Small Chinese New Year 2015

Fireworks outside our bedroom window last night.

Last night was the Small Chinese New Year celebration. You might find this surprising but when it comes to Chinese holidays, particularly anything to do with Chinese New Year (CNY), I really don't mind my in-laws being around. They come here, which beats going to their house any day, because we've got Raelynn and Seoul. It's much easier to endure the holiday in the comfort of our home as opposed to the filth of theirs.

So how was this little pre-celebration of what is soon to be the year of the sheep - or goat, depending on who you ask...there seems to be a bit of debate about which creature it is and all the merchandise for this year's holiday reflects this confusion by selling calendars with goats on them and then sheep stuffed animals and all sorts of lanterns and decor with both animals on them...meh, enough about that! Let's talk festivities, shall we?

 It's true that MIL cooks well for the holidays, but I was really disappointed to see such ordinary offerings. Cut off in the back is some fried fish which she has been making us A LOT lately for regular non-holiday dinners. We also have steamed shrimp, cucumbers with crushed garlic and a plate of cashews. To see why I find this meal so ho-hum and lackluster, click here to see last year's Small Chinese New Year feast.

 OMFG, my kitchen! Ok, calm down, calm down. She's busy cooking so I can't get mad at the mess...unless she leaves it like this when she goes home. Thankfully, she didn't. She cleaned everything up. And wow, for once, she's not wearing mismatched clothes. Amazing!

Incidentally, this is the other kitchen counter while she's in there cooking. Good grief! Even when I cooked Christmas dinner, the kitchen wasn't quite this messy!

 From this angle, you can see the fried fish better. You can also see this bok choy and mushroom dish. It wasn't awful, but I felt it was too salty. Sidenote: I was holding Seoul on my lap as we ate and she's such a sneaky little thing...she shot her little hand out and stuck it right into this dish. Babies are so hilarious!

 Now there's some Western-style ham slices and a bowl of crushed garlic and sesame oil that is supposed to be a sauce for that ham. Yeah. For me, it's a yes to the ham and a big fat no to the sauce. It amazes me they want to cover up the taste of the ham with something so sharp and strong as garlic.

You'll also notice the dish of ribs on the table. I was skeptical. MIL makes ribs often enough. The meat falls off the bone, which is lovely, but the flavor is just very mediocre. But not these. Oh no. These had a hint of garlic and something else I couldn't place. I had tried one to be polite. I wound up eating quite a few after that. Jeremy said she learned a new technique. I told him to tell her to always make her ribs this way. They were excellent. Good job, MIL!

 To the untrained eye, you'd think this was some noodle dish. It's not though. This is tofu cut into noodle-like ribbons. She's cooked it with leeks and shrimp. Normally, she makes this taste so bland. What she did different this time, I can't be sure but it was delicious. I'm not a fan of Chinese noodles because they always taste so mushy and floury, so having her make tofu in the style of a noodle is so much better. The tofu texture makes all the difference in this dish.

 Awww yeah...I'm kickin' it with imported beer. We had a selection of Danish and German beer we bought from the wholesale market near our house. Unfortunately, my in-laws have managed to destroy all our beer mugs, leaving us coffee mugs as our only option. The look on my face says it all, doesn't it? I'm so cool I drink my beer out of a coffee mug. Try not to hate, y'all.

It's luo bo! Not again! But hey, she's cut it all fancy and put a really nice dressing on it. I had to leave the table for a while to put Seoul to bed (a very difficult chore indeed with all the fireworks popping outside but somehow I was successful) and when I returned, she'd put this in another bowl with orange zest. Jeremy claims it was her idea but I think he had something to do with it. I can't imagine she'd think of doing that herself.

