Where is Elizabeth?

Christmas was as good as can be expected here.  It is definitely getting more popular, but still mainly exists as just decorations.  We decorated a little in our apartment and our building threw up some of their own.  Our school had a Christmas performance, the majority of which was mediocre KTV-type singing of Chinese songs, but there were also some skits and two of my students played violin.  Nathan had to participate in a stupid and ultimately dangerous game involving candles.  On Christmas Eve, we went to a friend’s apartment for a cheesy celebration.  Our Christmas lunch was at a Beijing duck restaurant followed by an illness for me, which may or may not have been actually caused by the restaurant, leading to a new-found rancor for duck.  So, all in all…interesting, to say the least.

We have had a successful holiday season this year.  There was a Halloween party with colleagues and friends.  Nathan was a cowboy (a stretch, I know) and I was Jem.  There were fake mustaches involved which provided hours of fun.  Not much Halloween candy, but that is probably a good thing.

Next came Thanksgiving. We held it in the same place as the Halloween party and ate at a ping pong table. It was like the Chinese version of The Beverly Hillbillies. Nonetheless, we had a great time. We got a whole turkey which Nathan carved the best he could with a paring knife. I went to the store to get a serrated knife and could not find even one! We all pitched in on the rest of the food and it was all delicious. For those of you who don’t know, turkey is very rare in China and is really only ever available around holidays outside of Beijing or Shanghai. Most cities probably never have it ever.

Now we’re ready for Christmas. I put up our sparse decorations today and I will start listening to Cajun Christmas soon. Happy Holidays everybody!

As you may or may not have heard, eggs are also out here in the Melamine Kingdom.  I tossed the ones I had and now am left wondering, “What can be substituted for eggs?”  Obviously, there are not Egg Beaters here, so instead of forgoing pancakes I searched for possibilities.

The Post Punk Kitchen provides a recipe for Scrambled Tofu.

And here are the possible substitutions:

• 2 tbsp corn starch = 1 egg
• 2 tbsp arrowroot flour = 1 egg
• 2 tbsp potato starch = 1 egg
• 1 heaping tbsp soy powder + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg
• 1 tbsp soy milk powder + 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water = 1 egg
• 1 banana = 1 egg in cakes
• 2 tbsp water + 1 tbsp oil + 2 tsp baking powder= 1 whole
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed simmered in 3 tbsp water = 1 egg
• 2 tbsp water + 2 tsp baking powder = 1 egg
• egg white = dissolve 1 tbsp plain agar powder in 1 tbsp water. Whip, chill and whip again.
• 1/4 Cup tofu = 1 egg (blend tofu smooth with the liquid ingredients before they are added to the dry ingredients.)

If you want to reduce your cholesterol (or avoid kidney stones), perhaps this will be useful to you.  Wonder what is next on the list of contaminated foods?

Before the holiday I took my two classes to the local zoo as part of a project.  Nathan, Jason and Lily helped me chaperone and had their own groups. Ever since I saw a horrible zoo in Yunnan Province, I have avoided zoos in China.  The animals were in tiny concrete cages and many visitors tossed whatever they could find into the cages (food, cigarettes, trash) to try to get a response from the animals.  I saw some of that and I took some Oreos away from a student who wouldn’t stop giving them to the monkeys.  Some of the Nanjing zoo was alright and the panda enclosure was downright impressive to honor the national animal, but too much of it was still heart wrenching and I won’t be going back.

My group started in the reptile house.

As you may be able to see, the alligator has a wound above its eye. It was laid out on a slab in a glass case with nothing else in it and even though reptiles are not my favorite, I felt bad for the creatures. The crocodiles were behind glass in tanks barely big enough to hold them. The one seal was also housed in a glass tank without anything but some dirty water. Seals are social creatures, but this one was all alone in the reptile house (I’m still confused about why it was in there to begin with).  There was a guy feeding it fish while we were there.

We moved on to monkeys. There were many types of monkeys, some in large cages outside and some on “Monkey Hill”. Monkey Hill was a desolate rocky structure full of this one kind of monkey I always see in China. They are the “performing” monkeys. Occasionally, you will see a man with a monkey, dragging it around the city on a rope making it do jumps and beg for money. I refuse to give them money and I scold the owner with all the Chinese I can muster for such a situation. My Chinese friend recently told me that he tried to buy one off a guy to set it free, but the going price was 3,000 yuan.  Ironically, we wandered into the animal performance area and saw zoo employees with some of these monkeys dressed in little clothes, making them walk along wires and do tricks.  The students wanted to leave almost immediately, saying, “It’s not funny.”  “No, no it isn’t,” I said.

