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Published: July 16th 2010
Chef
Chef Chang Welcomes UsWednesday July 14, 2010
I awoke Wednesday morning with excitement and some anxiety. Today was the day that I had been planning since I found out that I would be traveling to Beijing. Two of my favorite things to experience during travel are to learn about different cultures and to learn the art of cooking. I have always felt that traveling to far away places should include partaking in some things that are not on the typical tourist list of "The Top Ten Things to Do". Especially since I have an aversion to large crowds anything that is not a tourist trap is always exciting to me.
I had booked a private culinary tour simply through the internet with no formal recommendation so I was a bit apprehensive that I had chose the correct tour company. After all I would be heading out alone for the day with a complete stranger into the countryside of China with no means of communicating with Rich if events started heading in the wrong direction. But nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.
I was to meet my tour guide and driver in the hotel lobby at 10:00am to begin my day.
Preparing
Raw Ingredients......yeah NO BONES! I arrived in the lobby about 9:50am and was pleasantly surprised to see a nice young lady and gentleman already waiting for me. It is interesting being one of the very few westerners in the hotel, there is no need for introductions. Jenny quickly stood up and introduced herself and the driver. I immediately felt relieved, Jenny was 27 years old had studied law at the local university and would be my personal tour guide for the day. We headed outside to the small van and were on our way. It was still overcast today and it looked as though we maybe dodging rain drops again. I am beginning to wonder if the sun ever shines in Beijing. As we headed towards our destination it was obvious we would be spending a lot of time in traffic, although the traffic was at times unbearable for the driver it was a great time for me to learn more about Jenny, the Chinese Culture and the events that were to follow.
As I stated Jenny was a university student but had graduated some time ago with a bachelors degree in pre-law. She explained to me that she had studied pre law
Chopping
Mine don't look as pretty.... because her mother wanted her to be a lawyer. She explained in Chinese culture parents choose most everything for their children including their career path. After graduating Jenny quickly realized that she had no interest in furthering her studies in Law. So as not to disappoint her mother she told her parents a little lie for about a year. She told her mother she was working in the court, but in reality she had taken the tour guide exam and was providing tours to foreigners from all over the world. She was laughing as she told me that after about six months of this lie she began to tell her mother her job at the court house was not going well, easing her mother into accepting that she was not going into law. Finally after a year she told her mother of her career path, she said her mother accepted it but still wants her to be a lawyer.
Jenny also told me that she had a boyfriend who was a Programmer for Microsoft. Her parents are very happy with this choice as long as she would be married to him soon. She said in China if you are
Cooking
Chef Chang told Jenny he thought the utensils were too big for me! not married by 30 you are thought to have a physical or mental handicap, I assure you Jenny has neither of these. She said that her and her boyfriend would be getting married soon. She also described a typical Chinese Wedding to me, she said all First Weddings must be complete by noon on the day of the Wedding. After twelve is reserved for subsequent marriages, it was very interesting to me that they actually have a cultural rule for this. She also explained that many young girls now are having Western style weddings although she thinks this is because they want the fancy white dress and the church. She said that to get married in a church you have to pay a lot of money and she doesn't think they are real priests, because she said what priest would take money to marry you. Typically their Weddings are more about cultural traditions. She explained that on the morning of the marriage a groom goes to the brides home and presents money to her attendants for her hand in marriage. She said it is mostly to tease and embarrass the groom all in good fun. The entire Wedding is held
Food
Completion.......... at a restaurant that is paid for by the groom's family. Once a girl marries into a family she is part of that family. Her husbands family will purchase their apartment and therefore will live with them once they have children. Seems like a sure way to not have children to me! The brides family purchases the furniture. She said in her case her parents would also help to purchase the apartment because she did not want them left alone. Her husband and herself will be responsible for taking care of four elderly parents and then her children will do the same. She told me this was not only the custom in China but that if you do not take care of your parents the government can sue you for elder neglect.
By this time we had arrived at the cooking school which seemed to be in a very remote area of China about one and half hour outside of Beijing with all the traffic. The school was very large with lots of Chefs walking around and lots of students. We were met by our Chef and brought into his kitchen. His name was Chef Chang he did not
Temple
Emperor of Furniture speak any English so Jenny needed to interpret for me, she is very good at doing this. He explained that we would be making three dishes. Kung Pao Chicken, Stir fried Cabbage, and a Stir fried eggplant with peppers. He fist presented me with my chef hat and jacket. He laughed and told Jenny that it was going to be very large for me. I told Jenny better too large then too small. So I was now all set to begin. He showed me some simple cutting techniques and instructed me on the importance of making the cuts pretty as well as uniform in size to allow for similar cooking times. After he chopped I had the chance to chop, I don't think I was able to cut my eggplant slices as decorative as him but it did pass inspection. He then proceeded to first cook the peanuts for the Kung Pao Chicken in a wok with lots of oil, this took a fairly long time. He explained that in a restaurant or at home you could do this ahead of time. After the peanuts he continued on cooking as I watched, he then told me that after he was
Close Up
Hand Carving on a Wooden Screen done I would cook everything myself. Yikes, I would have paid more attention. I got through it all and he said I was a good student, we enjoyed our culinary work for lunch. It was absolutely wonderful I hope to be able to prepare these dishes again when I get home.