It's almost over, as you may be able to tell from the mostly picked-apart dishes. The dumplings came out after everything else. How were they? Meh, they're the same dumplings she's been making a lot recently so I'm not too excited about them. It could be that I'm sick of being served dumplings all the time. It could be that in my American brain, I feel like dumplings are something you have a few of, like an appetizer, before moving on to another dish. Or it could just be that these dumplings are just there. They're not bad but they're not amazing either. I hope the ones she makes for CNY are more exciting than these.

And finally, as I've said before, if you're at a big Chinese meal, you'll know when it's coming to a close when they trot out a large, whole steamed fish. This was always one of the dishes MIL cooks well but in recent months, she has changed up her sauce. She used to use a very savory and salty brown sauce. But this sauce is made with marinated red peppers. It has a bit of a kick to it, but not too much. And it's really really REALLY good. It's a great way to finish up a great meal.

She'll make this for CNY as she must for tradition's sake. Jeremy also asked her to make a few dishes I really like for next week's big celebration. I love CNY! Here's hoping that this year of the sheep (or goat) and the upcoming new year give us many wonderful things to celebrate!

Getting There Is Half The Fun

Bright and early, we blearily rose from bed somewhere around 5am on January 18th. Jeremy had spared himself the agony and finished his sleep in Raelynn's room that night. As for me, I endured a fussy baby who kept unwrapping herself from her blanket every hour on the hour. Now of course, she was sound asleep and I used it as an opportunity to ready myself.

As I washed my face and brushed my teeth, I heard our front door open and close. It was MIL. Oh God. WHY is she here? Can't she just let us alone? She had come the night before and I thought that was the end of enduring her for a few days, but no. She HAD TO come now. I try not to scowl openly but it's obvious I'm pissed. I am too tired for this shit. Never mind her, I think. I've got to get ready. So I begin covering my tired face with make-up in hopes that I won't resemble the zombie creature that I actually feel like.

And then the doorbell rings. I hate our doorbell. It is so loud and tinny and unnecessary. It's not like we live in some spacial palace. It's a small 2 bedroom apartment. You know who it is, right? FIL! Of course! But thankfully, MIL shoos him away. She shouts at him for ringing the doorbell which I find counter-productive. If we're all trying to be quiet so as not to disturb the baby while we get ready, then how is shouting at your doltish husband going to help us?

Miraculously, Seoul stays asleep through all this nonsense and doesn't wake until I am completely done shoving my make-up and the rest of our toiletries into the suitcase. Now MIL comes over, arms outstretched to hold the baby so I can eat. Again, I try not to scowl. She just wants to help, right? Sigh.

As we eat, Jeremy's busy on the phone. It seems the taxi he's reserved to take us to the airport is unable to pick us up. No problem...there's plenty of time to call for another. We get another reserved and then that guy has to cancel because his taxi won't start. Third time was the charm...another taxi was able to take us. We all went downstairs where FIL was waiting. They nag me about what I'm wearing. Why no hat? Gah. We're going to Guangzhou, not Harbin. It's MUCH warmer in Guangzhou and I have 2 kids to handle. I've worn my lighter coat on top of a thick sweatshirt. I don't want the annoyance of dragging around a massive winter coat along with our luggage as we travel.

When the taxi arrives, the woman driving it frowns. It's because of my in-laws. She thinks they are coming too and starts yipping about how we can't all fit in the taxi. Oh no, honey. Just us. Please take us away from here. And then we're off.

I think this is one of the first times we've traveled that our flight was completely on time. We flew with China Southern on the way there. As we sat in our seats, we noticed something quite odd. Something was missing. My window! I have never before seen anything like this!

You can see that the seat behind mine has a window but mine clearly does not. On the other end of the row, they had a window but the guy in the row behind that did not. Very weird!
The children were mostly good on the plane though Seoul had a fit because she was hot and tired. I tried to calm her by walking up and down the aisle but eventually had to stop because we were preparing for landing. We were sitting next to some other foreigners and I was really surprised by how kind everyone was. They kept smiling at Seoul, despite the howling cries she was emitting.

