To the Nines

I feel like complaining about the weather again would be repetitive, so let’s consider my moaning and groaning about the continued heat and humidity, and my impeding electric bill, said and done. Onwards!

In other news, I learned how to peel a dragonfruit.

It’s been a good week in eating. First, I enjoyed a delicious red dragonfruit. I love summer, just for the fruit. All along the street I can buy little peaches, plums, bananas, green oranges, lychee, and mangosteens.

Round lasagna. You eat it like pie.

Then yesterday, I made lasagna. It was delicious. If you’ve never gone to the effort of making your own béchamel sauce for your lasagna, I highly recommend it. It came out so velvety and flavorful (want a funny mental image? Okay, imagine me, making white sauce in a wok, stirring it with chopsticks). On the side, we had some sour ginger carrots. I made this recipe up, guys, and it’s delicious. You should try it. Just shred a carrot or two on a box grater, then in a lidded container mix 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, a quarter cup of white vinegar, a cup of warm-hot water, and the juice and pulp of a piece of fresh ginger the size of your thumb down to the first knuckle. Swirl until everything is dissolved and toss in the carrots. The liquid should cover them. If they’re not, adjust proportionally. Leave them in the fridge overnight. Drain them and eat within a week. Zingy zesty yum.

Follow the yellow brick road! 

This week’s day-off outing was to Up Down Nine Street (上下九路步行街), a pedestrian shopping street near the Changshoulu metro stop on Line 1. It’s the usual chaos of clothing stores, shoe stores, shouting salespeople, aggressive flyer distributors, foreigners, and visitors. It’s not quite up to the level of Beijing’s Silk Market (then again, what place is? What Hilter was to despotic dictators, the Silk Market is to tourist shopping opportunities), but it is good fun, nonetheless. I didn’t buy anything, but I did get a pedicure and take pictures of the interesting older architecture of the area, as well each of the statutes of traditional life dotting the road.



I thought about continuing on to the jade market area, since it is at the same stop, but I wanted to get back so I could eat leftover lasagna and write this post and get cracking on my real task for tonight. My homework. Yes, you heard me. I have homework to do. Say what you will about my tendency to procrastinate, but I finally got around to signing up for a Chinese class in my free time. Yes, I’m aware that I’m leaving China in less than a month and a half. At least I am doing it, right? Actually, I feel like I’ve done surprisingly well achieving some of my goals for my time here. But, that’s a topic for another post.

A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut, Kentucky Friend Chicken and a Pizza Hut.
McDonalds! McDonalds! Kentucky Fried Chicken
and a Pizza Hut.