Winter foods.

What comes to your mind when you connect the dots between ‘food’ and ‘Beijing’? Peking duck. Now anything more? Then you may flashback to news reports of food quality issues in China which is more than merely the way food is handled. It goes all the way to the very core of food- is it real? From passing off pork as beef by dipping them in chemicals to manufacturing fake, rubbery eggs, how can one be sure that what you are eating is what you THINK you are eating? Well there is no way to know really. I go by my gut feel and after two years in China, I haven’t *touchwood* suffered from a bout of food poisoning as yet (though I’ve had fake eggs served to me at the school canteen once).

Don’t strike all the street food vendors off your list just yet, because as my favourite fried-potato-in-chilli-powder street hawker said, “We are parents who have children at home, and who are just trying to make a living. We won’t sell you anything we don’t want them to eat. We want you to come back, because we survive on your business.” But well, it is also true that I buy from her because 1) she is friendly and a regular sight outside the east gate and 2) there hasn’t been much any scandals about fake potatoes (probably because they are cheap and hence not economically sensible to try to reproduce chemically).  I stay away from the hawkers selling hotplate meat and probably will not go back to eating that in the near future thanks to the alarming frequency of reports about some hawkers selling rat’s or cat’s meat disguised as chicken skewers AND the use of drain oil (地沟油).

If you wondering what kind of ‘fakes’ China has, below is a graphic representation of the tip of the iceberg which I made for a presentation on a discussion about ‘Made in China’ when I was a freshman.

Now if you haven’t stopped reading out of sheer horror, here’s a more accurate picture of what I eat on an everyday basis. In fact I was inspired to write this because I was eating at the stall earlier and took a really nice picture which I thought ought to be seen by more people than just me.

One of my autumn/winter favourite eating place in school: 麻辣烫 (loosely translates to ‘spicy dip’, more accurately ‘numbingly spicy dip’). Tadaaaaaaaa!

What you have is all sorts of things on skewers (or satay sticks, as Singaporeans more commonly refer to it as), dipped in either the spicy or non-spicy soup base. Yes, there is a non-spicy soup base because a lot of people can’t tahan the numbing spiciness which lingers. I usually have one or two skewers from the spicy one then it is non-spicy all the way.

You can also ask for noodles面 /vermicelli 粉丝 , which will be cooked on the spot, during which you can hang around eating other stuff. It is pretty much a DIY meal- take what you want and eat it, and if they are out of it, just ask the auntie for it. Eat till you are full, and yeah, you eat standing around the two pots.

Cost of one item (skewer or noodles etc): 1 RMB (0.20 SGD) [*Note: Before you yell that it is cheap, you should know that last winter, it was only 0.80 RMB per item. There was a 25% price hike.]

I usually have 6-8 skewers plus a noodle or vermicelli. When it gets too cold in winter (think minus ten degrees or so), how many skewers I eat will depend on how fast my fingers freeze up after they leave the comfort of my very thick gloves. It is time to stop once the fingertips go from being numb to having a throbbing, slightly painfulsensation. My favourite items are sliced lotus roots 藕片, pork dumplings 饺子, spinach 菠菜, baby cabbage 娃娃菜and fish toufu 鱼豆腐. Heap them with a lot of sesame sauce 麻酱, it is simply TWO THUMBS UP.

Then after having a very satisfying 8 RMB meal, I bought myself a 冰糖葫芦 (sugar coated hawthorns 山楂). Though personally, because I don’t like the hawthorn fruit all that much, I got sugar coated grapes instead. The stall is open from September till April every year. The best time to eat it is during the strawberry season (mid-winter) because what makes a better pick-me-up than giant strawberries on a skewer coated with sugar?

Cost: Varies with what’s on the skewer. The hawthorn one costs about 3RMB, then other fruits can range from 4-9 RMB. There are also variations of the hawthorn skewer, usually with walnut 核桃, yam 山药 or red bean paste 红豆沙.

Well,that's all for now. If you ever come to Beijing, or to Northern China, these have to go on your to-do list! :D Now I’ve got to get back to researching Anglo-German naval rivalry in the 19^th century.  

Winter & "Punishment"?

Is this what comes to mind?

Waking up at 6am.

Walking barefoot in the snow until you can't feel your toes anymore.

Showering in ice cold water at midnight.

I'm going to write about something like that but not quite like it. I love winter because I can deck myself out in beanies, scarves and everything warm. But I have a love hate relationship with it for many reasons, one of it being our topic of the day: PHYSICAL EDUCATION aka 体育课. Coming from a sunny island meant that the first winter I truly lived through was in 2011 when I moved to Beijing for my undergrad studies. And one of the many things which stunned me was that the university had MANDATORY physical education classes. The story is that if I didn't complete 4 modules of PE classes, I can't graduate. End of story. Protest, complain, do what you want, but nothing will change this fact. 