Once we arrived, we decided to take the subway to our hotel. Thankfully, no one mistook me for a chair. Jeremy had reserved us an apartment-hotel with a small kitchen so we could cook some of our meals. He said we could easily get there by taking the subway to the end of the line and then taking a taxi the short distance that remained. I was expecting much worse. It was a small room but it had 2 beds, a TV with way more cable channels than our Chinese cable company provides us (and normally, I care not about Chinese channels since we have a satellite as well but Chinese was all we were getting on this trip...and one English channel), a refrigerator, a washing machine on the balcony with drying racks for the laundry (this was incredibly useful after Seoul spit up milk on her blanket and Raelynn made a mess of some of her clothing), a microwave, a single burner cooktop and cookware. Be it ever so humble! The building itself wasn't bad either. The only problem was that each tower only had one elevator. And each tower had 32 floors. The wait time for the elevator was rather annoying.

By this point, the afternoon was wearing on and we were all very hungry. We decided to eat something first and then hit up a market for items to cook for dinner later. A small restaurant across from where we were staying was where we wound up. The food was rather plain but it hit the spot much more than the snack on the plane did.

Later, Jeremy would run out and buy us a bunch of items from a nearby market. We'd tried to go to a large supermarket that was underground in the subway entrance right by the embassy. But everything there was so expensive, we couldn't even believe it. As I passed the embassy, I teared up when I saw our flag waving in the wind. God, how I want to go home and take my husband and children with me.

Jeremy did all the cooking for the meals we ate in our room. That was because I had to handle Seoul. And Raelynn. Somehow each night, I managed to get Seoul to sleep. But because the room was small and Raelynn is noisy, I had to put her to sleep multiple times. Seoul's new favorite thing seems to be to fall into a deep sleep until I tiptoe away for a shower. As soon as I put shampoo in my hair, she's wailing.

The next morning, bright and early, Jeremy was off for his medical exam. He was 5th in line until he realized he needed to bring the email the embassy had sent to me. I had it printed out but thought he only needed it for his visa interview. So he grumpily came back for it and promptly ran back down the street to where the medical exams were administered. Around 11am, he finally returned with some amusing stories about his exam. He was surprised when they checked way up in his nose. And ears. And what caught him completely off guard was how they checked his manly junk by shaking it around. I had to laugh as he gestured wildly in the air, making noises to accompany this visual. Poor Jeremy.

He wasn't supposed to eat before the exam and we were also hungry. We decided to find a restaurant with Guangzhou-style cuisine. We walked around until we found one that we wanted to try. We got to see a bit of the tea culture of Guangzhou in this place. Up here in Qingdao and the northern parts, when people want to build guanxi (relationships, more or less) they will invite you to lunch or dinner. It's always a meal. If you want something from someone, better take them out for something to eat. But in Guangzhou, the people there are big on meeting for a nice pot of tea and perhaps a small snack. Many tables were filled with people just enjoying tea together as the morning turned into noon.

Our table had a teapot waiting for us as well. Here, they kept a flame burning under the teapot to always keep our water hot. It was really a nice touch, I thought. We had some very delicious things to eat during this lunch. Check it out!

 Raelynn is clearly ready for food!

 Here's the tea pot. The black one is filled with water and is kept over a flame while the smaller more decorative pot contains the tea leaves. This makes each cup of tea you have taste as fresh as the first cup. Lovely!

 Raelynn likes tea.

 Ah, some delicious xiaolong bao. That's a soup dumpling and yes, it shares the first name of my husband. The best way to eat them is to put them into your spoon so that when you bite into it, the soup portion doesn't spill all over the place. Also, you'd be wise to wait a few minutes before trying them. The insides tend to be scalding hot!

 This is a Guangzhou-style soup. I'm usually not a fan of this kind of soup, which is a sort of rice porridge, but this one was really nice.

