RUSSIA?!?!?!
I had no clue Russia was going to be his next request. Little did he know, I wasn't the only one in for a shock....when he got his invite (YES! I did an invite this time!! ) it was NOT Russia we were headed to. it was CHINA!!!
Who knew I would be filled with such giddy glee when pulling over a small little trick...I'm not a prankster, AT ALL, and can hardly hold a straight face when trying to give someone a hard time or whatever, so rarely do I even attempt to be anything but straight up... it's just easier like that, but I successfully pulled this little heist over and am quite pleased with myself...clearly.... :)
Anyways, on to the post at hand- I was excited but curious to see how this date night was going to go. I fancy myself a pretty good cook in the kitchen, but I know I am no master chef, and Chinese food seemed daunting. I think maybe it was just the ingredient list- I keep a well stocked a pantry and my grocery list of things I DID NOT have was quite large this go around. I don't know- I guess I don't often cook with things like sesame oil, hoisin sauce, even fresh ginger...so I had to go buy all that stuff, and then despite popular belief, Chinese snack food items are difficult to find. Japanese- no problem. Korean- sure. Chinese-no way. I'm not sure what the deal with Chinese candy is, but it is no where to be found in my little neck of the woods. So I had to get creative. All in all, I feel I did pretty good on piecing together our stop in China.
"China is a populous nation in East Asia whose vast landscape encompasses grassland, desert, mountains, lakes, rivers and more than 14,000km of coastline. Capital Beijing mixes modern architecture with historic sites such as the Forbidden City palace complex and Tiananmen Square. Shanghai is a skyscraper-studded global financial center. The iconic Great Wall of China runs east-west across the country's north."
Currency: Renminbi
Official written language: Vernacular Chinese
Official script: Simplified Chinese
Cool Facts:
China is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, and the U.S.
One in every five people in the world is Chinese.
Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only
Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco
The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing
Despite its size, all of China is in one time zone
The number one hobby in China is stamp collecting
Giant Pandas (“bear cat”) date back two to three million years. The early Chinese emperors kept pandas to ward off evil spirits and natural disasters. Pandas also were considered symbols of might and bravery.
White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals
China is often considered the longest continuous civilization, with some historians marking 6000 B.C. as the dawn of Chinese civilization. It also has the world’s longest continuously used written language
The custom of binding feet (euphemistically called “golden lilies”) began among female entertainers and members of the Chinese court during the Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1279). Tightly wrapped bandages gradually broke the arch of the foot and caused the woman’s toes and heel to grow inward toward one another. Her leg muscles would also atrophy and become very thin. Bound feet were seen as highly sexual.
China invented ice cream, and Marco Polo is rumored to have taken the recipe (along with the recipe for noodles) back with him to Europe
Cricket fighting is a popular amusement in China. Many Chinese children keep crickets as pets
Historians speculate that as the Chinese population grew, people had to conserve cooking fuel by chopping food into small pieces so that it could cook faster. These bite-sized foods eliminated the need for knives and, hence, chopsticks were invented
The most important holiday in China is the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. Chinese traditionally believe that every person turns one year older on the New Year and, thus, that day is considered to be everyone’s birthday
Red symbolizes happiness for the Chinese and is commonly used at Chinese festivals and other happy occasions such as birthdays and weddings
The oldest piece of paper in the world was found in China and dates back to the second or first century B.C. Paper was so durable, it was sometimes used for clothing and even light body armor
During the first half the twentieth century, Shanghai was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the Holocaust without an entry visa.
In the Tang dynasty, anyone with an education was expected to greet as well as say goodbye to another person in poetic verse composed on the spot.
The bat is a traditional good luck symbol that is frequently depicted in designs for porcelain, textiles, and other crafts.
In some parts of China, “pigtails” were associated with a girl’s marital status. A young girl would wear two pigtails, and when she married, she would wear just one. This may have contributed to the Western view that pigtails are associated with children and young girls
In ancient China, mirrors were believed to protect their owners from evil, making hidden spirits visible and revealing the secrets of the future. A person who had been scared by a ghost could be healed by looking in the mirror. Mirrors were often hung on the ceilings of burial chambers
In 2007, dog food and toothpaste products made in China were recalled because they contained poisonous ingredients. In July, China’s head of the State Food and Drug Administration was found to have accepted bribes from pharmaceutical companies. He was executed.
The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were the most expensive games in history. While the 2004 Athens Games were estimated to cost around $15 billion, the Beijing Games were estimated to cost a whopping $40 billion
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| This is my attempt at Chinese calligraphy!! |
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| I know fortune cookies aren't Chinese, but I was desperate and frantically grasping at anything I could!! :) |
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| pork n' seeds. I love this stuff. I didn't prepare this- just bought it from the store. |
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| It was OK. No carbonation and I'm always weirded out by drinks in cans that aren't carbonated or have no sugar...just not my thing BUT it really did taste like sugar cane. |
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| it was so good....so so SO good! |
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| Egg Tarts. Apparently super popular in China, but specifically Hong Kong. It is exactly what it looks and sounds like- egg custard baked in a pie shell basically. It was ok. I like custard, so it was more my style than Louis. Louis doesn't really like the texture of custard, so this, even though baked in pie shell, was still not really his cup of tea. |
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| This movie was pretty good. Basically the hero is telling his side of the story of how he accomplished killing three of the emperor's most feared enemies. As he tells the story the emperor begins to not believe him, so then the emperor tells his idea of how it was accomplished, and then lastly, you see how it was really accomplished. It has subtitles so you need to get used to that, but otherwise the cinematography (is that even a real word?!) on it was awesome- kinda like that Matrix is how I would describe some of the 'moves.' |
