Yangshuo - Day 2 Part 1:Market Trip and Cooking School

Yesterday when I saw that there was a cooking school option I reverted to my 6 year old self and internally threw my hands in the air, shook my behind around, and gave a little shout. I. Love. To. Cook.  

It is one of the things I missed most about being in Taiwan. My access to cooking facilities was limited for the majority of the time and even when I had a kitchen to use I was pretty flabbergasted by all of the foreign ingredients and the best forms of preparation. 

Our cooking class would take us to the market with an English speaking local. She walked us through the massive area pointing out interesting foods. Answering our millions of questions. And generally being the most patient woman in the world. Nikki was her name. We spent about an hour at the market. She had already purchased everything we would need for class but it was really interesting and helpful to see all of the ingredients I had been eating for the last four months in their natural state. 

We were instructed that we could take photos but we couldn't have any people in them. This made me very sad. People are the most interesting part. Even still, the market was very colorful and I still found things to take photos of.

Some pretty purple eggplant.

I have never been a big fan of eggplant. Nor have I ever even attempted to prepare it. The purple gourd shaped vegetable terrified me. It's spongy and seemingly fibrous raw. I disliked its lack of flavor and it isn't something you see a lot in Wisconsin.  I have vague memories of finding an eggplant growing at the bottom of our yard just on the border of the farm field. Mom, could this be true? For being such an innocuous food, I had a completely  irrational distaste for it. I think perhaps its shape is part of the problem. I really, really dislike squash.  Of any kind. It is a texture thing. 

Well, good folks of the interwebs, I was wrong. 

Eggplant, how I love you! I apologize for ignoring your ability to be dense and flavorful my entire life. I am sorry I scoffed at your pretty purple color. How dare I compare you to those nasty squashes?  You are far better than that!! 

Keep reading to see what I made with my new friend, eggplant. :) 

We were introduced to some new vegetables as well. These are horse beans. We have them in Taiwan and a favorite snack of many Taiwanese is to roast these beans until they are crunchy and then sit around chewing the fat and crunching horse beans. 

This is how they look raw, they are about the size of a quarter. 

I like the pretty colors. 

We also saw this giant cucumber. It was probably 8-10 inches in diameter. There were quite a few of these. 

These are also kind of like a cucumber. The inside is the same color as the outside. We didn't use them for the cooking class but I prepared them later with the Yangs in Haining. (Stay tuned for that cooking adventure!!) 

I'm addition to vegetables and fruits this market had another whole section for eats, of all kinds. Live, cooked, raw, etc. 

Perhaps if you are squimish, a member of PETA, or just generally a pet lover, you should skip this paragraph. We saw some things that might make you uncomfortable. I considered not including this but it is very much part of the culture here and since this blog is mostly about all of the things I see and my experiences, I decided I would be missing a big chunk if I didn't talk about it. In the meat section of the market there were many caged animals.  Your range of fowl and poultry, rabbits, fish, some lizard type things, and cats and dogs. Our guide needed to pick up another member of our group so we had about 15 minutes to explore on our own. Before she left, she told us that we might not want to go in a certain section and pointed it out, but being the stubborn woman I am, the moment she said I didn't want to, I wanted to. Nancy and I worked our way across the market and eventually came across the section of interest. There were old, hardened women reaching into cages of chickens and choosing the unlucky one, raising a cleaver and adding a whole new meaning to a phrase I use all the time - running around like a chicken with its head cut off. None of this really bothered me, the cute fluffy bunnies seemed out of place but I'm not a fan of rabbit stew and meat has to come from somewhere. Without going into too much detail, the dogs and cats were harder to swallow. The sad eyes peering back at me from cages put a pit in my stomach. The cooked selections hanging whole from hooks in the ceiling made me cringe a little. The big vats of boiling water made me wonder if there wasn't a better process. Hearing the whimpers from across the hall almost made me run away but I think this is one of those "facts of life" I stayed the course and it was informative and an experience I'm sure not to forget... Ever. After all, that was one of my goals for this trip. 

Okay squimish folks, you can join us again. We saw all kinds of prepared meats. The Chinese love to eat chicken feet. The first time I saw a Chinese teenaged girl dig into a chicken foot like she was digging into chocolate cake i was chanting "Bruce, Bruce, Bruce" in my mind and was probably staring with my mouth open. They are more tasty than most Americans would think. 