 Jeremy ordered this chicken dish. I like to call it "Nice Try, Honey" because clearly, you can see that it's chicken feet. I just can't get into those. I have tried. I gag. I can't do it. He tried to give me a piece and got the "hell no" face from me. To be nice, I did eat some of the peanuts that were cooked with the dish but blech. No chicken feet for me, please!

Some of the most fabulous egg tarts I've ever had. These were just oh so good.

These buns had a honey glaze on the outside and a savory beef stuffing inside. We were really surprised by them.

We also had a noodle dish and some pork with vegetables but I somehow forgot to photograph them. Oh well. Not like you guys come read my blog for the amazing photos. If you do,you must be even worse a photographer than me!

The next day we spent walking around Beijing Road, a famous shopping area. Raelynn was in a bratty mood but we at least got her to try on a qipao. She finally started behaving and we treated her to ice cream. She was an angel after that too, thankfully.

On Wednesday the 21st, we went to the Chimelong Safari Park, which I wrote about separately. You can read that here.

Thursday the 22nd was the day of Jeremy's visa interview. Another insanely early morning, we somehow dressed ourselves and 2 kids and headed off to the embassy. We were about 30 minutes early but there were already gobs of people there. When we got up to the front though, the guard turned me and the children away. We had a plan for that in case they wouldn't allow us entry with Jeremy. There was a nearby Starbucks so I took Raelynn and Seoul with me to wait there. I would have gone back to the hotel but our door was equipped with a digital keypad that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. We figured the Starbucks would keep us all entertained while we waited for Jeremy and sure beat me having to try to get the door to unlock with one whiny toddler and a crying baby.

Of all the times I've ever felt lonely in my life, and there have been many, I never at once felt so alone sitting in that Starbucks in the bustling upscale downtown area of Guangzhou. Even with my 2 children. I stared out the window and checked my phone every few minutes. Time stood still for me while I waited anxiously for him to come meet us. I started thinking about how I met my husband and how we built this life together. I started thinking about how I never wanted to be without him. I felt tears stinging my eyes despite Raelynn's cutest attempts at keeping me distracted.

So many times, I saw someone across the street dressed in similar attire only to realize it wasn't my man. And then suddenly, there he was! He strode into the Starbucks and I felt like I couldn't breathe at all. Did we get our visa???

Before I answer that, I'd like to tell you all how much I appreciate your kind thoughts, prayers and support during this time. I thank you all for thinking of us. That is why I hope you will continue to think of us and understand that at this time, I will only tell you that we are almost finished with this process, having been preliminarily approved. However, we must submit some additional papers before we can finally close this visa process chapter and move forward. So until this is all done and behind us, I'll be holding off on saying anything more.

As we walked back to the hotel, we discussed what to do next. Our flight back to Qingdao would leave very early the next morning. If we stayed at our current location, we'd need to get up at 3am to get to the airport on time. The subway system would not be open as early as we'd need it so that left taking a taxi as our only option. And that's a huge cab fare right there. Jeremy suggested we move to a hotel that was closer to the airport. We found one that was just 3 minutes away. They had free pick-up and drop-off too which was nice. But I instantly regretted this decision the minute we rolled up to the place. It looked even worse than our neighborhood. It seriously looked like a ghost town. The few people around stared openly at us. The one store we saw was rundown and ramshackle. Our room didn't even have a toilet in the bathroom - it had a squatter! Ugh! I felt like we were camping. Even more so when I discovered some mosquitoes in our room. But the room was tidy at least. And it was just for one night.

We went to get some lunch and now I felt totally depressed. We were in the boonies. We should be celebrating that we are almost done with this trying process, yet here we were, walking to the only nearby restaurant. The woman who ran it was incredibly nice though. She had Budweiser for beer, which was totally random, and she quickly had her mom begin cooking. My husband said that they grew their own food and it was natural and chemical-free. I regret not taking photos of the food. It looked like slop on a plate, the way MIL serves most things. Only MIL's cooking was much better. Raelynn liked the chicken we ordered but they'd hacked it up into such tiny pieces with bits of bone in them that I couldn't find a piece that had meat on it. I gave up. We also had fish, but the fish had so many bones that I felt like I was spitting everything out. The only thing I could eat was some sauteed watercress, which was fairly tasty. We were enjoying it until we found a long hair in it. Then our appetites ceased.

