Cooking in Southern China -

Another Shunde experience took place on Sunday as we entered the "Shunde Cooking Contest" hosted by the mayor and other gov't officials. Marc came home from work a week ago saying that I had to cook in this contest and I said "no way." First I cannot find the ingredients here to cook any American dishes and I told him I did not want to participate. However he comes home the next day with the recipe I am to use. It is called Asian Stir Fry Chicken with Assorted Peppers, and all the ingredients would be on hand at the contest, all I had to do was show up .So off we go on the day of the contest which took place in the park across the street from our apt. I did it with the understanding that Marc would help and we would both act as though we knew what we were doing. I should know by now that this Chinese events are always a big deal. The CCTV news crews are all around, photographs being taken, distinguished guests, etc....
We went to our first station which was the food prep area. We were under a large canvas but it was about 100 degrees and lots of humidity! You could not escape the heat for sure! After we sliced our peppers and other ingredients we then moved to the cooking station where large woks were set up everywhere. We were assigned our spot and there we proceeded to look like Rachel Ray and Emeril on Food Network. After the chicken dish was cooked we placed it on the garnished plate of cucumbers and carrots. The judge said it was "great", but obviously not great enough to win the grand prize. We were given a very nice glass plaque for participation though. All in all a fun experience where as always new friends were made!

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