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Published: November 2nd 2008
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Passing time at
...helps to while away some hours on a Sunday afternoon, while we wait for the yin. Hey all,
Well, as the title suggests...it's been very yangy around here of late. But then after living here for over a year now, you'd think we'd be used to that. However, after a succession of yang (bad?) happenings: losing our internet, getting locked out of our apartment, and then discovering Roel's bike was stolen -- we were hoping for the yin (good stuff?) to reappear, because after all bad things come in three's we thought...but we guess that's a western truth, unknown to the eastern gods, since the yang, yin, or whatever you want to call it, keeps coming.
For example, we got hit with a few Saturdays at work (Parent-Teacher Conference, a make-up for a typhoon rainday, and a 'motivational' speaker's day, entitled "live the dream/bear the cost"!!!) and then we thought we had the melamine in the milk scandal licked by drinking imported milk, until they discovered melamine tainted eggs in Hong Kong, and now it turns out to be in meat, fish and poultry! The weather has been warm, so much so that we're actually longing for the first day of fall to arrive (apparently the rule is after three days in a row of
Biking...
...still our favorite mode of travel in China, until Roel's bike was stolen.... under 22 degree weather) in order to hopefully wipe out the swarming mosquitoes which have been plaguing us, along with a mysterious allergen which has attacked Amy's eyes and lungs. But as the cold weather eludes us, we search the stores for a mosquito net so that at least we can get some relief from the biting critters at night, which turn out to be smaller than black flies, hence invisible -- except for their all too real, sleep destroying stings! But since then we have discovered that the empty lot across the street from us is indeed a future construction site, as the 6:00 a.m. wake-up booms on weekends have informed us, so we figure that sleep will be impossible for the next little while anyway. But, we figure, who needs to sleep? We can sleep all we what when we return to Canada, which is only...yawn...eight months away. In any event, by then Roel's hair should have grown back, because even an innocent trip to the barber's resulted in him getting absolutely buzzed...at least he won't have to worry about combing his hair until we get back...because he doesn't have any left!!
So it was at some
Roel takes to his new bike...
...(actually Chris' bike from last Xmas) to pay our Internet bill. point during our long, sweltering, bug-and-melamine infested fall, we decided to try to induce some yin into our lives, and spying a book called "The Essential Wok" on a remainders table at "Chater House Books" (did they mean Charter? Chatter? we're never sure) Amy picked it up. Maybe a project of learning how to cook Asian food might, dare we say it, be fun! At the very least, it would be healthier...besides, we could control what we eat, somewhat....or so we thought.
Now, one would think that finding ingredients in a major Chinese city for cooking Asian food would be easy, no? But then, as we discovered, one would be very, very wrong...and once again, we should have known better. What fools we were, we realized, to think anything in Shanghai could ever be easy, especially when, as in our case, the gods of yang are obviously against you? When would we ever learn that one does and CAN not force the yin??? In any case, after long and fruitless searches, the only thing we did find was the reason maybe why the cookbook was so cheap, and perhaps why most people eat out in Shanghai, because no one,
Who knew?
We always knew about coffee...but poker? Healthy? for starters, can get Japanese Soya Sauce to make "Yakisoba", or Malaysian "kecap manis" to make "Lemon Grass Beef"!
Even after voicing this frustration one morning to the bus ayi on the long ride to work, we were told that, no, there was no place she knew of to buy such ingredients...even though she'd heard that the Japanese vinegar was very nice...unless they were at the imported foods mall beside the Jing An Temple. Imagine our delight when checking out this previously unbeknowst locale of commerce, located smak dab beside Shanghai's major Buddhist shrine, we discovered a shining supermarket laden with organic fruits and veggies...which we stocked up on immediately...and shelves of Japanese, Chinese Rice Wine and Black Vinegar, the latter labelled Çhinkiang Vinegar" (which turns out to be positively delicious...and probably available everywhere, but here all labelled in readable English!!) So we loaded our cart with a variety of black, yellow and clear bottles and then headed eagerly to the dairy products.
Imagine our disappointment to see that the scarcity of imported milk, city-wide ever since the melamine scare first hit (especially all Australian and French brands) evident here, too. Then spotting a lone carton of the
This store sign...
...that we came upon one grey, rainy day, seemed apt... French label "Presidente" of whipping cream, we grabbed it figuring it would be better than nothing in our morning coffee. It was at that moment we bumped into a tall American pouncing on some red bean paste! He turned out to be very helpful, telling us he had just come from living in Japan for two years, and guaranteed us that red bean paste, something he'd been searching for, would be something we'd love too...if after maybe acquiring the taste...but at the very least we'd be healthier for using it as a soup base, or at least a dip for cucumbers! So we threw some of that into our cart too. Than the American pointed us to the Japanese dairy section...turns out to be a viable alternative to the so-called, cleaned up Chinese milk, so we loaded up with guaranteed melamine-free milk and unsweetened yogurt, and left with our cart brimming with all the ingredients we'd been seeking for weeks. We'd never thought of Japanese products, but thanks to our enthusiastic American, and new cookbook, we'll be eating and cooking Japanese for a while. And who knows...maybe even visiting the land of the rising sun one day. Before we left
Did they mean...
...."awesome chocolate"? We passed on this one anyway. the store, our keen guide showed us how to even read a bit of the labels, as it turns out that he even learned some Japanese.
So maybe the yin is returning....perhaps it does need a little shove once in a while.
Sayonara,
Amy & Roel
Ps... We kept the boxed whipping cream...it's good until January, 2009, so it will keep until Carly and Craig arrive to spend Xmas with us. And knowing them, they'll be bringing heaps of yin with them.
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Yvonne Dufault
non-member comment
Après la pluie, le soleil
Dear friends and courageous travellers, We have a saying in French that sunshine often comes after rain. Your Yin will come again. Your blogs have been so interesting. Will they translate into a book at the end of your journey abroad. Helen Keller once said that "Life is an exciting adventure , or nothing at all." You are so very truly LIVING your life. I believe your YIN will return quicker if you believe it will return. That is what I hold onto. Every morning I think about what good things I am grateful for. the YANG will pass. I had a biking accident on July 20, 2008 that had quite an impact. I had multiple fractures - spiral break - and now have titanium plates inthe tibia, fibula with sixteen vertical pins holding bones and ankle bones together in the right leg. I'm learning patience in the healing process and have discovered how thankful one should be just to have a body that does what it was born to do. Think of how lucky you are to be mobile in a foreign country. May you journey on safely. I look forward to your next blog. Yvonne Dufault