Seoul's happy wherever but I was a bit bummed to be in a place that was more country than my in-laws' mountain apartment.

 It's just us in this quiet place. There are so many tables and chairs but I can't picture the place is ever filled to capacity.

Another case where beer makes things better. It was nice to have a taste of home, even if Budweiser was never high on my list back in the US. It tasted better to me now but maybe that's because I've been over here so long.

The restaurant owner had a small boy and there was some other relative there with a little girl. Raelynn was playing nicely with them for a little while as we finished our beers. Then back to the hotel we went, stopping at the dumpy store first. The store was missing 2 walls and inside, a game of cards was being played by chain-smoking old men. They were friendly though, yelling, "Hello!" at us. The store owner put down his hand and came behind the smoke-stained counter to assist us. We bought some very stale bags of chips, a bag of spicy peanuts that were rather good actually and some instant noodles for our journey back to Qingdao. Airports in China tend to overcharge for things in the most excessive of ways. For example, last time we went to leave Guangzhou, our flight was delayed for hours. We needed to eat and our only option was a noodle place that charged 60 rmb for a bowl of noodles. Yes, really. We split a bowl between the 3 of us. For 60 rmb, we should be able to get several dishes of food, not one bowl of noodles. But to their credit, it was a very tasty bowl of noodles.

I had hoped our hotel would have better food than the country restaurant, but when we went to get something to eat, we were told they had to order something for us and they would pick it up. Or they could take us to the airport and we could eat there. They handed us a menu of items all in Chinese. I found it amusing that a sign pointed to a room past the counter touting a Western restaurant when no such thing existed. Jeremy told me what our options were on the menu. We chose a few dishes and then went to our room to wait for them. At least it was tastier than the country cooking we had endured for lunch.

Jeremy held my hands and kissed me. He said we would celebrate our preliminary approval at our favorite restaurant at the Shangri-La once we returned. He truly felt awful that our last bit of time in Guangzhou would be spent in this boring hotel surrounded by dusty buildings and people.

But it was a smart move in the end. The lines at the airport were very long. We checked in and then waited in massive security check lines. When we went through security, the woman behind the counter asked Jeremy to step back a bit. We explained we were a family of 4 and she said that she would check us in 2 at a time. Some man behind Jeremy thought he was just pushing his way up so he began to push my husband. We told him we were together and to chill out. Then a bunch of people behind this man tried to push and I could not even believe how many security people burst out of nowhere. They pushed all those people back. They were shouting that they were late for their planes but if they'd simply arrived early as we did, they wouldn't be having this problem. I found it hard to have sympathy for them after the way they behaved. Airlines worldwide have been telling their passengers to arrive at least 2 hours prior to departure.

It was a long walk to our gate. We each took a turn using the bathroom and as I came out, our flight announced it was boarding. This time, we had the first row of our class so we had more legroom. And this time, I got a window.

 And you know something else? China is just beautiful from above...

That must be what heaven looks like...or maybe it's this place - Shangri-La!

Well, I'll Be!

Sometimes, MIL amazes me. Like when she made this...

Why, it's not barf in a bowl! It's yu xiang rou si, my favorite pork dish! It's thin slices of pork, potatoes, green peppers and carrots in a spicy yet sweet sauce. It rules. And hold on to your hat because I'm going to say something I very seldom say: MIL rocked it.

Yes. She really did. It was better than in any restaurant. No, I didn't bang my head on anything. I really, truly mean it. Remember, she does a wonderful job cooking for the Chinese New Year celebrations. So why then does everything else she makes look and taste like vomit? Jeremy may have found the answer.

