Pandapassport Blog - Life in China
From Dalian, China --- "What are those wacky Dongbei-ren up to today?"
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Learn Chinese, then Cross the Bridge
Ok. So I've been studying Chinese for two semesters now, and I have to say it does make a big difference in my daily life. When I was in an elevator yesterday, a tiny little smurf of girl pointed out to her her mom that there was a "Bairen" (white man) in their presence. If I had no chinese, I could never have pointed back and accusingly answered "huangren!" (yellow person). Ah, good times, good times...
Aside from all this "greater cultural understanding" muck, what's really the greatest advantage to learning Chinese? Well, the biggest impact that learning Chinese has made on my daily life is this: Two words -- Delivery Food.
I'm a whore for Pizza Boy - not for their Pizza (which is a little mamahuhu) - but for their potato korokke, aka beautiful little deep-fried mashed-potato cakes. 8 kuai per pair. Luh-ovely...
Today I discovered yet another delivery gem - Delivery noodles. Yes, noodles. I love how the Chinese don't limit delivery food to stuff you can put in a box or a paper bag. If it can be eaten, it can be sent.
Note: For any dirty minded cork-soakers out there thinking, "Oh yeah, can they send poon?" ---well, yes, I'm pretty sure they can...
Anyway, whether they put it in a plastic shopping bag, or in a little plastic tub, noodles - and even soups - can be sent. I had a bit of a sore throat today, and these guoqiao mixian (or "Crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, see recipe here) hit the spot. Sore throat feels much better. So if you're sick in bed in China, and you don't want to go out for food, I highly recommend this course of action. It's much better than sucking back ketchup packets, which is what I used to do in the past.
A word about "Crossing-the-bridge" noodles. They got a bunch of vegetables and even some kinda bird egg in a nice broth. But the noodles are added last, poured from one bowl into the other, hence the name "Crossing-the-bridge." I thought it was going to be some mystical story about a young virgin peasant girl building a bridge (possibly a bridge of noodles) across the Yellow River to reach her true love on the other side, who's been alone in his hut crying a thousand tears because he's just dying to give 'er the dirty sanchez.
I mean really... Someone needs to porn-up these Chinese myths. They get a little stale after a few thousand years.
Tags: China, Chinese, Dalian, food, cooking, study, mandarin, dirty sanchez, pandapassport, newfie, lays, ketchup, pineapple, crush
Panda-monium for June 10: Why the fuck are there no ketchup flavored Lays potato chips anywhere else in the world but Newfoundland?! Can anyone confirm that they exist outside my province? Cause I've never seen it... How about Pineapple Crush? They still sell Pineapple and Lime Crush in Newfoundland. Is it nowhere else?
Aside from all this "greater cultural understanding" muck, what's really the greatest advantage to learning Chinese? Well, the biggest impact that learning Chinese has made on my daily life is this: Two words -- Delivery Food.
I'm a whore for Pizza Boy - not for their Pizza (which is a little mamahuhu) - but for their potato korokke, aka beautiful little deep-fried mashed-potato cakes. 8 kuai per pair. Luh-ovely...
Today I discovered yet another delivery gem - Delivery noodles. Yes, noodles. I love how the Chinese don't limit delivery food to stuff you can put in a box or a paper bag. If it can be eaten, it can be sent.
Note: For any dirty minded cork-soakers out there thinking, "Oh yeah, can they send poon?" ---well, yes, I'm pretty sure they can...
Anyway, whether they put it in a plastic shopping bag, or in a little plastic tub, noodles - and even soups - can be sent. I had a bit of a sore throat today, and these guoqiao mixian (or "Crossing-the-bridge rice noodles, see recipe here) hit the spot. Sore throat feels much better. So if you're sick in bed in China, and you don't want to go out for food, I highly recommend this course of action. It's much better than sucking back ketchup packets, which is what I used to do in the past.
A word about "Crossing-the-bridge" noodles. They got a bunch of vegetables and even some kinda bird egg in a nice broth. But the noodles are added last, poured from one bowl into the other, hence the name "Crossing-the-bridge." I thought it was going to be some mystical story about a young virgin peasant girl building a bridge (possibly a bridge of noodles) across the Yellow River to reach her true love on the other side, who's been alone in his hut crying a thousand tears because he's just dying to give 'er the dirty sanchez.
I mean really... Someone needs to porn-up these Chinese myths. They get a little stale after a few thousand years.
