Rebecca A. Foster

Ma La girls like hot pot. I had a hot pot dinner party at my house this past week, with spices I brought home from Chongqing. (I saved the wrappers and I'll be taking them to the Asian market to see if they can order more for me.) Here is the food table, next to the eating table. In China the plates of food for hot pot come out on a multi-tiered cart, but because I don't have one of those, I used a card table. There are meatballs, little smokies, lotus, rice sticks, quail's eggs, noodles, squids, and two kinds of tofu. (We also had golden mushrooms and chicken pieces but those were already on the table.) Here is a shot of the table set up. I bought an induction cooker to use in my apartment, because that's the kind of cooker I had in China and I found I prefer it to the convection cooking more popular here in America. I used it that night for the hot pot; not only is it portable to the table, but inductions don't get hot like convections so no one was going to ...

The English says 'dogmeat', but the Chinese says 'ground meat.' Not sure if it's a euphemism or a mistranslation. (And I think we'd say 'black eyed peas' but that is perhaps a regional English thing.) In any case, I didn't buy it. Random Transformers character outside a club chain called '88.' (8 is a lucky number in Chinese culture.) There was a sign next to him but all I could make out is that he was some kind of party monster from another planet who was coming here to throw the best party of all time. Might be a New Year's Eve thing. There were still too many characters I didn't know. (I hate that, but good study motivation!) Chinese grandparents are the nation's babysitters. All day long, it is common to see babies and grandparents, shooting the breeze, feeding some pigeons, etc. This picture is a little bit blurry, I know, but check out those mouse ears and stocky legs. Chinese babies are delicious little butterballs in the...

We had a long dinner to kick off our weekend of shenanigans-- over four hours long. We ate around 20 dishes of food, consumed 40 bottles of beer, 4 bottles of wine and countless shots of Chinese sangria. ("We" meaning the dinner party-- I don't drink any alcohol.) In short, a typical Chinese dinner. I passed the kitchen on the way to the bathroom and took a peek inside. Here's what a little Chinese restaurant kitchen looks like: In the little restaurant we often go to for lunch, the cook always has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and there are butts all over the floor. I wonder how much ash I've eaten. Believe it or not, your body gets used to this style of cooking. We all got sick our first few weeks/months here, but now it's just minor discomfort, if we even get sick at all. Whoever said, "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" must have been talking about Chinese food. By the way, the food is delicious! It's worth being s...

1. Further adventures in the breakdown of my mother tongue: I was with a friend tonight and pronounced the word 'oregano' as 'oreGANo,' as if I were saying the word 'Oregon' in Spanish. Then I said it a few times both ways, trying to figure out which way was right. We both thought it was quite funny; I cried, I laughed so hard when I realized what I'd done. I'm sure the Chinese around us were wondering what was so funny, but it is funny to hear yourself losing the ability to speak your native language properly. 2. I had this for the first time tonight, and it's my new favorite treat: a fresh mango smoothie. (Sha1 bing1 mang2 guo3.) Just crushed ice, fresh mango and honey, blended together in a big cup of awesome. It's $1.00 USD, which believe it or not is a little expensive for us to have very often, but ohhh... it is oh so good on these 95 F, 95% humidity days. I might have to readjust my meager Peace Corps food allowance to include a '...

My friend Will bought me this book for my birthday. If you know anything about Amy Sedaris, you know why this book is awesome. I love throwing cocktail-type parties, here are a few things I've learned over the years: 1. Invitations sent through the mail create the tone for your party. Anything in sealed envelopes is more formal, but I love postcards, I make my own. Have fun with it. 2. No overhead lighting if you can help it. At Christmas, candles and stringed lights create great ambience. Otherwise, candles and lamps. Soft pink lightbulbs make people look great. 3. You rarely go wrong with 60's cocktail music. Just different enough to get people's attention, but also familiar enough to be relaxing to most people. Ditto Al, Ella and Billie. 4. Plenty of glasses and stabby thingies. I plan on at least three glasses per person, and 8-10 stabbies. 5. Groupings of seating in corners make people feel cozy. Those who want to be the center of attention will find it. Those who don...

I got invited to a 'Cocktail Dress' Christmas party, my favorite kind.* But my cute cocktail dresses are all matched with cute strappy, non-snow-suitable sandals. I've broken down and purchased a coat, gloves, hats, and scarves for winter in the Rockies, but the majority of my shoe collection? Still chanclas and strappy sandals. And 3-inch heeled boots. Not exactly walker-y in snow and ice. So I went shopping for suitable "snow" shoes I could wear with a cocktail dress. Guess what? There are no cute shoes that are snow-suitable. This is why snow sucks. But I did purchase these shoes, close as I could get. If I must wear bulky winter shoes, I love peep-toes. Visible toes means winter hasn't broken me. Yet. Caparros 'Scottie' pumps, about $68 *I didn't go, this is how much my dentist hurt me . I kinda hate him after all.