She's lazy. He said he was talking to her about her cooking. She expressed disappointment that I was unhappy with her food. She didn't know what to make for me any more. So Jeremy reminded her that I don't like to eat the same things every single day and that I like variety. She complained that I don't like Chinese food and that's where he set her straight. No, Jennifer loves GOOD Chinese food. You keep slopping together things like you don't care about the ingredients. He told her if she made this dish, I'd be thrilled. Good job, Honey!

I wonder how many times she'll make it this week though. Oy.

MIL might have had some success with her cuisine this evening, but she did leave a bunch of questionable crap in the kitchen of course.

 A severed luo bo! Oh joy! Thank you!

 A partially used carrot. If we had snow (oh how I wish!), we could use this for a snowman's nose.

I'm not quite sure what's up with this. It seems to be the mixture she'd put into a dumpling in the same bowl as a raw egg. It's rather odd, even for her.

$10 says this hot mess is still out when I come home from work tomorrow.

The Good Stuff

I always liked Chinese food growing up. When we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, which was a place right around the corner called Jade Garden, I was always delighted. I loved the shrimp with lobster sauce. If you ask my brother and my dad, they'll have slightly less found memories because I didn't want to share my shrimp with anyone. If they tried to take a shrimp from my plate, I cried. Sounds like Raelynn, huh? Anyway, I still get teased about this. Except when they come visit me IN China because at least here in Qingdao, there is no shrimp with lobster sauce.

Yes, Chinese food in America is quite Americanized. But that doesn't mean that all of it is made up to pander to our American palates.

You might think based on my Someone Made Me Eat This posts that I dislike authentic Chinese food. True that I grow weary of it if I have to eat it daily, I truly like Chinese food. When it's prepared properly. And we've seen how MIL prepares it. Jeremy laughs every time I tell him his mother makes me hate Chinese food. And he also smiles big when I tell him he makes me fall back in love with it.

My husband knows a thing or two about flavors. Plus he's lived abroad in Korea before and he's eaten food from other countries. So when he cooks, he really makes things taste good. I wish he'd show his mom how to cook.

Sure, she makes some things good. Her dumplings are pretty good, especially the ones she makes with leeks and pork. But I hate that she uses the flour that she uses. It makes everything taste very gummy and glutenousy. Jeremy once didn't understand my complaint about the flour. Why couldn't I use it to make pie crust or bread or all the other stuff I wanted to make with it? Why did he need to buy more flour when we had a giant sack of it? Now he knows better. But she still doesn't. She insists the flour she buys is the best. Of course she does.

On weekends, we like to go out for a meal. We're mostly saving our money for America, but we can afford to eat out somewhere at least once a week. Places that serve Western food are usually much more expensive so unless it's a special occasion or I'm dying for something I can't make at home, we usually go out for Chinese food.

Even though MIL cooks for us 4 days a week, I really don't mind going out for Chinese on a Sunday afternoon. Because we always go somewhere good. Like the Sichuan place.

That's what I call it. There are tons of Sichuan restaurants here. This one is close to Minjiang Road. It's always got gobs of people in it. My friend Jon and his wife introduced it to us and we keep going back because it's really quite good. They've got lots of spicy things, which is why we're thinking of taking my parents there when they visit in February, if it's still open during the Chinese New Year that is. If I want to eat there, I just tell my husband "The Sichuan Place" and he knows what I want.

Sometimes, I simply request barbecue. Chinese barbecue is so popular in Qingdao. There are lots of good places. I just let Jeremy use his expertise as most of them can be dirty. And by that, I don't mean the floors (most places in China have dirty floors) but the food. My husband says that many barbecue places will use rotting meat or lie about where the meat came from. He looks for places where you can see the kitchen and where it's very crowded. We're currently trying to decide which place will be open during the Chinese New Year because squid on a stick and beer will make my dad the happiest daddy ever.