Rules are as follows:

• One compulsory module (健美操 [aerobics] for girls, 太极拳 [taichi] for guys)
• Three other modules where you take what you like (the huge variety offered includes 羽毛球 badminton, 网球 tennis, 乒乓球 pingpong, 攀岩 rock climbing, 瑜伽 yoga, 健美 gymming, 地板球 floorball, 足球soccer etc )
• Compulsory fitness test (体质测试) for each semester of PE class (similar to NAPFA in Singapore schools) which you MUST PASS in order to pass PE
• Only ONE module of PE is allowed each semester
• Chinese students have to complete what is literally named extracurricular exercise (课外锻炼) in order to pass

So you be wondering what its like isn't it? Let me first unload the bad before I gush about the good:) PHYSICAL FITNESS TEST? I average a silver for my NAPFA, and I don't consider myself unfit. Yet what the test requires here is a little confounding. So you have the usual height and weight right, and what else? These are the top four which somewhat puzzles me.

#1: Lung capacity (肺活量)

What on earth...? So basically you go to that station, grab a funnel, attach it to a tube that resembles that of a mini vacuum cleaner's, inhale deeply and EXHALE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. The machine will reflect a number, usually ranging in the 1000s-3000s (idk what this is really:O all I know is that I have a larger "lung capacity" than my roommate since I have a bigger number hahaha). Blow three times, and they take the best result. 

What it shows, I don't know, but it makes me dizzy and somewhat weaker for the remaining tests. Aargh. The marks for this station is given after they peg it against your height and weight @.@

The passing criterion: 

NONE.

#2: Skipping (跳绳) - thankfully they removed this segment in the spring sem of year 2.

So a good student would, two weeks before the physical test, buy a skipping rope with a counter and practice. It looks like: 

I really see people meeting up to practice skipping together. Each time my heart goes into panic mode as I remember that I have yet to buy a skipping rope and that I REALLY SUCK AT SKIPPING. How is this a good measurement of physical fitness anyways? 

The passing criterion: 

Skip 100 times in a minute. To get a distinction? 160-180 depending on age and gender. 

Now go get a rope and try it for yourself. How long has it been since you skipped anyway (assuming you are not the health nut who skips to keep fit...)? Well for me, the answer prior to 2012 was, well a decade or so, maybe plus a few years. And they keep count by having you jump on top of a mat with a floor sensor of sort which will sense the number of times your feet leave and return to the mat surface. You can't even think of inflating your count by having a mutual agreement with the person who counts for you to bring you up to the passing grade (like for sit-ups hehehe).  

#3: 12 Minute Run (十二分钟跑)

What's so puzzling about the run? Nothing really, especially in sunny Singapore. In fact, when in school, the 2.4km run was the least of my worries, compared to things like say, standing broad jump. But when you factor in running in chilly October (10-16 degrees) AND the hazy air (PSI in the high 100s or low 200s), it knocks the wind out of you once you complete it. I think they know that, and that's why they test it on a day separate from the other components of the test.

My experience: running the first 400m with a thin down jacket on, feel warm, unzip the front for the next 400m, then zip it up when the cold air makes contact with perspiration, then deal with a runny nose for another 800m and a splitting headache inbetween the ears for the last 400m. All that plus a wave of nausea that lingers for half the day after the run. 

The passing criterion: 

1.7km(girls)/2km (guys) in 12 minutes. To get a distinction? 2.2km(girls)/2.6km (guys) in 12 minutes. 

#4: Sit and reach (坐立体前屈)

Again, nothing wrong with it. Except for the way they test you. If you touch your toes, that's ZERO CM. ie. DISASTER FOR PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO HAVEN'T TOUCHED OUR TOES SINCE WE WERE FIVE WITHOUT BENDING OUR KNEES. All I can say is lucky we don't have to hold it there for 5 seconds like we had to in Singapore. It really was touch and go, so I took a deep breath, squeezed my eyes closed and reached like there was no tomorrow. My result? 7.5 FREAKING CENTIMETERS (length of my middle finger- I went home after the test to measure it with a ruler). Seriously? And I swore I bent my knees a little unwillingly but no one spotted it cos I wore black tights and was sitting on a black mat.

If you are wondering, yes I know someone who got a negative score. Can you imagine the conversation at the dinner table? "I had a sit and reach test today and I reached negative 4cm." Laugh all you want and thank your lucky stars it isn't your story to tell.  

The passing criterion: 

A positive reading. 

Now that I have let off steam and share my worries about my impending physical test in October (I shall document it this time around:/), here are some pictures/stories of the good.

My first PE class was aerobics. Although I remain the girl who gets noticed because I always raised the same arm and leg, it was nevertheless a good experience overall. I had a very patient teacher (well worth the 91 points I spent bidding-it's a huge deal since we only get 99 points every semester) who always kept a straight face and an encouraging smile when I mess up. Brownie points for buying us mini Snickers too. 

