This started with an afternoon adventure to Metro, a German chain paradise of imported goodies that we had heard about but not yet seen. I was willed a Metro card with a blurry picture of a white female with brown hair by a previous Whitman in China teacher, so we could have used that to get in, but Ali managed to get me a letter in Chinese from the university that said something to the effect of, "Shelby is a teacher at our university; give her a damn Metro card!" It worked, well enough to get Metro cards for Jens and Sarah too. Metro is huge and apparently sells everything -- mostly things we could get at Ren Ren Le without the long bus ride across town, but we were on a mission for various Christmas recipe spices and baking ingredients, and a side-mission for cheese and gin.
We couldn't find all the spices we were looking for. There is seemingly no nutmeg in China, and we found outrageously expensive vanilla beans but no vanilla extract. No baking soda either, though perhaps that is around and we just don't know where to look. This means no eggnog and a carefully selected fudge recipe.
The cheese, however was plentiful. I almost bought a 5 kg brick of cheddar which was misleadingly labeled as costing 77 kuai (less than $10), when in fact that was the price per kilogram. Of course it had to be -- no way could imported cheese really be that cheap -- but I had even asked somebody who worked there and she made it sound like that was the price for the whole thing, so I carried it around the store for awhile until finding out it was really too expensive and abandoning it. I did get a little package of Australian white cheddar though, which claims to be "sharp and bitey." Can't wait to try it.
Anyways. Gingerbread men. Sarah had a recipe from her mother, which called for very British things like treacle (which we've decided is probably the same as molasses) and golden syrup (which is made from sugar cane juice). When Sarah first described golden syrup it sounded a lot like simple syrup, so we tried to make some of that as a substitute, but ended up with a sugary disaster when Sarah didn't heed my warnings that we should keep the heat low and it probably would never get as thick as golden syrup. Ooops. Take two, I just skipped making syrup and went to the next part of the recipe, where the syrup was to be combined with the non-existent treacle, brown sugar, and butter. This seemed successful, but the measurements were off somewhere, because when we mixed it with the flour and ginger it was way too dry to possibly resemble a dough. So we added more, ended up with a sticky mess, added a ton more flour as I eventually worked my gingerbread-covered hands into something that seemed the right consistency. So we thought we were doing well, and proceeded to roll out the dough and cut out people and Christmas trees, as well as other great shapes such as a Christmas rhino, Christmas anvil, and Christmas giraffe.
Of course, then we had to bake the things in Sarah's oven, which is basically a glorified toaster oven. The first batch ended up extraordinarily hard and crunchy, but we took the second batch out sooner and they were mildly better. Sarah tried to decorate one with the "frosting" we had picked up at Ren Ren Le. After using it and inspecting the packaging in greater detail, we discovered that it was actually strawberry-flavored sweetened condensed milk that came in a tube. Oooops. We didn't make it through all of the dough last night, as it was going on 2 am, but I suppose we made a lot of mistakes and discoveries that Sarah can benefit from when she tries to make another batch for her Christmas party next weekend.
I'll be making fudge. I have all the ingredients, but don't trust myself to make fudge this far in advance and still have it around for the party. Steve is in Colorado and ate dinner with my mom the other night, who brought him lots of cookies and fudge, which reminded me how good fudge is and how I will have to make it myself if I want to eat it anytime soon.
I apologize for the detailed technicality of the above kitchen rambling. I miss cooking! I really do. The one major downside to living in a hotel is that my kitchen is pretty insufficient, meaning that I have no stovetop and no oven. I've been getting pretty creative with my rice-cooker -- who knew that you could hard-steam an egg, or steam frozen lamb meat? -- but there are a lot of things that I just can't make. Of course, there is little need to cook, considering how plentiful, inexpensive, quick, and delicious all of the restaurants around here are, but every time I think of something I want to make I am again thwarted by my kitchen. (Also by lack of ingredients. I made an amazing raspberry-lime pie last year; there are no raspberries OR limes [probably my two favorite fruits] in China.)
In other news, the Christmas season is in full swing here. I absolutely wasn't expecting that, but Ren Ren Le has been filled with Christmas decorations and music since the end of November, and lots of other stores and restaurants have been slowly following suit. There are Christmas trees with lights and ornaments. There are big cardboard Santa faces on every hotel door. There is Christmas music sung in Chinese. It will be interesting to see how Christmas is actually celebrated -- I've heard rumblings about a Christmas Eve downtown that is part Mardi Gras, part New Year's Eve, part 4th of July parade, and very little like any Christmas Eve I have ever experienced (which have mostly consisted of Christmas books, candlelight church services, and the traditional family Christmas Eve chili and Pepsi). It should be an interesting evening.
Here is my own little Christmas tree, courtesy of Aunt Marita and Amazon.com:
Apparently my mom saw the same thing at Barnes & Noble, thought it would be perfect for me, forgot that Aunt Marita had sent me one, and shipped it in my Christmas box, which will hopefully arrive soon. Oooops! Free Christmas tree for Kitty!
More to come soon, with lots of photos. At least I've realized that the fact that I'm way behind on blogging should NOT keep me from blogging until I've caught up.
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