But my favorite of the casual Chinese places in Qingdao is without a doubt the one I call "Ugly But Delicious." This place rules.

Excuse the craptacular photo. I was sitting in the car with the children while my husband ran in to get an order of dumplings on our way home from church the other day. I'll get to those in a moment.

This place is called Jiaozi Guan, which Jeremy says basically means "House of Dumplings." It has other stuff too. It's a hole in the wall, as my folks would call it, but if we have a chance, we'd love to take them here. The decor is blah and the floors are often scary but the food is served up by a chef that's quite famous in Qingdao. I admit, the first time my husband took us here, I was very skeptical. Then I took a bite of the food. Since then, I often request we eat at this place.

They have pepper steak, which you'll find in Chinese restaurants in America and it is SO good. The Sichuan Place I mentioned before also has that dish but this place does it much better, much cheaper and gives you a larger portion too.

Because of MIL, I feel kind of blah about dumplings now. Unless we get them from here. Especially if they are filled with cucumber and egg. I know, I know. That sounds barfy but let me just tell you how fanfreakingtastic those are. I am entirely serious when I say they are the best dumplings I've ever had.

Unlike MIL, they use a good flour and they focus on the filling, not the wrapping. When Jeremy told his mother how wonderful these dumplings are and how we like that the casing is so light and not too thick she told him that they were being cheap for not using enough flour. I'm not joking. I laughed so hard I cried. Even Jeremy laughed. God, she's hilarious, right? Yes, that's it. Because flour is so expensive. NOT! MIL flies through flour and oil like the world is coming to an end and she needs to use it all in one night.

Anyway, if you're in Qingdao and reading this, Jiaozi Guan is on Jiangxi Road. Take a Chinese person with you if you cannot read or speak Chinese as the menu is completely in Chinese with no photos. It's worth it though, I promise. Amazing food, and great prices too.

Oh, there is one more thing I've found to love about food here in China. And that's these little snack sandwiches. We had them at a barbecue place not too long ago and I fell in love with them. While out shopping in Taidong the other day, Jeremy saw a place selling them and picked us up some to try. He watched as they were prepared, mentally taking notes so he could try to make them for us at home. The ones he bought us were really delicious. That night, Jeremy made us some more.

 Here's Jeremy's Chinese sandwich after a few bites. Very tasty!

 My husband, the sandwich model.

Mmm...mmm...mmm! That's one tasty sandwich! It's slow-cooked pork chopped up with onions and peppers. Only we didn't have onions and peppers so he left that out this time. It was still good though, but I am looking forward to his next batch. Thanks for helping me enjoy Chinese food again, Honey! I love you!

Celebrating 100 Days Of Seoul

Technically, last weekend was Seoul's 100 Day Celebration. But MIL felt I might be too tired then and decided to have it this weekend. Which really made no sense. But whatever. I also wound up having a sore throat this weekend so last weekend would have been better. Oh well. In any event, here's how Seoul's 100 Day Celebration went. Click here if you want to remember what Raelynn's was like.

It was only recently that China decided to nix the one-child policy so most families have only one child. When that child hits 100 days, they throw a huge party, just like we did for Raelynn, where all the relatives show up and bring you envelopes filled with cash. In Chinese culture, to have another child and have another big party like that is considered greedy. We didn't care about getting any gifts...we just wanted to celebrate Seoul. So we kept it very small and MIL only invited the old people in the family.

Seoul and I had to pose with all of them.

 This is MIL's older sister. I'm pretty sure anyway. They look alike, don' they?

 Yes! Score! I finally got one of the Chinese relatives right. It is MIL's older sister. And there's MIL in the blue shirt and Raelynn is trying to give FIL sunflower seeds. Seoul watches.

 Ok now these people...is this FIL's brother? I think it might be. God I suck at this. Sorry! And that little boy is a 2nd cousin to Raelynn.

Me and Seoul, trying desperately to figure out which relatives these folks are.