The large monkey enclosures were the saddest of all. They were grimy concrete rooms with metal parallel bars, the only source of entertainment for these active and intelligent animals. The two we saw were either pacing back and forth or sitting glumly at the glass. The students were also startled and saddened by their situation and tried their best to cheer the poor creatures up.

We also saw wolves methodically pacing back and forth in concrete cages about the size of my bathroom.  I felt so bad for them.  They need so much room to run and wander, but they were stuck in tiny cages.  This was a recurring problem throughout the zoo: enclosures that were too small.

On to the red pandas (not actually pandas at all), one of the cutest animals in the world. Two of them came out to investigate our presence. They are curious and friendly and more like raccoons than pandas. Their enclosure was grassy with indoor and outdoor sections.

The large pandas were housed together in a grand structure also with indoor and outdoor parts. We watched two younger ones clumsily wrestle around.

We last went to the big cat section. We saw lions and tigers and white tigers, but the main attraction was baby ligers! I know what you are thinking: They aren’t real. But according to Wikipedia, they are. It is when the father is a lion and the mother is a tiger. They are the largest of the large cats. There is another version with the father being a tiger and they are called tigons. These hybrids rarely occur in the wild and breeding them is frowned upon by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

We finished our tour of the zoo and rounded up to leave.   Jason took a picture of me with our two groups and we headed to the bus to go back to school.

Last week I discovered that the Master Kong brand bottled water we buy is actually tap water. This would be deception under any circumstances, but is especially upsetting because China’s tap water has to be boiled before it can be consumed.  I try to avoid this water (even when it has been boiled) in restaurants when they serve it with tea or in soups.  So to have both consumed it and paid for it makes me especially angry.

This week it is all dairy products.  Investigations began when an infant died from drinking Sanlu brand infant formula.  The formula was found to contain melamine, presumably to increase its protein reading.  Four babies have died and over 6,000 are sick with kidney stones or failure.  Not to be outdone, Sanlu was joined by Mengniu and Yili.  Further test results showed that nearly 10 per cent of samples from the two companies were tainted with melamine.  Now, all Chinese dairy products are suspect.  Starbucks in China has stopped using milk and is only offering soy milk in their drinks.  They were previously supplied by Mengniu.  Today, I poured out the milk I had and bought Rice Dream.

All of these cases of fraud are unscrupulous.  Master Kong wanted to make easy money.  Bottle tap water, call it “mineralized water” from a “high-quality source” and rake in the cash.  Inexcusable, but at least no one was in imminent danger.  The dairy industry went further and put, not just their own customers, but the infants of their customers in jeopardy.  And the government continues to fail in its quality control of the food industry. Sanlu was excused from quality checks because it was deemed by the government to be a company with high standards. Apparently, nothing was learned from the pet food, toothpaste, lead toy debacles. And no one was deterred by last year’s execution of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration as the chicanery continues…

Update:  I have now just found out that Party members have their own special, uncontaminated food supply.  I’m sure they will get right on this then.

Nanjing is the pround recipient of a new IKEA.  Fortuitously, my friend Lily just moved and was in need of low-priced Swedish housewares, so we went on opening day.  There were free viking hats and we snacked on hot dogs and black licorice.  We also went to a home improvement store not unlike Home Depot, called B & Q.

We had to go to a banquet held for staff and teachers.  As is common for such an occasion, virtually none of the food was edible (in my opinion).  Many of you know that I am a picky eater, although I am getting better.  One type of food I am still not keen on is seafood.  Unfortunately, it seems that seafood gives the host a lot of face and so there was plenty to be had.  See for yourself if you would be willing to dine at a Chinese banquet:

I had a pretty good birthday. Saturday was a shared party for me and my friend Jason. We went out to eat and then for drinks. On my actual birthday (Tuesday), my parents called me in the morning and then I went for dinner at a little French restaurant with Nathan and two friends. Both celebrations were special and I am glad I was surrounded by good friends and delicious food. Thank you everyone!

I could have stayed at home or gone to a bar to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, but I guessed that if I walked around I would encounter some interesting scenes. I was right. People were gathered around televisions watching the event together. They smiled and asked me to join them; they asked me what country I am from. There was a party complete with cheerleaders at McDonald’s. My feet are sore, but I’m glad I ventured out. Here’s what I saw: