Ba Si is a delicious real Chinese dish made from fruits, baked potato, or sweet potato – battered and then covered in a sweet sugary- caramel like sauce that hardens into a candy-glaze. My personal favorite!
Category Archives: Food
Spices in the Wings
The Air. . . It’s full of spices
Hungry Ghost Festival
My Chinese friend called today asking to hang out. When I asked what was up, she said she intended to go home today but her brother called and warned her not to travel today. Apparently today the province is celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival.
It falls on the 15th of the 7th lunar month (August 17 this year). According to my friend, they believe that today many ghosts are able to travel around the country. This is why my friend couldn’t travel- she has to leave the way clear for the ghosts instead. Instead many adherents will go to the graves and leave lots of food for the hungry wanderers to eat.
Our Delicious Dumplings 🙂
They also make hand-made traditional dumplings (Jiaozi 饺子) out of long noodles. They are long so you can wrap up your ancestral ghosts in the strand and keep them close to you in the future. Funnily enough, we went to the little Chinese garden here and ran into 5-6 grandfathers out with their grandkids. They had been tasked with entertaining the kids while grandma made the dumplings. To participate, my friend and I had beef dumplings at the local street market and she promised to wait until tomorrow to go home :p
Egg Drop Soup!
Had some egg drop soup with some Chinese students the other night. It is delicious!! Then came back to the states to see American Chinese soup- not even comprable. 🙂
An Ancient Spring
Spring is beginning at the ancient Yuyuan Gardens in Shanghai. This lovely flower is growing atop some of the old roof tiles of the garden.
Go visit the tombs, its tomb—sweeping day!
Eating in Shanghai this morningsng for the tomb sweeping festival (sort of like our Memorial Day.) They were serving Sweet Green Dumplings (青团 qīngtuán) filled with red bean paste. Only served once a year!
Blue of the Sea
Spring is here!
The cherry trees are blooming, the dogwoods flowering, and the sun is sharing its warmth.
Today it was so nice, I stopped at the “Honey Drink” shop and picked up a “blue drink.” They called it a “lan seng” or that’s what it sounded like. 🙂
It’s a mixture of syrup/flavoring, oranges, lemon / lime, and ice. Taste’s like a blue Popsicle!
The shop is one of many “student-owned” businesses here on campus. They have an Incubation Center and a focus on Entrepreneurship, so the school encourages students to start up their own businesses. If you get a chance to visit Xinzheng, let me know and I’ll treat you!
Happy Spring!
Fruit Art
Zongzi
A Life Savored 