Voila — my new office space. Complete with coffee, semi-natural lighting, and chatty PreK-ers on field trips, I can think of no better place to work on my job search than the National Portrait Gallery.

My schedule has changed a bit over the past month. I’m living 12 hours behind my old self and working in a different national capital. I miss the hutongs, the good food, the friendly people, and the Chinese soldiers in their camo Keds. But my new capital has its perks too. For one, the museums here are incredible. I browsed the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery this afternoon and almost went into sensory overload when I realized there were two more floors! The first floor was astounding – showing early American portraits (Ben Franklin, G Wash, etc.). Around the corner is a 21st century portrait gallery, including the famous poster for Obama’s campaign.

I had no idea how incredible the original poster is. Rather than three flat tones, the colors are actually various stencils over old newspaper clippings, giving it a beautiful density. An art critic for the New York Times called the poster “the most efficacious American political illustration since ‘Uncle Sam Wants You’.” I’d agree with that. I didn’t know much about the artist, Shepard Fairey, but apparently he’s the one who did all those Andre the Giant stickers you see plastered everywhere. Its gotta be nice to be a “street artist” with works in Smithsonian institutions.

Guess who? The gallery showcased other 21st century celebs – LL Cool J, Lyle Lovett, George Lucas, Ben Bernanke. This one of Bernanke was made of deconstructed dollar bills. Isn’t that illegal? All in the name of art, I guess.

I’ve settled in the atrium most days to type cover letters at my computer and think vaguely about future goals. Maybe if I’m here long enough they’ll give me a job & board like Tom Hanks in the Terminal. Here’s hoping.

This steamed dumpling recipe also looks good. With a pretty video to boot!

Although I’m an ocean away and busy job-searching now, sometimes I feel my heart is still in China. To remedy this, I recently did some research on the best Chinese cookbooks out there. Learning how to cook great Chinese food has always been high on my To Do list – but I either didn’t learn much from my past lessons or forgot everything due to my pea-size memory. Looking at detailed recipes and pretty pictures always helps for a refresher.

After browsing online, I went to the lib and got The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (Barbara Tropp) and Martin Yan’s Chinatown Cooking. The former is a picture-less, thick old textbook teaching you everything you could want to know about Chinese cooking. Barb doesn’t just tell you how to make a dish – she tells you why you should season a dish a certain way – how to balance the yin and yang of the food – which cleaver is best to avoid hacking your pork balls. It’s intensive but good for learning about Chinese food-ism. Martin Yan’s book is more fusion cooking, teaching “Chinatown” classics. I got it cause the pictures are pretty. Plus he has a super appealing Canto steamed fish recipe.

The first Chinese dish I craved is the hearty northern-style dumpling or jiaozi. I made these a few times in Chengdu with Stephanie’s family and still dream about my Beijing corner dumpling store and their tomato-and-egg dumplings. Heavenly.

Usually making dumplings is a massive family occasion. The whole clan gathers around the table and chats while dexterously folding the meat in moist round wrappers. As my mom had the flu and was unable to help me, I was alone in producing my dumplings. But it proved the theory that the more effort you put in something, the better it tastes – after a few hours chopping and folding, these beauties tasted incredible.

Pork & Cabbage Dumplings (Serves: An extended Chinese family)

Filling:

• 1 lb fatty pork (rib, shoulder, butt – or to make it easier, buy ground pork)
• 1 lb Napa cabbage
• 2 green onions, white and green minced (or 1/2 to 1 cup Chinese chives if you can find these at an Asian food store)
• 1 heaping tbl minced ginger
• 1 tbl Shao Xing rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 tbl Sesame oil
• 1 tbl light soy sauce
• 1 tsp salt, to taste
• 1 tbl cornstarch
• 1/4 to 3/4 cup chicken or pork stock

Separate the cabbage leaves and blanch in boiling water for about two and a half minutes. Let them cool; meanwhile, chop the pork with a cleaver into 3/16″ to 1/4″ inch homogenous filling. (Again, ground pork may be less tasty but easier.) Place chopped meat in a bowl. Wring out the water from the blanched cabbage using a kitchen towel, and chop to 1/4″ to 1/2″ pieces. Mix this together with the meat and all remaining filling ingredients, adding the cornstarch last.  Add chicken or pork stock slowly as you mix the filling in one direction. Continue adding stock until mixture is visibly wet and “sloppy.” If you’ve added too much liquid, and the filling is impossible to handle when making the dumpling, add more cornstarch to firm it up. Keep in mind that the filling will firm up when it is refrigerated. When you are ready to fill the dumplings, make one and boil it to test the flavor and texture, and making any adjustments at that time.

