Food...

Ok so we have been in China for nearly 3 1/2 weeks now.  I like the food here, with a few exceptions as it is with any country...most of it is delicious.  However, there just isn't a whole lot of variety.  So far the food has been the most difficult thing for me to adjust to.  Again, it's great but I never realized what a variety I had at home.  Cooking at home I had all the tools and ingredients at my fingertips to make food from any country I liked.  I can grill, bake, braise, broil, steam, fry... Indian, African, Mediterranean, Chinese, Romanian, Mexican, American, Russian, French...the possibilities of what to cook, or what style restaurant to try was endless.  And I LOVE that.  What do the people in China eat? Chinese food...nearly always.  Delicious as it may be (usually..) I just get sick of it, I need variety! In bigger cities there are a few options for international food chains...KFC, McDonalds, Subway...but who wants that?? And we don't even have those.  There is a Hong Kong style restaurant in town that has a couple "international" dishes.  I tried their spaghetti bolognese, and I regret it.  It was very, very strange.  Finding the right spices in China for international dishes may be an issue, I sure havent seen much other than ginger, star anise and other classic chinese spices anywhere.  So this sauce for the bolognese I'm pretty sure was seasoned with cinnamon, star anise...and who knows what else.  It was thickened with rice powder and barely had a taste of tomato at all. To get the taste out of my mouth I had to go to the market, buy 8 lbs of tomato and make a proper sauce myself.  Luckily I thought ahead and brought all my spices from home :)  This was quite a breather.

 I do not have a food processor or a juicer to conviently remove all the skins and seeds for me.  So I first steamed them to make 'em nice and juicy then smashed them through a mesh strainer into a larger bowl to collect all the juice.  It was a LOT of work. 

 

Finaalllllyy I could squeeze no more.  Except I did this process 4 times. eeh.

 

 The end result.  Delicious homemade, chunky italian sauce.  And homemade noodles, cut with my ravioli crimper....haha.  It was awesome, if only I could find some nice olive oil or and cheese, my life would be complete.  <3