[okazu]

The Good and Bad of Chinese 冰淇淋

August 11th, 2008 by Naomi

This is the final entry from Kunming. How crazy is that? What better way to wrap up a summer than with a few paragraphs about ice cream?

I’ve eaten a lot of ice cream 冰淇淋 (”bīng qí lín”), in China, most of which I don’t have photos of. Depending on where you are and whether or not the sales person wants to take advantage of your “big American wallet”, ice cream bars range anywhere from 2元 (little shops here in Kunming) to 10元 (tourist spots like The Great Wall). I’ve personally never paid more than 5元, thanks to a combination of bartering and an “I actually don’t need ice cream, today” attitude. Most of the ones I’ve had have been 2-3元. Like with other luxury food, cost does not necessarily represent quality.

1. chocolate dipped vanilla with caramel swirls / 2. chocolate dipped vanilla with oatmeal / 3. chocolate with crisp rice over vanilla with a core of chocolate / 4. strawberry cheesecake-ish

Two of my least favourites are not pictured here; I really do wish I had gotten photos. The first was literally layer after layer of complete disappointment. What looked like coffee beans on the package turned out to be red beans. Now, I don’t mind red bean paste, or red bean flavoured things, but this was unflavoured ice cream (as far as I could tell) wrapped around a layer of whole red beans, wrapped around another differently coloured core of non-flavour. The second was yet another red bean flavoured ice cream, purple-ish in colour, wrapped in dark chocolate. Fine, in theory, but this was highly chemical tasting with a poor texture.

My most favourite is pictured above. Oatmeal ice cream is the most amazing idea ever. It was like eating a no-bake cookie ice cream sandwich. The chocolate was satisfying (hard to come by, in China), and the ice cream itself had a really nice texture and full flavour. I found this at a little stand next to our dining hall that was run by a very sweet older couple. It cost 2元.

A never-fail ice cream choice, if you aren’t up for adventuring into the realm of the bizarre, is the straight-up packaged ice cream cone/drumstick. They are more or less the same as they are back home, can be found just about anywhere, and generally cost 3-4元. My favourite of this variety is the strawberry and chocolate combination.

More »

Posted in China | No Comments »

Let’s Talk Olympics

August 10th, 2008 by Naomi

Everything and everyone in China is all about the Olympics, right now. I’ve never really cared about the sporting events themselves, and to be perfectly honest, I still don’t. I was, however, incredibly interested in watching the opening ceremonies. I spent those four hours sitting on my bed with a laptop and a bottle of red wine, watching things unfold live on Chinese television (commercial free!).

I don’t want to write a whole lot about this, because I don’t really desire to be yet another Olympics blogger (of which I am sure there are thousands, most of them complaining about the Chinese internet from their hotel wireless connections). However, here are a few relatively interesting facts:

Eight is a pretty darn important number in China. The opening ceremonies taking place on 08.08.2008@8:00p may seem sort of silly, but it was a big deal. The sound for eight 八 (”bā”) sounds like the sound of 发 (”fā”), the first character in the word 发财 (”fā cái”), which means to become wealthy. A lot of Chinese numbers have similar values placed upon them.

Some of the performances in the opening ceremonies depicted China’s four greatest contributions to the modern world (according to Chinese history and the British scholar Joseph Needham): gun powder, paper, the movable type printing press, and the compass.

The wikipedia article on this segment of the opening ceremonies mentions porcelain, but not the compass. Even as an Art History minor, I can’t say that I feel like porcelain production was as world-changing as the compass. I suppose it could be argued either way. More to the point, I don’t remember the performances all that well and I’m not up for any cross-referencing. I don’t remember porcelain at all, and the segment I thought could have been about navigation may have been about something else entirely. My Chinese isn’t good enough to have been able to tell. Regardless, the whole “artistic segment” was epic.

The participating nations (aside from Greece and China) entered the stadium according to number of strokes in the first character of the country’s simplified Chinese name. That may seem complicated, but it really makes perfect sense.

I think that other Olympics tidbits should be easy enough to find with some good searching skills, so I’ll leave you with some photos from Kunming. Okazu has to be good for something.

And that’s that.

(For those who are curious, I’m saving my write-up about the zoo for when I’m back in the United States.)

More »

Posted in China | No Comments »

Mostly Photos

August 4th, 2008 by Naomi

I haven’t written much because I’m trying to save some food writing for when I get home. If I don’t, we’ll be without updates for quite a while. I’d like to avoid that.

I leave for the states in a week. I am very excited, a little nervous, and quite a bit sad. It’s a mixture of emotion I’ve never experienced before. I’m going to miss Kunming, and I’m going to attempt to spend this last week taking in as much as possible. Tonight, Nathan, Ray and I ate dinner at Salvador’s, had a couple drinks at 半山 (Jack Daniels on the rocks for 15元 is expensive, but not any more so than it is at home), and then explored an unknown part of the city in the dark.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo. This is probably a bad idea; I will probably wind up in tears, but I feel like it’s something I need to do. I feel the need to actually witness China’s treatment of animals first hand, before I really make any sort of formal judgment. From what I’ve heard, the zoo is fairly atrocious; however, I’ve also read that it’s one of the “better” zoos in this country. By what standards, I am uncertain. There’s really only one good way to find out. And, by the time I wind up in China again, the Kunming zoo may be gone. I imagine this is probably for the best, but I suppose I shall see. If it is really as horrible as I am expecting it to be (I’m trying to have an open mind about this one, I really am, but there’s only so much I can do.), there is a rather nice temple nearby.

On a happier note, here are some photos that I haven’t shared here, yet (but have elsewhere).

1. graffiti from a park in Shanghai / 2. sign from Jiuxiang caves / 3. sign in our bathroom / 4. James being attacked by kindergartners in Kunming / 4. Ye 老师 and I at the goodbye dinner

The goodbye dinner was immensely sad, as I’m the only UVM student going back home, right now. John Yin toasted me and I got a lot of hugs. Like I said, I’m going to miss Kunming. And my departure is even more bittersweet, because I’m graduating in December.

I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow, so I’m off to bed, and without a book to read. I’ve finished reading In Dubious Battle for the third time in my life. It is absolutely imperative that I pick up another book for my upcoming near 24 hours of air travel.

Oh. And in other news, my stupid Tamagotchis have turned into the “Large Family” because I apparently gave them too much to eat. Talk about lame.

[okazu]

an Asian food blog

The Good and Bad of Chinese 冰淇淋

Let’s Talk Olympics

Mostly Photos