#35 - China

China is a tough country when it comes to a project like ours. It's huge. Both in population (1.4 billion, growing at 0.6% per year) by as well as in land mass (9.6 million square km). There is as much diversity both in culture and in cuisine as there is across the same geographic area elsewhere - it's just that you're usually crossing though several different countries elsewhere! As Ruth discovered, there is only 1 timezone in China, covering over 3000km or 5 geographic time zones. Other than sharing time and a government, there's not much else shared between the different areas of China.

For my 19th birthday, my friend Janet gave me a book of Chinese cooking. I haven't actually used it much (other than to make the most amazing steamed buns), but I have moved it across country multiple times largely because of the beautiful photos in it. Well, today it finally got a work out.

We chose to focus on Northern China, for no particular reason other than the fact that the recipes appealed to me. We made muxurou (moo shu pork) with cong you bing (scallion pancakes) and had zha hun tun (wontons with sweet filling) for dessert. We ate mushrooms we had never heard of before, and ended up using canned bamboo shoots because we couldn't find fresh, but overall it was a really good meal. The stir fry actually tasted a lot like Chinese take-out (which is what the kids had voted we actually do this week), but we've never seen the pancakes on a North American Chinese restaurant menu and they were by far the hit of the meal.

Best fun fact that Ruth found? Since 2013 it's actually illegal not to visit your aged parents. The law seems to have stemmed from stories of elder abuse and neglect, but I like the idea none the less. She also discovered that the Chinese invented both ice cream and soccer. Pretty interesting place!