Chinese Cooking - Day 1

Fried Pork and Green Beans

Half inch cut Green Beans
Square cuts of pork
香叶 1 Bay leaf
大料 2-3 Star Anise

1. Heat oil in wok (gas stove)
2. Add spices and wait for 30 seconds
3. Turn up the heat and add the meat while stirring
4. Quickly cover meat with Corn Starch and stir again
5. Pour desired amount of soy sauce
6. Continue stirring untill meat is cooked
7. Add green beans and stir for 1 minute
8. Pour enough water in so that beans just start to float, bring to a boil
9. Let boil for 10 minutes until water gets thick.

We had some steamed 水果玉米 and cucumbers with it. Breakfast anyone?

How to breach the great firewall

Now that I've got a VPN service I'm back, instead of transferring my blog to a different site I decided this would cause less of a struggle in the long run until I can find a permanent place that wont be blocked at random by the great firewall.

If you want unfiltered access to the internet from China there are several options, the cheapest one being proxy, this is best accomplished by using TOR but if you haven't downloaded it before making your landing and cant access the site, you can download the windows bundle from here and the Mac bundle from here. If you're not in China yet I suggest downloading directly from the site.

If you will be in China for a year or more I suggest using a VPN (virtual private network) this will allow you to connect to a computer outside the firewall and browse the net using their connection. WiTopia seems to be a favorite for users in China and it also holds one of the cheapest prices. Your even able to set up your iPhone for unfiltered use if you go with the basic PPTP package or the expensive multi package. Its much faster than TOR and you are able to access everything, even You Tube videos and Hulu at a descent speed.

What if you're not sure you will need it, maybe the websites you use aren't blocked but you're not in China at the moment, how do you find out? Go to http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/ and check.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Greg for pointing out that the test site is no longer being worked on I will accept any small lists of websites that people want checked. Leave the list in a comment that way others can see whats already been asked.

UPDATE 2:

TOR is blocked just about everywhere in China now. I recently switched to a proxy service called Freedur thanks to Chengduliving.

How to make flour noodles

I had the privilege of meeting Yakuns parents this spring festival in the countryside, we had a great time making traditional foods like jiao zi and mian tiao together. I've been able to make jiao zi a few other times, once at my school so I was able to keep up with the family but I'll show you that another time. Here we are going to learn how to make my favorite soup noodle dish, mian tiao with the help of mom and her massive rolling pin.

Step 1. Add water and flour together, kneading it until its the size of a softball. *Don't add any salt, sugar or egg. Were not trying to grow tumor's or create other unnecessary side effects here.

Step 2. Find a large rolling pin, if there are none of the size depicted in the following video go ahead and break one off from the dining room table. All set? Lets get started!

Step 3. Once you have a large flat piece of dough fold it like origami.

Step 4. Cut with fingers curled inwards.

Step 5. Boil for about the same time it takes to make the spaghetti noodles your used to, its done when it turns from white to yellowish white.

Step 6. Watch the video to see how its done by a pro.

you can add some tomato, cilantro or any other spices and herbs you like, Yakun suggests using these noodles for your spaghetti as well.

元宵节 | Lantern Festival

Today is 元宵节 (Yuánxiāojié) Lantern Festival, and were getting ready by making our very own 孔明灯 (kǒng míng dēng) Sky Lantern. The story goes the leader during the three kingdom period was surrounded by his enemy's and by sending out these floating lanterns he was able to call for help, his name "Kong Ming".

Back then the lanterns were made from strips of bamboo and oiled rice paper with a single candle burning in the middle but because of the lack of lush rain forest in our area we went with drinking straws from our local Dico's and birthday candles from a nearby bakery. After being stared at like some sort of zoo animal at Dico's for taking 6-7 straw's we came back home and dug up the lightest looking trash bag for our lantern, at this point you may be wondering "Carl, why don’t you just buy one its so much easier". Your right! But that takes all the fun out of it and what would you be doing now? Not learning how to make the cheapest flying lantern in Tianjin that’s what, so back to the topic at hand.

First you need to make the bag smaller at the bottom, this way most of the heat is at the top of the bag so it raises straight up once filled with hot air. We used some small plastic tape bought at 乐购 (lè gòu) TESCO.

Using the tape Yakun held the straws in an X shape while I taped them together, then with a sewing needle I poked 4 holes in the straw, placed the candles in their holders and poked them into the straws.

Once that was done we simply taped each end of the straw's to the bag, taking a blow-dryer we filled it with hot air and not soon after it started to take flight! The real test will be when we head to the waterfront and let her fly over the bay.