My second class was FANTABULOUS except for the written exam at the end where one of the open ended question was to list the names of your teammates (in Chinese characters of course!) and I could only list three, with two being in pinyin. I'm just bad with names:O Name of the class? 拓展训练. Can't find an English equivalent term, but in simple words the activities we did every week resembled that of OBS. Three highlights:

天梯 (Heavenly Stairs): Climb to the fifth log with only the aid of your partner and nothing else. Requires immense trust, although I did earn some bruises on my arm from having to haul my partner up. To be fair, I stepped on his thigh and on his shoulders so I guess it was mutual bruising.

信任背摔 (Backfall- my translation does the Chinese name little justice really): Team forms a human net to catch the person up on that stand. Yellow cloth shown is used as a safety measure to prevent the falling person from panicking and then reaching out his arms to claw those who are catching him, and also for our TA to help control the direction of the fall.

10米高空跳 (10m leap): Pole I climbed was 10m high. Point was to leap to catch the handlebar. The part where I struggled the most was standing up because it requires a good sense of balance, which I have only a little of. The weather was not in my favor that day because there was wind, so i was just wobbling, both because I was scared and because of the wind, though I would like to think it was more of the latter. 

A photo with my teammates at the end of the semester. Our team name is shown on the flag: 笑傲. Our motto: 一统未名 (未名 being the name of our school's lake)

I guess the value in making PE classes mandatory is that it gives students an opportunity to meet students from other faculties, and it forces you to do some exercise each week instead of being a couch potato (roommate seconds this keke:)). The only parts I feel require improvement would be 1) the physical fitness test stations/criteria and 2) contingency plans for outdoor class in the event of smoggy weather which Beijing gets half the time. We can't all wear masks while having PE outside can we?   

My choice for PE this winter sem: SWIMMING (held indoors in heated pool wheeee.) No punishing myself by picking an outdoor class held in the brutal cold. 

pick-me-up cakes.

Two years ago I was dreading the idea of having to give up my love for cakes when I moved to Beijing. Beijing greeted me and my parents with some rain and her infamous traffic jam, and I still can't describe how it felt to be squished in the backseat of a tiny car which was stuffed to the brim with 70kg of luggage and us. There was the imminent fear of not being able to adapt due to my more than rusty Chinese, but also the need to be brave so mum knows that I am more than capable of living by myself in a city/country neither of us knew very much about.

Fast forward two years and I become the person missing this and that about Beijing over the summer holidays while I was in the US and Singapore. People give me the look I know so well when I tell them that I miss Beijing. "What's there to miss?", their eyes ask, as images of news headlines screaming tainted milk, fake eggs (well fake almost everything, really) and the smog come to mind. Well there is more to Beijing than that, if you give her a chance like I did.

So allow me to share one of my favourite things about living near Wudaokou (五道口): cakes from Cafe Bros (波罗斯咖啡)! That coupled with the fact that they deliver for FREE just bumps Cafe Bros up a few notches on my comfort food list. So obviously.... one of the things I had to do in my first week back in Beijing was to get reacquainted with these cakes.

From left to right: Crepe cake (薄饼蛋糕), Sweet Potato cake (红树蛋糕) and Strawberry Pie (草莓派). Pooh courtesy of yours truly.

I consider them value for money, despite them being priced similarly as cakes in Singapore (each slice costs about 22rmb) because they do wonders to my mood whenever I have them. They are kind of like my pick-me-ups, especially when it is a gloomy day in Beijing. Now as I am typing this I am yearning for a cake, but I really ought to exercise some self control since I had a very filling lunch thanks to it being Restaurant Week in Beijing.

Now if you are wondering how to eat a crepe cake, let me teach you. DO NOT ruin the good cake by sticking your fork in it and eating it like you would a cheesecake. So give the picture below a good look and PRACTICE, because we all know practice makes perfect.  

Steps: Insert one prong/tine of a fork between layer 1 and 2 at the sharp tip of the cake. Peel backwards until the entire layer is rolled up on your fork. Enjoy:)

By the time you get through all the layers in one slice, you would have mastered the fine art of crepe cake eating. If you haven't, you should be buying a second slice and starting over. Afterall, this is so much more enjoyable and easier than having to 将铁棒磨成针.

Unfortunately this was the one picture I managed before I polished off the cake, so no step by step guide. If you have the crepe cake sitting in front of you right now you'll understand why it is so hard to stop for pictures:)

Cafe Bros (波罗斯咖啡): 海淀区华清嘉园13号楼门东 (010-82865970)

Now I will get back to overdosing on Korean variety and Hong Kong dramas before semester officially begins tomorrow.