Tags: China, Chinese, Dalian, food, cooking, study, mandarin, dirty sanchez, pandapassport, newfie, lays, ketchup, pineapple, crush
Panda-monium for June 10: Why the fuck are there no ketchup flavored Lays potato chips anywhere else in the world but Newfoundland?! Can anyone confirm that they exist outside my province? Cause I've never seen it... How about Pineapple Crush? They still sell Pineapple and Lime Crush in Newfoundland. Is it nowhere else?
10 Comments:
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i think the purpose of learning chinese(and any other language) is not only retorting little girl and convenience in ordering delivery food, but also appreciating the local culture and better communication with the native people. so please respect the chinese traditional culture first.
good luck and have fun in china.
Dates are completely arbitrary and likely wrong
@yj: It's just a joke. Lighten up. And if you want Rick to use Chinese to "appreciate the local culture and better communicate with native people", tell the native people and local culture to stop referring to him by his skin colour. It's rude.
@everyone - for those of you who can't understand yj's chinese, here's an English version of the story which Rick didn't bother to research! Come on man - respect the local people's culture :P
Cross the Bridge Noodles are a kind of long, thin rice noodle from Yunnan province. The story of Cross the Bridge Noodles dates back over 100 years. The legend says there was a scholar, who every day, would go to an island in the middle of a lake, to read. And every day, his wife would cook his meals and take them to him on the island. But the island was far from their home, and she had to cross a long bridge to get there, so the food was always cold by the time she arrived. The wife was worried that her husband would become ill.
One day, the scholar's wife boiled some chicken broth for her husband to drink, and set out for the island. When she arrived, they discovered that the broth was still piping hot. They looked carefully, and found that a layer of fat on the surface of the broth was preserving the heat. So from then on, every day, the scholar's wife boiled a bowl of piping hot chicken broth for her husband, and separately took some cold meat, vegetables and rice noodles. Only when she had reached her husband on the island did she put the cold ingredients into the broth to make a delicious hot noodle soup. The scholar never again had to eat cold noodles. Because the scholar's wife had to cross a long bridge to reach the island, the dish is called 过桥米线 (guò qiáo mǐ xiàn) - Cross the Bridge Noodles.
respect my authority!
as for you yj, thanks for your mixian info.
But let me play devil's advocate for a second...
if "the purpose of learning chinese(and any other language) is....but also appreciating the local culture and better communication with the native people, let me ask you this:
Why do Chinese people study English and Japanese?
I have to explain, I don't try to insult china. Some bad things happen to foreigners in China, and if I talk about them, the reason that I do so is not because I want to insult China.
This issue is only a matter of "audience." The English part of my site is for foreign readers. I would not say these things on my Chinese site. Most Chinese people will live here forever. I do not want to make them focus on all these bad things (unless it's a REALLY important thing).
One of the purposes of my English website is to tell other foreigners about my life in China.
If they want to come to China, this is useful information. Realistic information.
Another purpose of my site is trying to entertain. Or write something funny. In my culture, you can make jokes about almost anything or anybody. In Chinese culture, you sometimes cannot.
As I said, the English part of this website is for foreign readers. You are welcome to read it, but don't be surprised if I sometimes write some negative things. I like China, but there are two sides of the coin, and I hope to show that.
I'm not going to change what I write on this site too much just because I am in China. Even though my site has Chinese characters and is about China, it is not a "Chinese website."
Please understand that I come from a different place, where different things are acceptable.
Thanks for the discussion,
See ya soon. :)
I am working for DUFE (东北财经大学) in Dalian and used to know lots of foreigners do have complaints about bad things here,but they still like China. That is perfectly understandable. I mean we Chinese complain a lot about unfair things as well. Your website is entertaining and offers a different perspective of China and Dalian through a foreigner'
s eyes. That's why i am here. But I am free to say how i feel and what i see as a Chinese too, right?
From what I've read, Rick only insults people who undoubtedly deserve it, yet other people take offence just because they're Chinese. You don't know these people, so why get all huffy?
Besides, I didn't read anything in this post that could be considered an insult to Chinese people or Chinese culture . . . enlighten me.
And Rick . . . ketchup packets, that's just wrong! I hope you'll stick with the guo qiao mi xian.
Yes, you're very welcome to read and give your opinion.
I think these dicussions, even if we disagree, will help us understand each other more.
They also have some here, in the form of Capico chips, I think.
I'm plagued by uncertainty.