It’s almost a week since I’ve been in China
and the plan for the weekend is to get all the unpacking and apartment stuff
out the way so that I can start fresh and get down to some lesson planning by
Monday. So far I’m doing good! I’ve cleaned, washed, unpacked and rearranged
until about 21:30 last night. It was all worth it. My apartment now looks
squeaky clean and I’m ready to get down to some serious work. What makes this
fresh start even better is that it all begins on 1 October – tomorrow. We all
know this feeling! New month, new start…clean slate!
Well, to kick it all off I cooked my first
meal at my apartment today. Ingredients included salt, crushed chili spice
(something like masala), tomatoes, onion, mushrooms and oil. Where’s the
tumaric, geera and mustard seeds you ask, well this is China. They do have
spices I just haven’t discovered them yet. The mushrooms here look like the
poisonous ones we find in South Africa. So I was a little scared and I wasn’t
really sure about how I should cook them. I remembered that someone told me
something about cooking mushrooms with a 5cent coin in the pot and if the coin
turns a specific colour the mushrooms are poisonous. There was no time for
that! I figured that if these mushrooms were being sold at the grocery store
surely they are good to eat. So I washed them and threw them in the pot
together with the other ingredients.
The result:
Overall the food was good and edible. The
crushed chili spice gave it some flavor but not enough as it was missing the
geera powder, roasted dhania power and gerum masala. The wanna-be poisonous
mushroom were also good however the stems were very chewy. So I decided the
next time they will be cut-off before cooking. This was served with noodles.
I’ve spent the last two days mainly indoors
as a result of the weather and also because my site seeing buddy Tracy is a
little unwell. I also used some of this time to reflect on my first week in
China. I’ve decided that there will be good days, great days, bad days and horrible days. Whatever it is I should remain focused and positive. I’m here to experience, learn, grow and be a great English teacher. I’m not leaving China without these. I have exactly five months to make it all happen. Let the games begins!
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