We then left the cooking school and Jenny told me we would be meeting up with another tour guide to show me the country side and also to visit a street of shops where Chinese furniture, screens, and sculptures are made true to the old hand made techniques. Again we sat in traffic. Jenny said that Beijing is said to be the largest parking lot in the world. I cannot begin to describe to you not only how crowded the streets are , but how each car goes in it's own direction paying no attention to signs, pedestrians, or bicyclist. We finally arrived and met our second tour guide that would be joining our group. We proceeded to a small park that looked as though it could have used some tidying up but the history of the area was very interesting. We then were back in the car
Carving
Young Girl Carving a Lion / Dragon by hand. For a local new hotel for the short drive to the Furniture Street. This was truly amazing, shop after shop of handicraftsmen making custom furniture, screens etc. The smell of fresh wood was everywhere. Small children playing outside their parents shops with small pieces of wood. We visited a Temple on the street that pays homage to the Father of Furniture, the locals visit and pray here for the success of their stores and leave gifts of food and money at his feet. After this visit we proceeded again in the car to visit an area that was built for the Olympics. You quickly can see the new architecture made to resemble old that housed some interesting shops. The streets were better paved and more ornate with flowers, flags and the like. It was interesting to walk this area thinking how crowded it must have been during the Beijing Olympics.
By this time it was about 4:30pm. I had been told that at the end of the day we would be going to a private home to help make the evening dumplings and to actually have dinner with the family. Again, I was excited but anxious that I would do or say the wrong
Children
Outside their parents furniture shop thing to these gracious hosts. The drive to their home was unbelievable, I only wish my camera had not died by this point so that I could have taken some pictures. It was explained to me that some roads in this area are shut down at 5:00pm so people are trying to get where they need to be before this happens. Due to this, cars are everywhere heading in every direction possible, we came across a truck and a car totally disbanded, no one in sight to drive it. They were blocking the road, so people just proceeded to beep their horns, venture around them and get within inches of each other. Shouting out their windows at each other, while bikes are weaving in and out of this mess. Our driver somehow kept his cool and we made it out of this area in tact.
We now began going down small streets with children playing, people playing cards, checkers, sitting and talking. We arrived in the area of thehome of our dinner hosts and walked down an open sidewalk lined with doorways and people sitting, chatting and enjoying tea. Our hosts waved and welcomed us buy saying Hello, Hello!
Olympic Area
Wide open pedestrian streets They were so cordial and invited us into their home, I was told that only ten homes were open to the public during the Olympics and this was one of them. As we walked into the first room it contained a large motor scooter a sink and lots of clothes hanging to dry. The next room was the kitchen which only had sky lights as windows and then into the living room quarters which was furnished with Asian style sofas, chairs and a TV. The two bedrooms seemed to be off this area. The family had put fruit out for us to enjoy along with some tea. I had a glass of tea and Jenny helped translate for me. They were very proud of their home and showed me many pictures of other visitors during the Olympics and since. They had a plaque that established them as one of the ten homes open during the Olympics.
It was getting time to make the dumplings so we were instructed to wash our hands to prepare the dumplings. Our hostess had prepared most of them before we arrived, but had left a dozen or so for me to do. She showed me how to do this and I did my best, although mine did not look any where near as professional as hers. Thankfully Jenny made a fair share of them. Before i knew it we were sitting at a small table with about seven people and the food started to come out. I had no idea what most of the food was but I did my best to taste everything so as not to insult these wonderful people.
It was now 6:15pm I was very tired and I knew if I did not arrive back to the hotel soon, Rich might call the US Embassy. I arrived back at the hotel at 7pm totally exhausted. Thankfully Rich arrived soon after me and said we did not have any plans for the evening. Since I had managed to eat more in one day than I had the whole trip I got ready for bed and crashed.
Tomorrow I head to the Summer Palace .............stay tuned
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Irene
non-member comment
I'll have the stir fried eggplant please! Sounds tasty! Jenny seems like a gem - glad you hooked up with her. Hope you're recovering from your massage. We're headed to your old stomping grounds - Milwaukee - for the weekend. Keep in touch - I love reading your blogs!