I purchased some spices at the market that I don't think I can easily get n the States. I'm really hoping to recreate some of the foods I have had here back home. 

After the market, we took a 15 minute mini bus ride to the kitchens. Probably one of the most beautiful settings for a kitchen I could imagine; I was so excited. We took a short break and sat outside eating Huang Pi. Say what? These little yellow skinned fruits (huang pi directly translates to "yellow skin," funny how that works) are the best! 

It took me 24 hours to track down the name for you though because the little buggers are elusive. Apparently they are grown all over, even in Florida, but search all you might and the information available is incredibly limited. I actually had to email the owner of the cooking school to find the name. 

About the size and shaped of red grapes, they have kind a fuzzy skin that you can eat if you are a fan of bitter things. If not, just peel back the skin and pop the insides in your mouth but you might want to watch out for a couple of seeds. Another option is to pierce the skin with a finger nail and just suck the insides out, it is a nice way to avoid the seeds and the awkward business of pulling seeds out of your mouth and then what do you do with them?  The texture is similar to lychee if you've ever had it, slightly denser than a grape. The best part? They are like mini balls of the best lemonade ever!! So refreshing! Apparently the Chinese use them for a variety of medicinal purposes which is awesome. They make the best tasting medicine I've ever had! 

After indulging in far too many huang pi and washing the correlating stickiness from my hands, it was time to cook!  

This was our kitchen. The entire left wall was big doors with glass panes. The view was spectacular. The woman with the cleaver was Nikki, our teacher for the day. She was great.

There were five students: myself, Nancy, two Irish girls (Edel and Carmel), and Courtney from Portland. 

We each had an apron and a station with everything we would need.

Yes, they gave me a cleaver. They clearly don't know me. :-p. I am proud to say that I wielded that thing like a professional and left with all digits attached. 

The first dish we prepared was a variety plate of pork stuffed items. Nikki showed us how to do everything and then we had time to do it on our own. Here was her example:

We stuffed the pork mixture into a shiitake mushroom, a tofu ball, and a pumpkin flower. Here is my plate: 

The mushroom is pretty straight forward. As is the tofu ball (hint: it is a ball of fried tofu and that is hollow inside).  Let me explain the pumpkin flower. You can see it a couple photos up in my station. It is a light orange flower with a deep throat. We stuffed the pork mixture in the throat of the flower. Then we folded the petals over and broke the stem off. We shoved the stem through the folded over petals to hold it all in place. 

Once everyone had completed our tasks we stacked the steamers on top of each other and Nikki placed them on an upside down bowl in a wok with water. This is a way of steaming the food. She explained that because of the convection process of steam the food on the top layer would cook at the same rate as that on the bottom layer. 

The final product was delicious! 

Next we prepared all of the vegetables for the other four dishes. Lots of chopping, smashing, and julienne-ing (is that a word?) 

Smashing? Yup. We used the flat side of our cleavers to smash garlic cloves and fresh ginger. Nikki said that it was important to yell "yah!"as you smashed so we all had a good laugh doing that. 

Once all of our preparations were done we made our first dish: stir fried eggplant with blackbean chili paste. Cooking was a pretty involved process, especially since most Chinese cooking is done in a very hot wok and goes very quickly. I apparently was so distracted by the amazing smell of the finished product that I wasn't able to focus the camera properly, but you get the gist of it. It may look like an unappetizing pile of mush but it was oh so good.

My only regret with eating it all? There were still four more dishes to come!! 

Next up was a local specialty called beer fish. We each got a catfish filet and a mug of beer. 

We seared the fish so it had a crispy skin, then added vegetables and seasoning. Eventually we added the beer which foamed up and immediately filled the air with a sweet smell.

We let the mixture cook until the beer reduced to a sticky sweet mess. 

We were instructed to let the fish rest while we cooked the rest of our meal. Maybe this is some form of torture? 

The final product delighted all senses. The aroma was sweet with a hint of spice. The added chili peppers gave the crisp vegetables just enough of a bite. The skin on the fish was crispy while the meat itself was fall apart tender without being overcooked. The whole dish was brought together with the perfect amount of oyster sauce and salt. The peppers retained their originally crispness but a absorbed the combined favors of the fish and seasonings, especially the garlic and ginger because of the rest period. I can't believe I'm saying this, but as good as this was, there is better to come!! 

Next was stir fried chicken with cashews, carrots, and garlic sprouts. 

This was my absolute favorite!! It was fun to make, beautiful to look at, and exceptional to eat! 

