top left :)

Wōjù cài - Lettuce

Lián’ǒu chǎo ròu - Lotus Root with Pork

Là chǎo dòufu - Spicy Tofu

Mó gū chǎo ròu - Mushroom with Pork

Juānxiàn cài  Cabbage

They are simple and very delicious! Notice how the meat dishes have very little meat?

Soap Box Moment:

I will say two things I dislike about the eating customs in China. First, the food comes out as it is prepared. This is very unlike the American custom in which we typically eat when all of the food is ready. Secondly, the staple item like rice, bread or noodles comes out after all of the other dishes have been served. This is a bit annoying because I’d much rather eat my rice with my meal but since it comes out last, we are usually half way finished with the meal when the “staple” items arrive. Grrrhhh!!!

Ok enough ranting and raving today! I hope you enjoyed :)

Your Truly,

Nimen Hao!!!

I'd like to share my neighborhood with you all. I actually love my neighborhood. The neighbors and store owners are very very nice to me and they foster my terrible Chinese speaking skills.

Here are some pictures of my building and it surrounding buildings. 

(BELOW) I'm SAFE!!! 24 hour security guards :)

What is soo awesome about my neighborhood is that I don't have to walk more than 3 minutes for ALL of my food items. We have a butcher/meat shop less than a minute away. There are also plenty of vegetable, fruit, bean, and grain stands right behind the house.

All this MEAT for only $10 USD!!!! WHAT?! Insanity!!!

This isn't the half of the fruit/vegetable stands. This is only the one on my route to work. There are at very least 5 vegetable shops and about 4 fruit shops and then a mix of both vegetables/fruit shops...its insanity!!!!

Outside of the convenience of finding foods to cook! My apartment is only a 10 minute walk from my school so its super convenient. My school is a private English training school so we have a range of students from about age 7 to 70 or so. Thus, the backgrounds from education, career and hometowns vary a lot which allows me to learn more about Chinese culture and education. SCORE!! hahaha, no but seriously. I'm truly blessed and I really enjoy it here!

Here is a view from the inside of the school. I'll try to snag some more pictures when it's not too obvious. See my students being studious hehehe.

See that Prada across the street. Well that's only the beginning. There is a huge expensive import mall here called INZONE and it sales all the name brand and designer items but like 3x the cost. It's RIDICULOUSNESS!!

Ok...so, I'm pretty adventurous and I like to explore, so I decided to walk into this pub. Come to find out it was a LGBTQ pub with 98% drags. I walked in one day and was very surprised at what I saw. Haven't been back sense lol.

Ohh there is soo much I'd like to show you about my neighborhood and I will in due time!! I need to take more pictures first :). I hope you enjoyed this quick snippet!