Found In Translation: Week 3 (VIDEO)

on 2-16-2012 in Found In Translation

Two weeks into Mandarin study, Christine takes a cooking class and discusses some big changes going forward.

Total study time this week: 24 hours
Overall: 51 hours (average: 25.5 hours/week)
Written characters memorized: 33 (unchanged)
This week’s big test: translating recipes into Mandarin

If you are unable to see the video, click here.

Nothing Says “I Hate This Stupid Holiday But You’re Pretty Great” like Steamed Pork Buns

on 2-14-2012 in Travel Photography

Oh you shouldn't have!

Drew and I aren’t much of a Valentine’s Day couple. But this year, I saw something Drew would really, really want: for me to have the cooking skill to whip up his favorite dish in the world — steamed pork buns. It’s basically airy, light buns that are soft and moist, filled with pork or veggies or whatever you want. Peanut butter and chocolate? Okay, go for it. Salty, garlicky shredded beef? Why not. If you can scoop it, you can fill a baozi with it.

This is probably the first V-day gift I’ve given Drew, maybe ever. Today I took a cooking class at The Hutong and found out that with a little baking yeast and flour you can make the buns, and fill them with whatever else you have around the house. For most of the pictures below I’m making a batch of Mushroom Bok Choy Baozi (steamed buns).

The flour

For the dough:

  • 500 grams flour
  • 40 grams sugar
  • 280 ml water
  • 2 tablespoon corn starch
  • 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoon yeast
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

The yeast in very warm water.

Mix together your dry ingredients: the flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and set aside. Then take very warm, but not boiling water and mix it with the yeast and sugar and set aside for 15 minutes (they called this ‘feeding the yeast’).

The fillings

For the filling (mushroom bok choy):

  • 500 grams bok choy (or spinach if you prefer)
  • 100 gram dried shitake maushroom, minced
  • 5 minced spring onions
  • 2 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon cooking wine
  • 2 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Dried shitake mushrooms after soaking in warm water.

While you’re waiting for the yeast to activate, chop your mushrooms (having soaked them in warm water) and spring onions.

Bok choy must die.

Brutalize some bok choy.

The yeast gets all bubbly

By now, your yeast is ready, so add in your dry ingredients from the dough recipe.  Stir it until the flour is well coated and then pour in the oil.  Using your hands, form the mixture into a ball and work it until all of the ingredients are incorporated, but not too much as you’ll make the dough hard.

Dough

If it looks something like this, you’re good to go.  Now cover it with a moist towel and stick it in the oven at 150 F for 1 hour.

Sauteed mushrooms

While you’re waiting for the dough, heat up a wok over medium heat and add a tablespoon of oil.  Add the spring onions and cook until soft.  Then add the mushrooms.  Cook for a minute and then add the soy sauce and cooking wine.  Cook for another minute and then remove from heat.

I would just eat this

Now mix the sauteed mushroom with the bok choy you murdered above and add the rest of the filling ingredients: salt, sesame oil, sugar and white pepper.

The filling finished

Give it a stir.  Admire your handiwork.  Take a few photos.  Check to see what’s happening on Twitter.  Okay, now the dough is done.

Enough for two baozi

Take your ball of dough and break it into two halves.  Then slowly roll one half in your hand until it’s a long tube.  Then pull it into six pieces and roll those into balls (and then repeat with the other half of the dough).  Each ball is for one baozi.  If you want them really fluffy you can put them back into the oven and let them rise again.

Lovely

Or you can just jump to the next step: filling.

After the magic

Now, there’s some kind of magic that happens between the scooping of the filling and the formation of the bun.  The way they showed us was to fold over the edge onto itself, like you’re gathering the dough into a little purse.  Then you twist and push it down so the swirl is on top.

Like this, sort of

I never did it quite right, but they taste the same no matter what.  The technique was to make a small fold, twist the bun in your hand, fold, twist, fold twist, etc until you run out of dough.

The monster steamer

Then you steam them for 8 minutes.  12 if you fill it with meat.

The final product, yum!

They are so good straight out of the steamer.

This is a chicken one we also made in class

It’s like the freshest bread and a piping hot yummy bite of something, served together

We ate a lot of these

By the way, this is considered breakfast in China.  BREAKFAST!  My husband just cried a single tear, I think.

Happy Valentines Day, Honey!

Yes, I’m a dork, I made a heart-shaped one for Drew.  I think he even noticed as he scarfed it down.  Best gift ever!

(Update: No, I didn’t say Steampunk Pork Buns, but omg that’s an awesome (1) idea (2).)

The Little Things and The Big Things

on 2-13-2012 in Around The World

There was a moment last week where I was sitting on the couch with my tutor and the Ayi. I know just barely enough Mandarin that when I hear people speak it, I don’t just glaze over, my mind is trying to pick out recognizable words. It’s like reading license plates as cars speed past in the opposite direction on the highway. I catch a ‘hao’ or ‘da’ or ‘shenma’ and just like that, an entire sentence has flown by before I’ve pieced together what I’ve just heard. It’s like trying to catch fish with your bare hands. The harder you try, the more futile it becomes. Determination isn’t enough. It’s still too slippery.