The carrots were slightly caramelized. The garlic sprouts offered the perfect crunch and hint of garlic flavoring. The chicken was tender and juicy. The cashews brought the flavor of the carrots out and gave a great textural juxtaposition to the chicken. I could eat this dish every day for the rest of my life. (Maybe) 

Our final dish was a version of something that is at every Chinese meal - stir fried vegetables. In this case, we had locally grown greens (you could use bok choy, romaine, or spinach, or basically anything that is green and leafy). This dish is very simple. Hot wok. Oil. Fresh greens. Minced garlic. Sliced red chili.  Some salt. A little water. Stir fry. Ta da! 

Those were our five dishes. Together we sat around and ate the remaining four in view of some of the most amazing mountains. We drank locally grown tea, glanced at the garden where much of our produced was grown. Sat under the shade of the Huang Pi tree. 

Take me back. 

 

 

 

See that?  That is the cheesy smile I get when I'm having one of those life defining happy moments. 

I will come back to this place. 

I will take the week long course they offer. 

Maybe I will come back with Zac.  He can rock climb while I cook. I can't think of many things I would love more. 

Check back for Yangshuo - Day 2 Part 2: Kayaking.

Yangshuo - Day 1 Fishing, Bird Style

Today we took an hour bus ride from Guilin to Yangshuo. Still very much in the same region, Yangshuo is incredibly beautiful, known for its Kerst Mountains, rock climbing, and tourism sectors, Yangshuo was a natural stop for us. If only we had gone earlier.
The morning was spent waiting for the bus, the afternoon spent on the bus, and the late afternoon resting. By evening time we were ready to head out again and so we allowed ourselves to be talked into a Cormorant fishing show by the hostel folks. We didn't really know what we were in for.

A short minibus ride into town and we were sitting on a bamboo raft with 6 other foreigners. We met a Vietnamese-American woman from Kentucky who has been teaching English in China for the last 5 years. We had a good chuckle though since her English was quite poor by our standards. As darkness fell our boatman fired up the engine and we headed down river. After a couple of minutes he began to shout into the darkness and a man on a non-motorized bamboo raft floated over. On his raft he had about a half dozen ducks.

Each of the ducks had a string tied around the bottom of its throat to let only the smallest of fish through. The ducks had been trained to keep fishing though, filling their necks with fish that would then be emptied into a basket by the fisherman. We floated down river like this for quite a while, watching the fisherman pull the ducks in with his ore, and the ducks diving back under for more fish.

It was very dark except for a big light on the front of the fisherman's boat. It was hard to get clear pictures but I did my best.

Eventually we beached and the fisherman brought one duck on shore and let us take photos.

I really wasn't keen on wearing his hat but he put it on me anyway.
The duck's claw did dig into Nancy's arm a bit and drew a little bit of blood.
I think this is my favorite photo from the night. I like the shadows and the duck in profile.

Finally, we steamed back up stream and called it a night. We had a cooking class to go to the next day.
I do apologize for the delayed posting. We go, go, go every day and by the time I get home at night I'm so beat I can barely think let alone blog. I hope to catch up in the next couple of days as we have some more travel time.
Thanks for reading!!!

Guilin Day 2 - Rice Terraces and More

Prepare yourselves for photo overload.
Saturday we went to the rice terraces and it was easily in the top three most beautiful places I've been!
Before that, however, a quick note on safety and security. I am following very closely the global issues affecting traveling right now, especially for Americans. The US State Department has issued a Global Travel Warning which I have read through thoroughly.  The fact of the matter is that I am probably safer here in rural China than you all are back home. It seems that al Qaeda is targeting large groups of westerners and to put it simply, that doesn't exist here. We may be the only Americans for a couple kilometers in any direction for all we know. Being in a relationship with a US Marine means, by nature, I have to be a news junkie because diplomatic matters as we are experiencing now affect him more than most people and by proxy myself as well.  I am very up-to-date on current issues and receive regular updates from the State Department for the region of the world I am in. If you ever plan on traveling internationally I recommend that you enroll in STEP (Smart Traveler Enrollment Program). You give information about where you will be and when and if something comes up you will receive an email from the State Dpt. I've received them for typhoon warnings and the global travel warning. It is a handy way to stay informed with very little effort. Should tensions begin to rise in China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong, I have a number of options available to me.
With that business out of the way, back to the rice terraces.

