This Is How We Learn

Now I can cook like a real Chinese person.  They literally have a wall of cleavers at Wal-Mart - and I'll probably pick up one or two more.  The one in the picture above is small and was pretty cheap (Wal-Mart brand actually.  You won't see that in the States) and it came with a cutting board and a four sets of chop sticks.  I also bought a good-sized wok, so I'm pretty set as far as food preparation goes now. 

I got my electric stove thing working.  In order for it to heat up anything, you have to (I think) complete the electric circuit on the surface of the skillet.  So, that is fairly terrifying.  I expect sparks to fly whenever I touch anything I'm cooking.

I managed my first "meal" in China.  I say meal with quotation marks because it was just meat - I guess what passes for steak here.  I had bought vegetables and other things to go with it, but they were taken away at the check-out counter.  My pleas of: "Shenme?", "Wo yao naxie" and "Wo bu dong" were answered with Chinese that was way too fast for me to understand.  So being the kind of individual that I am, I just smiled and nodded like I understood her rapid-fire, foreign explanation.  Then, I left with just some meat, juice, kitchen stuffs and Skittles (oh yes, they have Skittles here).

I figured out the mix-up later on: It would seem that when you buy vegetables in China, you must then go to some kind of attendent and have them weigh the vegetables and put a price tag on them.  Its much simplier in the United States. 

So, my first experience cooking in China (beef and Skittles - not at the same time, of course) was also my first experience having to go out to eat soon after cooking for myself so I could get "real" food. 

But this is how we learn,

- Andrew