 So to honor our little guest of honor, we had a gigantic meal and gobs of beer. See? There are some things I love about China and this is definitely one of them. Jeremy helped his mom pick out which dishes to order so that I would not starve. Thank you, Honey!

 Jellyfish salad. I really dug this. Yum!

 Dates stuffed with peanuts. Another yum!

 Some sort of vegetable medley. Chinese-style of course.

 Spicy pickled vegetables. I was really surprised that there were peperoncini in this dish too. I haven't seen those since I was in the US.

 Here's a platter of assorted meat parts. With sauce. Which parts? I have no idea. I didn't try this one out. It all looked rubbery to me.

The Lazy Susan is beginning to fill up quickly. Now we've got steamed shrimp. Yum!

 While it might look like someone's dropped a turd into my soup, it's a sea cucumber. I just cannot get into these things. I do not like them. At all. But the soup surrounding it was really nice. It is quite the tradition to order a soup like this for your guests. It's basically showing off but everyone does it. I wonder if anyone else dislikes sea cucumber as much as I do but hasn't the balls to say so...

 A large bowl of soup and some other dishes are now on the table. To the right of the assorted meat bits was the dish I loved the most. It had squid and pork in a garlicky brown sauce. It was delicious! Also, I don't see it pictured but maybe by this point, we'd already gobbled it all up...there were these triangular pastries on the table. I have no idea what they are called but let me just tell you...wow. I figured they were filled with the typical red bean paste. That they were typically dry, as most Chinese snack things are. Not these. They were buttery and flaky. My best guess on the filling is sweet potato. Whatever it was, it was heavenly.

 Just to show you how classy we are, we're drinking our beer from wine glasses. Because. Because this is China and people do this here. No really. In most restaurants, you'll get what we'd use as juice glasses in the US. But this restaurant down the street from our house really wanted to class things up a bit. So there you go. Beer in a wine glass...ou la la!

 The giant steamed fish has come out, which I've learned from all my big important Chinese dinners here, is like the fat lady singing. It signifies the end in most cases. So if you go to China and someone is taking you to dinner, try not to fill up too fast. There will be tons of food and then when you see the big fish, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Wear elastic pants too. Seriously.

Oh but no! Not today! We had a tomato dish, another soup AND this giant roasted big head. See the snout? God. I couldn't eat the snout or other facial features of course, but the meat inside was like pulled pork and it was divine. It was served with those thin pancakes, green onions, cucumbers and some hoisin sauce. Yum!

 Isn't she cute? She has a look on her face like she can't wait to get teeth so she can eat the food too. Love her!

 Why look who it is! It's MIL! And she's not annoying me for a change. I know what you're thinking...why would I let her hold the baby? Well, for one, I'd look like a huge jerk in front of all the relatives. For another, after all that beer (which did NOT help my throat, sad to say) I needed to pee. Plus, she didn't hoard Seoul like she did at Raelynn's 100 day party. Thankfully, she seems to have learned.

At the end of our meal, after the gargantuan fish and skull of pig, they brought us these fried balls. Inside, it was like a chewy rice cake thing (for friends and family back home, rice cakes in the US - those crispy Uncle Ben's things you eat when you're dieting - are NOT the same thing as rice cakes in Asia). These were awesome. It has a nice little message on there too sending us good wishes.

All in all, a nice lunch. I wish the beer had helped fix my throat though. Oh well. We went to the doctor today and now I'm feeling much better. Anyway, here's to 100 days of Seoul, and to 100 years more for my precious angel. Seoul, we love you so much. You make our little family so happy. Your smile warms us through and through and we can't get enough of your sweet little face. I can't believe a few months ago, I was holding you for the first time. And now, I'm treasuring every second because I know from Raelynn that you will grow way too fast and I'll be missing these beautiful baby days where I can cuddle you in my arms, where you won't talk back and where you have no teeth and just coo. Thanks for being my baby.