Milk walk
There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, perhaps in the dairy department. Last year I overdid ice cream "tastings" in DC, and yesterday I might have matched the intake of all things that can...
View Articlethe proxy ate my post
The big C over here isn't just the country, but also the censors, who create barriers we must learn to jump over - good for the butt all that jumping. So to the proxies we go, trying one here, one...
View ArticleSaturday eats
9 am: one peach, a bit too firm, and not too sweet. More for crunch and aroma. It hasn't been a good summer for juicy, eat-over-a-sink peaches. 12:30 pm: a plate of jiaozi (pork and chive dumplings),...
View Articlethings we have to do for a job
here's the scenario: late sunday afternoon, three higher level students, with a better grasp of english. lesson topic: stress management; i printed out meditation exercises, one on breathing, one on...
View ArticleWet and wooly
There's been a larger than normal amount of western food taking a detour down my gullet of late, and is probably the reason my clothes are feeling like they are a tad tighter than a few weeks ago....
View ArticleXiamen food plans
Spiffiest bathroom in a Xiamen restaurant - The House 2, Coffee St/Yundang Lu, near the Marco Polo hotel. Note: the coffee was horrible (they may be using Illy but it tasted like dark dishwater)....
View Articlegratitude
I am thankful:1. for a roof over my head, even if it meant waiting for over an hour for the landlord to figure out which keys go with which lock. So close to a toilet and a wash, and yet so far.2. for...
View Articletesting, testing
Lay's potato chips in China is available in a lot of flavors. Plain (here called American style), barbecue, roast chicken, and I've come across one that looks like it incorporates chilli peppers and...
View ArticleBits and pieces of my 9/11
Morning fight with a colleague. Bitchy me comes out and makes the other person mad. He says "you're not in charge here!" and threatens to quit. Er, what a baby! Plus he should change his cologne, he...
View ArticleIt's a seller's market
The landlord of my current apartment is in the process of selling the place, and there are regular visitors everyday to view the apartment. This means in the mornings when I am usually doing little of...
View ArticleTimes are changing
Dark at 6, gusts, a certain nip, yes, autumn is not far. Rain this late afternoon/early evening, cool enough not to need the airconditioner on till later. I know I must prepare for winter, is this why...
View ArticleTater tots
Around the corner from the school lies a street without much too brag about, as ordinary a street in this city as any other. However, it does have a good assortment of streetfood carts, and being less...
View ArticleFirst love
The car - a white Porsche (methinks a Carrera), parked in front of a gate. The boy - about 4, walking behind his dad. He sees the car, walks close to it and peers through the dark windows, perhaps...
View ArticleAcoustic evening
Crash! Boom! Drip! There's a concert outside my window, no musical instruments, none of the traditional kind anyhow. It's Mother Nature, water cascading down from the clouds, at times intense,...
View ArticlePassing
I made my weekly call home and was sad to hear that my mom's longtime feline companion has died. I met Mika when she was given to my mom by a Japanese client of hers. She was 2 or 3 years old at the...
View ArticleCurry
I have five days left before I leave for my long journey home (given the bus trip down to Xiamen and the two hour plane ride home, it feels like I'm travelling as far as Hawaii for such a short...
View ArticleBattered
Ondoy has left us to spew further damage on the Indochinese peninsula, but a new set of storms are in our waters. The first one, int'l codename Parma (I can't help but think of it as a large leg of...
View ArticleIn hindsight
"How could you stay so calm?" he asked me. To be honest, I replied to him, thinking back to the events of Saturday and Sunday, I really can't say why I wasn't freaking out. Probably because there was...
View ArticleArticle 6
First one I remember seeing on this topic was Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant; this year another book on the same theme, What We Eat When We Eat Alone, pursued the idea of what sole diners munch...
View ArticleTransition phase
Six days in Wenzhou, two weeks in Quanzhou, two weeks in Fuzhou, and perhaps eventually settling down in Quanzhou if the big boss can make a decision for good. Teachers are shuttling around, some have...
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