 How's that for a view?
We hiked from the small mountain town of Dacia to Ping'an. It took us about 4.5 hours to hike close to 7 km. It was a marvelous hike, the only problem was that the scenery was so pretty all you wanted to do was look out and not look down at the uneven path.
We were hiking with a couple from Prague, Ivana and Pavel that had signed up for transportation through our hostel as well. The drive from Guilin took 3 hours and as we started to climb the mountain roads it began to drizzle slightly. In my last post I mentioned accidents. We saw 7 in total. This one was the worst.

Thankfully our driver slowed way down and was very cautious until the roads improved. When we arrived at Dacia, we worked out a plan with our driver to pick us up in 4 hours in Ping'an. He gave us his second cell phone so we could call him if we needed to and we were ready. The traditional woman of the area never cut their hair, when it is down it can fall to their ankles but usually they have it wrapped around their head ending in a bun at the front to the right. They wear comfortable but traditional looking clothes, have hats, and carry large wicker baskets on their backs. We had several women who really tried hard to be our guide to Ping'an but as we got out of the village they fell away because we refused to pay them. Armed with a very small map in Chinese, a minimal knowledge of where we were and even less knowledge of where we were going, we set off.
The views started off amazing and got better as we went. I have more than an appropriate amount of pictures of the rice terraces. I think I stopped to look then sighed, "wow..." a dozen or two times. Thankfully it was an overcast day and there was a slight breeze. The elevation changed regularly and we were sweating even without direct sunlight.

The terraces themselves are astonishingly pretty. The farmers use every nook and cranny they can. Unfortunately the rice wasn't turning yet, in a few weeks it will turn yellow and the mountains become a kaleidoscope of colors.

We encountered a few people along the way. One of them I have named the Bamboo Man. He was taking a little rest in one of the gazebos that were built periodically along the path. He had to be in his 70s or 80s, had very few teeth, and had clearly just harvested bamboo. I came upon him first of our party and I gestured to see if I could take a photo. He said yes, and then after staring stoically out at his fields he started laughing. A open-mouthed laugh like a child stuck in an old man's body. As each of the rest of our party came around the corner we each took a photo or two of him and the laugh repeated.

As we continued our journey I glanced back and saw him standing in his gazebo, looking out at the mountains, over the land that he and his ancestors have lived on, cultivated, and respected for centuries. It was a moment of realization of what kind of history these mountains have seen. It was a window into a time when harvesting bamboo and carrying it down the mountain was a full days work and a white woman would never have been seen on her own in the mountains of Guangxi, let alone one with blond hair.

Another reminder of this came as we hiked further and crossed paths with this mountain woman bringing down a basket of greens. She was old. And hunched. And weather worn. She walked with a short stick but she carried that basket with a back stronger than my own.

.

Life in the mountains comes with inherent beauty but also hardship. Transporting building supplies seemed to be a big chore. We saw a couple of donkeys, one carrying bags of feed and the other bricks.

Much of the journey was just between us and nature. I could fill thirty blog posts with the photos I took but here is a selection of the views and wildlife we saw along the way.

At one point we had pair of pups who acted as our guides for a while. They trotted along with us for about 20 minutes. Occasionally cutting off to hunt in the bushes or to nip at each other.

The path was far from clearly marked. Often we just guessed which way to go and whenever we came across someone we would attempt to ask which was the way to Ping'an. With only minor back tracking we made it in the perfect amount of time. I asked this girl which way to go and then asked if I could take her photo.

I haven't any idea why she is wearing a jacket but I love her expression and pose.
We also saw these little fluffy ducklings. It seemed that the villagers would put out feed for them. I'm not sure if they were clipped so they couldn't fly away and would eventually become dinner but they sure were cute!!

We arrived in Ping'an in good spirits and climbed down a seemingly endless number of rocky steps and found our driver. As we were leaving the narrow parking area we encountered a dispute over a parking spot. All traffic in both directions was stopped and a crowd was growing as two people fought over the spot. Our driver, a man maybe in his thirties, threw the van in park and set out to get us home on time. I've heard that in particularly rural parts of china when such disputes happen and a crowd grows, onlookers can declare themselves a defacto jury and make the decision. I'm not sure if that happened here but it appeared that our driver summed things up pretty quickly and got everyone moving again with some loudly spoken words and we were on our way home again.
That night was a very easy, low key, air conditioning type evening. We planned on leaving for Yangshuo the next day.