American in Shanghai

A week ago this morning my neighbors graciously allowed me to go to their farm in the field across from our complex.  I have watched the evolution of farms here for over a year. Before that, it was a field of about 30 acres which will inevitably be developed someday. And unfortunately I can see some changes already happening.  But as for now, less than a quarter of this land is now small gardens.  This land was all farms not too long ago and the people who live in my "community" as it's called were the farmers who were given properties here.  I had been curious about who the farmers were:  the little farms are just far enough away it's hard to make out the people very well.  Now I know that the farm closest to my view is my next door neighbors'! One day several weeks back I found out my next door neighbors were some of the people farming here, growing many kinds of vegetables like winter melon, bok choi, cabbage, garlic, cilantro, radishes, chillis and s...

Mountain tofu Twenty four hours on a mountain in Zhejiang, about 2 hours' drive outside of Hangzhou, my friend and I stayed in a cabin at an organic farm.  We watched tofu being made from soybeans grown there, soaked overnight.  Then, we drank the soymilk for breakfast and had some of the tofu during lunch. It was incredible to breathe some fresh mountain air and to experience the serenity & tranquility that only a mountain can provide. Thank you to the FC Club of Shanghai for organizing the excursion. The top bit inside the cheesecloth gets thrown out. Underneath it became the hot soymilk we had for breakfast. There is a wood fire beneath the tofu.  There is another kind of bumpy liquid in the wooden vat on the floor which is put into a box and cooked over the fire after the milk is removed.  This finally becomes the tofu.

Ok, it has taken me 39 years and 51 weeks to figure out that I can make yogurt at home and wow am I excited about that!  I read several recipes for it on the internet and was not too sure about using Paul's milk imported from Australia, the boxed irradiated variety with no preservatives, coupled with an oven that lets me set it at about 42 degrees C but is hard to maintain for 6 hours.  Wow wow wow - so happy that it actually worked!  If you like yogurt I would encourage you to try it at home. The taste is very nice & they say you can incubate it longer if you like it more tart.  A lot of what I do in the kitchen in Shanghai is an experiment of one kind or another and many things get thrown out instead of eaten, but this is not one of those mistakes!!!  It is actually quite similar to the fresh yogurt we tried in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province.  I am totally sold on this now, except that it takes a lot of hours to incubate properly. At least it...

The plot thickens. Some days ago the tour agent called me to say that because of the coming "celebration" our tour would have to end on July 25, when all non-Chinese are kicked out of the region.  A few days after that, another call, "I'm sorry.  We have to cancel your tour because no more travel permits are being issued."  After months of planning, sucking it up to go on an "official tour" and a sizeable deposit made...THAT'S CHINA.  Always a little ugly reminder rears up to let you know in no uncertain terms you are never in control.  (To be fair it is probably a much worse situation for all those tour operators trying to obtain permits for their foreign customers...how lovely it would be to be working there and suddenly, officially, most of your tours are cancelled due to human-forces out of your hands.) The plan now is to go to the Kham and Amdo regions of T!bet which do not require foreigners to carry permits and be "gui...

Last week I heard this gem from a student in fifth grade.  "Rock and roll guitar is dirty music. There are many scientific studies that have proven this."