at home… in China

Just a note: The new semester is about to start, but I’m embarking on new writing.

First up: ChiliCult’s “Chilli-Laboratory” will get Chinese cooking class (or at least notes about cooking in China) added; a quick introductory post is online

Finally got finished with some of the clean-up, in time for Chinese New Year, so:

Decided to discover the decade by making a clean slate… removed most of the earlier posts I had on here, from the time I used this blog to chronicle my time with Campus Europae in Latvia (see my write-up of experiences here), ending with my participation in the Bergmarathon 2008 (mountain marathon).

Now, for a focus truly on my experiences in China, seeking to become at home in this fascinating country.

One cannot escape the importance of food in China, whether it be as a foreigner seeking well-known comfort foods from home (poor bastards), a Chinese steeped in culinary traditions of one region to such a point that food from another part of the country is outright exotic (and not necessarily if that part is Xinjiang), or this eco-anthropologist on the hunt for chile peppers and their meaning.

One of the troubles with modern eating habits is that it is just too easy to go to a supermarket and buy meals which require not much more than to put them in the microwave. My personal béte noir for this is the “just add water”-pancake batter in a bottle.

Excuse me? Pancake batter?
That’s a cup of milk, an egg, and enough flour whipped in to make it a batter of desired consistency!

China, in this regard, fascinated me from the first day on.
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