During this moment, they weren’t talking to me, but to each other, and I was trying to follow along, but I felt overwhelmed and maybe it was because we were sitting so close to each other or because they were talking so loudly but I started to feel a little woozy. I wondered who I was to insert myself into these women’s lives, how surreal it was that they live in China and this foreigner, this American has somehow held them hostage in her home by paying them to sit and talk to her. I felt keenly aware that I hadn’t earned my way into this situation, I hadn’t learned the language enough to make their acquaintance and we weren’t friends, really, although they treated me as sweetly as anyone. Anyway, it was in this moment of surreal reflection that I two thoughts: first, ‘I’m completely in over my head’ and second, I felt this overwhelming sense of gratitude. The gratitude felt like a swell of emotion, like I could have cried or laughed or hugged them right there.

When I think about it, really get honest with myself, I’m not entirely sure why I feel compelled to push myself and do these kinds of things. It’s always so hard, and I always complain. Yet, I keep coming back. Maybe I’m chasing that feeling.

Now, Cole’s involved and I’m not sure how I feel about that either. While the nanny is playing with Cole and talking to him in Mandarin that I can’t understand, I have pang. I’m a little worried about him changing and not knowing him anymore. Or about giving him too strange of a childhood. On some level, I want him to be like me, to have grown up with only one language, so that I can understand how he thinks. If I have a bilingual child, when I grew up monolingual, how can I possibly understand his mind? That pang was a little bit of fear, the worry that I won’t be able to pull it off. What if he turns to me and says something that I don’t understand? I don’t ever want to see that look of dawning awareness on his face.

Of course, I suspect I’m a little bit jealous of the nanny, I want him to like her, but not too much, like a little wink between us, where he’s like, “okay, but she’s no mama!”

I’m feeling a lot of crazy things right now.

At times it feels like vertigo, and I catch myself observing from somewhere above my body, above the thick cloud of impenetrable language that fills my day. Yet, this week, my refrain has been simple, “I am so lucky, I am so lucky.” It was easy to think once that I deserved this life, maybe when I was three months outside of my job and traveling in Europe, still living off of savings that took me a year to amass and the selling of my house and most of my possessions. Then, I had earned it. I deserved it. Now? Now, I’m so lucky to be still traveling after all these years, making a living on my writing and photography, staying at home with my son and my husband. I work hard too, but so do a lot of people. Really my hard work is just being polite. It’s the least I can do to honor the luck that has come into my life.

Those are the big things. Now for the little ones. First, my Ayi has the mad hook up.

I’m not sure what she says, but when housecleaning comes, she doesn’t let them in, but she always comes back with handfuls of miniature shampoos and shower gels. Before she came, we never got free product! Now we’re awash in the stuff.

She also takes the time to line up all my toiletries in neat little rows, which I always forget how she does it, so I end up messing it up for her everyday. You know we actually clean before she comes? We’re like, “Get up! Get up! The Nanny is coming! We have to hide the evidence! She can’t know about last night’s noodle incident! And whatever else embarrassingly messy stuff we did! See isn’t having help great! Now hand me that disinfectant!”

We haven’t cleaned this much in years. Or gotten up this early. It’s the most normal we’ve lived in a long time. Well, normal in a parallel universe where everyone speaks like ole timey newspaper editors (there’s a lot of shh and arr in Mandarin like “Lishen herre, kid, ya see?” but you know, in Chinese) and blueberry is considered an acceptable pizza topping. Other than that? Totally normal.

“I Put Pants On for This?”

on 2-11-2012 in Where is Cole?

Weekly photo: Where is Cole?

Location: Hou Hai Lake, Beijing, China

I had this vision. I’d take Cole out into the wintry wonderland and show him how to make snow angels and throw snowballs. We’d go ice skating and drink hot chocolate (hot milk tea for me). His cheeks would get ruddy from the cold but he’d be happy and we’d laugh and laugh and…

Okay, so there is no snow in Beijing this year and my son is too little for the cold. Still, I thought pushing him around Hou Hai Lake might be a suitable middle ground. As you can see, Cole did not agree. Too bad you can’t ice skate in the tropics. On the upside, Drew did manage to take a quick video of these ice chairs, something I’ve only ever seen in China.

At home, this is what we do for fun instead.

Found In Translation: Week 2 (VIDEO)

on 2-09-2012 in Found In Translation

After my first week of Mandarin study, I give an update on how it’s going and Cole does his best Tigger impression as he leaps from couch to coffee table and back.

Total study time this week: 27 hours
Written characters memorized: 33
This week’s big verbal test: hiring a nanny in Mandarin

If you are unable to see the video, click here.