A slice of life, how sweet

          I have come to the realization, or perhaps I knew it all along. It is this: I can only take so many pictures of nights out for dinner, KTV, and clubbing before my blog's motif becomes dull. I hinted at some articles on my day to day life. Here they come.

        In actuality my life here is not as eventful as one would expect. Once you have lived in a place for awhile you find ways to make it your home. Once you have settled into your work and free time flow not much else will happen. I don't see it as negative, I think I would be exhausted if I were constantly looking for new things to do. If someone told me 5 years ago that I would wake up early on Saturdays and go to a yoga class then for coffee with a friend, I probably wouldn't believe them. It sounds idealized. But it is my life, and it's beautiful.

      Is that wrong of me to not be out experiencing things all the time? I don't think so. I have my bucket list of places and things in Asia, China, and Shenzhen I would like to do. But rushing to accomplish everything will only render me exhausted. It is important that  during the colorful blur of life that you take time to pause. I imagine not pausing to enjoy life's moments as that psychedelic boat scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the original). An overwhelming amount of stimuli that begins as a visual splendor but quickly turns to over stimulation and mania.

             Last night was my  first Friday going out in at least a month. I have been taking my Friday nights to pause. I have a couple of friends over and we watch movies or bake cookies. Quite frankly it has been lovely. I would have it no other way. Some of my friendships here have become much stronger because of it. I don't think it is the passage of time, but that we are taking time the same time to pause.

         Instead of rushing out of my village like I usually do, the other day I took in the scenery. Anyone who has come to visit has said my neighborhood is very lively. There are always tons of street vendors selling clothes, roasted chestnuts, grilled sausage, and a few street BBQ places. I think the vendors are my favorite part. They will also be the demise of my diet.

        I only know him as "Bread Man." He makes these fried dough discs filled with seasoned pork. I used to go so often he once told me in Chinese, "You didn't come yesterday." Yeah, I didn't come yesterday because these are delicious and bad for me.

    I also have dim sum cart right outside of my school. Like less than 100ft away. I think in one week I tried every dim sum the cart had to offer. Most of them were sweet, durian or taro flavored. There was one savory one, which was the only disappointing one so far.

     Fried squid cart. I pass this every time I walk to the metro to go to exercise class and return. They can be difficult to resist, but they take like 7 minutes to cook so I just breeze by. "Ain't nobody got time for that."

     Next is the naan bread cart. This one I find quite fascinating. He has an oven under his cart with a small opening. He rolls out the raw dough and reaches his hand sans mitt into the oven and sticks the dough to the side. He removes it in the same way.  I can't imagine his pain tolerance to burns from doing this. 

      Then there are the soup stands. Right next to the stand are baskets of vegetables you can pick out. They cook the vegetables in this giant pot of broth. I usually load up on bean sprouts, cabbage, mushrooms, and cilantro. The soup is topped with some greens, always delicious, and relatively guilt free. It is just vegetables and broth right?

         There was a song that said, "Sometimes we save the best for last." Duh! I saved my favorite street eat for last. Street BBQ or  烧烤 (shao kao) is easily the list topper in the foods I crave when I am drunk off cheap Chinese beer. I like it sober too. But be warned, it is a double edged sword. I hear plenty of stories about food poisoning, but not enough to stop me from going .

      It is a cooler filled with skewered meats and vegetables. You fill up your basket and hand it to the person grilling. When you try it for the first time your McDouble  and fries just won't measure up anymore. 

  

  I am going to miss this eggplant. It is must have for me. And by must have I mean I don't like to share. I plan on figuring out this recipe and impressing my American friends. It seems to be just garlic, green onions, and chilis roasted to stringy gooey perfection.

 

         I had to get my picture taken to remember going to street BBQ. On this particular occasion I was sober and introducing my friends to street BBQ for the first time.