cerebrate good times » cooking

kettles and drums

Andrew Pouw — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:23:16 +0000

I was cooking/destroying some dumplings at my makeshift window kitchenette and watching the kids down in the courtyard play basketball. I always have to keep the window open while I cook/destroy things, which is a lesson I learned after the smoke detector went off the first time. Since it was open I could hear the basketball players yelling in Chinese (by now the phrases I usually expect to hear are “hao qiu!” and “cao ni ma!” which are “good ball!” and “fuck your mom!” respectively.)

Amidst the beating of basketballs against pavement, cries in Chinese and crackling of my dumplings, then, I was a little surprised to realize I also heard violins and flutes.

I leaned towards the window a little to hear better. Maybe it was the PA system playing some patriotic tunes again. A little odd for basketball background noise, but not uncommon. But if it was a recording piped through the outdoor speakers, why was there that vibrating feeling every time I heard a kettle drum? And a recording’s pitch wouldn’t be off-kilter like this, would it?

I never knew my school had an orchestra!

I asked Tiantian about it, whom I found coaching a student through some weekend exercises in the office. “Maybe you can play with them!” she laughed.

It’s already a little strange to think that I actually like to hear pitches clash if only for nostalgic reasons, but even stranger is the thought that there are people who never knew that I actually identify with music so strongly. Many people. Makes me feel a little older realizing that now there are “phases” in my life that divide the people I know.

The dumplings were decent, I reflected as I munched on them, but if I ever cook for other people I should probably work on getting them to be a little less slimy.

and fruit too, oh my

Andrew Pouw — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:19:32 +0000

I was eating dinner at a fancy Thai restaurant at Coastal City with Kami and Nicole when Tiantian called.

“Andrew where are you!”

Uh oh. Did I forget another teacher’s banquet?

“No, it is okay. There is a box of fruit for Mid-Autumn Festival here for you! It will be on first floor.”

Oh, thanks Tiantian!

Hours later I turned up again at my school gates, waving at the guard to let me in. He was on the phone talking but still saw me, and amiably opened it up with a remote and waved me in. I ambled on and ran into Guan Laoshi. After speaking with her for a little while I kept going, until I heard “Ah Ah Ah Ah!” The guard was running after me waving. “You forgot your fruit!” called Guan Laoshi.

Out of nowhere Liu Laoshi materialized. “Let me help you carry that back to your room,” he insisted. He also ran up to his office to get me something. “You really don’t have to,” I protested. He insisted. “My daughter likes you very much!” he laughed. It was a bag of moon cake.

After wrestling the batch up with Liu Laoshi, chatting with him in my room about Chinese musical instruments and offering him tea, I was left alone to inspect what the heck this thing was, exactly.

Opening it up yielded more questions than answers…

What the heck is it?????

Oh, that….is a lot less intimidating than it looked on the outside.

Tastes kind of nice!

Edit: Turns out that it is called “dragon fruit,” or “pitaya.” Also, I hate formatting posts with pictures in them…I’ll clean this mess up later.

maslow’s first need

Andrew Pouw — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:57:26 +0000

I know that this is something I could be yelled at for, but I’m still having some difficulty finding food on weekends. The school cafeteria closes and I haven’t yet found enough kitchen utensils to be able to cook for myself (I need a bucket to put dirty dishes in…and then I suppose I would walk to my bathroom sink to drain it? I don’t much like this system…but it’s more than just a kitchen sink I’m missing). In a bit I’ll go adventure forth to see if there’s a cheap restaurant in this neighborhood, but as this seems to be a newly developing area (the road stops one block east), I haven’t yet found anything in between fancy sit-down Chinese establishment and roadside cart-vendor. Maybe that tea shop serves some food like Cup O’ Joy did in South Central LA…hopefully?

Still, I’ll wait until it becomes a good dinner time. Half an hour should be good. But I’m hungry now, though.

I racked my brain for what food I could possibly have here in this apartment. Oh, those plums in the fridge. I plucked one out.

Hard as a rock, as if the fridge is circulating liquid nitrogen through its contents. I tried sticking it in the microwave – I was able to do that with an apple last week and it worked okay. Hit defrost.

Boom.

Blast. Guess I’ll wait another half hour.

stallpost

Andrew Pouw — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:39:23 +0000

The biggest changes are usually too eventful to leave much time for writing about them. The last two days have been spent wandering around the Shekou area in Nanshan District to get a feel for things, mapping out my surroundings, and unpacking and settling in.

Pictures of the room to come later – it’s a nicely furnished studio apartment, essentially, in the teacher’s dorm so stepping out into the hallway (which is outdoors) leads one to seeing a bunch of other teachers’ doors. The walls here are kind of stained and cracked, but it seems like every Chinese room wall is, so I just have to find some wall decorations to cover them up with soon.

I only have a microwave for a kitchen. Later I might try to sneak in a hot plate, but for now I’m exploring my options. Apparently you can do a lot with a microwave oven.

Lastly, here’s a map showing some updated landmarks.

View Shenzhen in a larger map