Category Archives: cooking

Chinese Tea Ceremony

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Mother’s Day in China without children makes me homesick. To my surprise one of my 11th graders, Vivi took me to her class on learning the tea ceremony. All in Chinese, she was so kind to translate the stories and process.

We sampled Oolong and Pu-erh Tea. Dried Oolong looks like little dark green beads, once it hits water, each bead opens into a leaf and is fragrant like flowers. The tea is steeped in a tiny pot with a lid then the water is poured out. This first batch is too bitter to drink. Hot water is poured in again, then strained into a tiny glass pitcher and poured in dainty white porcelain cups. You smell the tea, take the first sip as there are three steps to drinking. The second sip is to get the taste and the third you swallow the entire cup feeling the tea as it caresses your throat. Hot water is poured again over and around the leaves for maybe seven to eight drinking times creating very different tastes with the same leaves.

The teacher told stories about how the tea will calm a person in conflict. If you are at the work place and have someone that is not in agreement, tea is good to drink and during the drinking you will calm down and be able to discuss your problems. She told a story about an emperor and how he ruled. I only got bits and pieces of the stories as I was too calm to really ask many questions!

One of the advanced students wanted to do a tea presentation. She got out a Yixing tea set and opened a dried biscuit of Pu-erh tea that was five years old. Vivi proceeded to pop the tea with a pick to remove it from the dried tea biscuit shape. This tea has a red coloring unlike the oolong and actually smells like woody trees. She waved her hands around more like tai chi in her process. It was magnificent to watch. She proceeded to pour the tea in tiny tall cups and place a small cup on top of each one. With a wave of her hands and a flip she plopped the cups over and sat it before us. We carefully lifted the tall cup up and the lovely tea flowed into the round cups. You then run the tall cup around the rim of the other cup. That was so much fun, I bought a set of those cups. We continued to drink tea all afternoon creating a wonderful learning atmosphere.

Dumpling making

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In the last couple of weeks I visited the homes of two families and they shared their dumpling making precess with me.  My Pre-IB student Moon invited me to her home, where her mom showed me how to create them.  A rather easy process, you start with round or square wonton wrappers and a combination of your favorite diced meats and vegetables for the filling.  Since I am vegetarian my hostess made a special batch with chopped spinach, garlic, bamboo and other tasty ingredients.  The meat version has the same veggies but included pork.  We were allowed to create our dumplings by spooning a dallap on the wonton, sealing the edge with water, and pinching or pleating the edges  with our fingers.  You would line up the half moon shaped crescents until enough were ready to boil or steam.  Moon’s mom boiled them about ten minutes.  You eat them with soy sauce or a chili sauce.  If you have left overs you can pan fry them in the morning for breakfast.

Moon and my other art student Karen in front of a portrait of Moon as a child.

At my colleague Stephen’s home his mom also prepared dumplings and a wonderful Mushroom soup, the best I have ever had.  It had a combination of four different types of mushrooms chopped up with garlic and simmered into a nice rich soup broth.

Steven’s mom          Steven and Paula     Isabella, Steven, his girlfriend, niece and mom

Teacher Day and a real home cooked meal

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Friday was Chinese Teacher Day, it is a  special day for teachers, when students call them, give them gifts, cards and flowers to express their appreciation.   I arrived and found a large bouquet of violet tulip like flowers, cards and gifts on my desk from various art students!  What a thrill.  I have a new coffee cup and snow globe now.   Students love telling you to have a nice teacher day, it is on TV and I think it is like a National Holiday.  I like this day.

Alice showed me how to catch a bus, ok not so hard, just lots of people, will have to keep my purse and possessions very close to me.  We took two buses to the University and it dropped us off in a nice shopping district I want to check out later today.   Time for clothes and shoes.  I like shoes, thanks to my mom!   I brought ten pair from my collection of sixty and I am missing some favorites!  Need red ones now!

I gave a call to Sarah, the mom of Filo, one of my art students.  Sarah is the lovely lady that  hooked me up with my apartment.  She was cooking dinner and wanted my company.  Yes, I will be right there.  Hopped on a Taxi and off I went back to the other side of town.  It’s dark now and the town comes alive with lights and it’s misty creating a surreal look about.  Sarah is so excited to see me, off with my shoes and on with house slippers.  I want to see what she is cooking, this is so much fun.  She has a pot of Balsamic rice in the rice cooker, sautéd tomato and fried egg dish and pork meat ball soup with mushrooms,  green chowder peas, and onions (oops forgot to tell her I was vegetarian!)  I watched her cut up some skinny green peppers and sauté them with sugar, salt, soy and some other ingredients-this was a spicy dish and very delicious.  She had fresh greens in a colander — they had red centers, never saw this plant before.  She poured a wee bit of oil in the pan and tossed these in, adding some spices and then water.  The water turned red from the plant and the plant turned dark green as it wilted.

Filo did not want to eat dinner with us, so she played on the computer in her locked room!  Sarah and I feasted with our chopsticks and small rice bowl.  Here you just pick a bit from any bowl you want and eat it.  You don’t make a plate of food.  I am getting quite good with the chopsticks and can pick up peas individually.  The rice turned pink from my greens I put on top…. and that was glorious to see.  Dinner was very good and it felt so comfortable to chat with another mom about husbands, children, our homes, our family, our life.  She had TV that was connected to a Chinese station that was in English.  ( I do not have this station at the motel, darn!)  The main news was of Teachers Day and how exciting it is for the students to make things for their teachers.  We had instant nescafe coffee and Swedish chocolates for dessert.

We admired her apartment, she has been here for over three weeks.  She and her husband live out but the drive is con-jested even though it is not far.  This is her place to stay for the week and then they travel back home during the weekends.  Many parents do this, as the high school I work for is a desired place for their children.  As we look out of her balcony the spectacular view makes me anxious to move.  I get a lesson on how to wash clothes and hang them to dry on the balcony.  Looks like I need to buy a clothes drying rack at Carrefour.

I get back to the motel, walk in and three young men students  from Nigeria, France and Morocco ask me to sit and chat.  Wow what a world talk we have about our Chinese speaking, our experiences and how long we have been here.  The cute Moroccan is working on his PhD and has been in China six years.  The other two just arrived this week and are in some culture shock but loving it.  I enjoy meeting new faces.