Wrapping the Dumplings:

I bought pre-made dumplings wrappers at the store as making the dough involves careful combining of boiling water and flour and a lot of rolling. If you want to be authentic, you can find the wrapping mixture online. If not, buy round frozen jiaozi or gyoza wrappers. Brush the outside edge of the dumpling with a little water to help it stick. Then place a large tablespoon of filling in the middle. Fold straight across in the middle – then create a “pleat” on the two sides. With your pointer finger, push the outer right corner in to create two folds – pinch the front fold with your thumb and pointer, the second fold with your pointer and middle finger. Do the same on the other side.

Confused yet? This rockin video might help.

Boiling the Dumplings:

In a large pot or kettle full of boiling water on high heat, add dumplings and stir gently to prevent them sticking to the bottom. Once the water is boiling fully, turn heat to med/med high, and boil for 4 to 6 minutes. Test the dumpling to make certain it is done. Serve immediately.

If you are boiling frozen dumplings, add approx 1 minute to the cooking time.

Dipping Sauce:

In China, you usually only use a basic dumpling vinegar, which you can probably find at Asian food stores. But we found this recipe for a sweet dipping sauce which was also really good.

• 1/2 cup light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup sweet soy sauce
• 2 tbl Shao Xing wine or dry sherry
• 2 tbl rice vinegar
• 1-1/2 Tab finely minced ginger, steeped in 1/4 cup hot water for 30 min.

Now sit and enjoy your jiaozi! And let me know if you find other dumplin filling recipes.

Air movement life no struggle

But where is roast fish?

This haiku sponsored by kao yu. I’m finally returned to the US and am planning to stay for a good amount of time. My jetlag has receded. My brain is still subconsciously confused by the culture changes. And I’m starting up with the dreaded post-grad job hunt. I’ve been living quite a different lifestyle here – instead of jumping metros, running around the city all day, and constantly subjecting my stomach to Chinese food – it’s been nice to take advantage of the ice apocalypse to rest at home, make yummy healthy food, and practice my yoga poses. But there’s no doubt I miss parts of China. I miss the interesting people I met there. And I miss the fish.

Oh the fish. Kao yu is a Beijing specialty that I’ve finally decided is my absolute favorite Chinese food. Gui jie, or Ghost Street, in Beijing has rows of red-lantern-adorned 24-hour restaurants that all sell this delicious staple – a fish grilled and then broiled in a spicy ma la broth of peppers, bean sprouts, tofu skin, and other vegetables. It takes about 45 minutes to roast, but once you get it on the table, it’s all worth it. We order the black fish, which yields less bones than the other fish and is mindblowing tender and flavorful. Split it between 3 or 4 people and you’re good for the night.

While it’s nice to be home and away from the harsh Beijing winter, occasionally a flashback of roast fish dinners with good friends bring momentary thoughts of returning to China to mind. One day, China, one day. For now, I need some r&r.

Hopefully I’ll get around to sharing some of my recent China tales in my downtime.

Going veg in China? Good luck. A few of my friends here in Beijing are vegetarians, and it’s still surprising to see the look on Chinese people’s faces when they say “我不吃肉” – “I don’t eat meat.” After a moment of flabbergastion, they’ll then grab the menu and point out the best chicken dish. What? You don’t eat chicken either? Well don’t worry, we have fish. No fish??? After a minute or so of this, they’ll finally settle down after you’ve ordered an egg dish or after they’ve convinced you to just pick around the meat chunks.

Yes, it’s rare in China to find dishes without even a little bit of meat hidden in there. But to have dishes without eggs or any animal products? That’s bold. One of my favorite lunchtime hangouts is Vegan Hut in Guomao. They serve up some mean cai that is not only all vegan (animal product-free) and relatively oil-free but also delicious. I head there once a week now for the lunch set – a plate of 6 different Chinese vegetable mixes, brown rice, and soup for 25 RMB. This one with sweet potatoes was scrumptious, and I didn’t have the usual post-Chinese-meal feeling of desperately needing an afternoon nap.

For more vegan/vegetarian restaurants in China, check out this great directory and eat veg to your heart’s delight: http://www.happycow.net/asia/china/beijing/

Vegan Hut Room 0912, 2/F, Building 9, Jianwai SOHO, Chaoyang district
朝阳区建外SOHO东区9号楼2层西南角商铺0912号

When asked to name one Chinese band, I bet 9 out of 10 times the answer you’ll receive from foreigners in China is “Carsick Cars.” This is certainly the band that inducted me into the Chinese music scene. And after a long US tour that included rocking SXSW, the band is probably known by more than just the occasional lao wai now. Then why is the popular rock trio suddenly calling it quits?

From an article on the Beijinger:

“We have made an important decision: Because of our different musical interests and different plans for our development, bass player Li Weisi and drummer Li Qing have decided to quit the band; Zhang Shouwang will continue the production of Carsick Cars with new members. The performance on November 16 will be the last performance by the original members.

Since our first practice and show in 2005, the three of us have put together two albums and given more than 100 shows in the past five years, including domestic and international tours. These have been the most important experiences and most beautiful memories of our lives.

In the future, Liqing and Li Weisi will put more focus on Snapline and Soviet Pop; besides Carsick Cars, Shouwang has also being working on projects like White+. It is also possible the three of us will work together on a freer music project in the future.”

Whether you’re a fan of Carsick Cars’ music or confused as to how this trio could develop such mass popularity (I’m somewhere in between), you can’t deny that they’ve developed a huge following among Beijing students and were a big part of what made the Beijing rock scene go viral.

So, as we bid adieu to CSC, the question is… who’s the next Zhongnanhai?

I’ve done an absolutely tragic job of maintaining any semblance of presence on this blog… but I yet again confess my misdeeds and would like to take up where we left off…

The last you heard from me I was a’roamin SE Asia, trying to deflect the travel jinx being avadra kedavra-ed at me and trying to stay positive about having not been home in ONE YEAR. I got to the point late this summer when all the traveling, delicious food-eating, and never-ending KTV sessions were failing to sustain me. I was homesick.

So I came home. To my parent’s beautiful new house in Atlanta. I faced a beautiful existence trouncing through polo fields with my puppies and making delicious dinners with the bro. I slept late, drank lots of coffee, and generally enjoyed watching trashy American TV.

All the while, I knew. I knew I would be coming back. I can’t lie to you and say I was ecstatic. Talk me this summer and you would’ve seen a grave girl.

But as I was climbing the elevator from the subway today, I realized that I… actually love Beijing. It started in low… then it started to grow. It’s grown on me like a strange fungus. While you become increasingly infuriated as day by day it spreads across you, you grow to become oddly comfortable with its presence on your marred flesh. The pockmarks that once seemed so large are now a natural part of your existence. (Not speaking from personal experience here.)

The pushing and shoving, the spitting, the bluntness, the staring… it’s all a normal part of my day-to-day routine now. While I wouldn’t say I encountered “reverse culture shock” on my return to the US, there’s a level of adrenaline inherent in living here that my body has grown accustomed to now.

For those of you who don’t know, I came to Beijing to start work at the Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship, an organization that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit in solving social problems. I’ve been able to attend many interesting events and meet incredible/soon-to-be-incredible people doing amazing things in Asia. I would like to turn this opus of bloggery into a devotion to my possibly short/long time left in China. I’ll keep y’uns up to date with all the blog-worthy things I’m doing here in the Jing. And hopefully this commitment will last longer than my past blog promises.

See ya about!

BG

This is no joke. These past few years I have been plagued by an unexplainable force which has prevented me from traveling via airplane in a timely manner. Usually this just involves a casual delay of an hour or so. On my way to China this past fall, it caused me and my fellow travelers to be delayed 8 hours in O’Hare before embarking on our 14 hour plane ride west. One time in college my plane even caught fire while in the air and we were forced to emergency land. I can count on one hand the number of times my flights have arrived without incident. And I’m very serious about warranting advise on how to rid myself of this jinx. While at first it was funny, it has now become extremely agitating and stressful. Like hiccuping for too long.

After many weeks of only slightly delayed flights with Deb, she returned home, leaving me alone and vulnerable, easy prey for the ravenous travel beast. It has struck twice now — first, I found out I was unable to change my flight home, leaving me in China for another 2 weeks. Then when I tried to leave the mainland to travel with some friends in Malaysia, my ticket was mysteriously cancelled. My name wasn’t even found in the airline’s system… Really???

After recuperating from the these two gruesome battles, I’m testing my flight curse one final time. On the bus to Hangzhou now… Then on to Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. Considering stopping in a traditional Chinese medicine shop in Hangzhou to see if they know anyone who can help blight this curse. Or at least if they have some sort of sedative tea I can brew up if the Rule of Threes follows its course…

I also want to apologize for the neglect of this blog as of late and for my inability to appropriately document my travels this year. I swear a blogging marathon is going to happen on the plane ride home… Things to look forward to: Handpickin tea and swimming in the sacred West Lake of Hangzhou. Coming face to face with the (ancient) Chinese army in Xi’an. Rocking out to some Super Junior and comparing sojus in Seoul. Spotting ladyboys, cooking up pad thai, and bathing elephants in Thailand. Late nights at Philipino police stations. Racing dragon boats in Hong Kong. And of course, karaoke. There is always karaoke…

Pray to the airport gods that I arrive safely in Kuala Lumpur!