Entries tagged with “bisco chito cookie baking with gina and mickeys birthday part in suzhou” from LINDY-LOO'S LIFE
'Tis the season to be jolly!
And Gina and I, going against our feelings (or lack thereof) regarding this Christmas season, spent last Friday baking goodies. The effort was threefold: to get into the spirit of the season, to make some presents, and to get drunk. (ok, the last one was just my thing).
Gina spent the early part of her childhood in New Mexico and so our first project was to make these amazing Mexican Christmas cookies called Bisco Chitos. If you want to try to make them yourself, just make short bread cookies, then add about a half a cup of OJ, a tablespoon of anise, and then add more flour to get the texture right. When you put them on the pan, top them off with cinnamon sugar before popping them in the oven at 325F for 10 minutes.
This was the oven we had to work with. It is the only oven on the entire school campus. Val, the woman teacher from Ottawa has it in her apartment. Chinese people don't have ovens for the most part.
And yes, there just so happens to be a drink in my hand. It is champagne and orange juice. So Christmassy!
The following night, Gina, Linsey and I went to our first Chinese birthday party. The lucky birthday boy was Mickey, some random guy who stopped to talk to Gina last week while she was struggling to determine what the heck she was looking at while shopping for groceries. This is the crew that came to dinner. Mickey is the guy furthest on the right. They were actually quite unreserved for Chinese peeps, so it was really fun.
Birthday parties in China are different in a few ways. For one, the birthday boy pays for everything. For two, it revolves around food and a very long meal. And for three, you are not really supposed to get the birthday boy a present...they are supposed to get you something! Needless to say, I was stoked to be a guest!
We ate hot pot for dinner. This is like a soup version of fondue. There is a big, boiling bowl of broths in the middle of the table and you order whatever you want (in this case, extra pig intestine and whole, live shrimps) and when it comes to the table, you plop it into the broth and then fish it all out with your chopsticks as the night goes on.
I ate a shrimp whole. It was.....crunchy....and I couldnt get the eyes, brains and antennae out of my head. Too many invertebrate labs in my Univesity career. But I managed to swallow and then guzzled some beer to make it all better.
Which brings me to yet another story about me drinking. Well, I didnt really drink a lot that night. Even so, the Chinese kids at the table started calling me Janada Jiugui (pronounced jew-gway). This directly translates into Canadian alcoholic. (They were somewhat stunned that I was shooting 56% bijiu...that Chinese white wine I have told you about) But really they claimed it just means someone who likes drinking.... Yeah I do!
It is very rare for Chinese women to drink. And you would never find one keeping up with the boys...it would be considered unrestrained, of which Chinese women are made to believe they should always be. Hey, at least they don't bind their feet anymore.
If you look closely, the only person in this picture without beer in their glass is the Chinese girl.
And Gina and I, going against our feelings (or lack thereof) regarding this Christmas season, spent last Friday baking goodies. The effort was threefold: to get into the spirit of the season, to make some presents, and to get drunk. (ok, the last one was just my thing).
Gina spent the early part of her childhood in New Mexico and so our first project was to make these amazing Mexican Christmas cookies called Bisco Chitos. If you want to try to make them yourself, just make short bread cookies, then add about a half a cup of OJ, a tablespoon of anise, and then add more flour to get the texture right. When you put them on the pan, top them off with cinnamon sugar before popping them in the oven at 325F for 10 minutes.
This was the oven we had to work with. It is the only oven on the entire school campus. Val, the woman teacher from Ottawa has it in her apartment. Chinese people don't have ovens for the most part.
And yes, there just so happens to be a drink in my hand. It is champagne and orange juice. So Christmassy!The following night, Gina, Linsey and I went to our first Chinese birthday party. The lucky birthday boy was Mickey, some random guy who stopped to talk to Gina last week while she was struggling to determine what the heck she was looking at while shopping for groceries. This is the crew that came to dinner. Mickey is the guy furthest on the right. They were actually quite unreserved for Chinese peeps, so it was really fun.
Birthday parties in China are different in a few ways. For one, the birthday boy pays for everything. For two, it revolves around food and a very long meal. And for three, you are not really supposed to get the birthday boy a present...they are supposed to get you something! Needless to say, I was stoked to be a guest! We ate hot pot for dinner. This is like a soup version of fondue. There is a big, boiling bowl of broths in the middle of the table and you order whatever you want (in this case, extra pig intestine and whole, live shrimps) and when it comes to the table, you plop it into the broth and then fish it all out with your chopsticks as the night goes on.
I ate a shrimp whole. It was.....crunchy....and I couldnt get the eyes, brains and antennae out of my head. Too many invertebrate labs in my Univesity career. But I managed to swallow and then guzzled some beer to make it all better.
Which brings me to yet another story about me drinking. Well, I didnt really drink a lot that night. Even so, the Chinese kids at the table started calling me Janada Jiugui (pronounced jew-gway). This directly translates into Canadian alcoholic. (They were somewhat stunned that I was shooting 56% bijiu...that Chinese white wine I have told you about) But really they claimed it just means someone who likes drinking.... Yeah I do!
It is very rare for Chinese women to drink. And you would never find one keeping up with the boys...it would be considered unrestrained, of which Chinese women are made to believe they should always be. Hey, at least they don't bind their feet anymore.
If you look closely, the only person in this picture without beer in their glass is the Chinese girl.
I've gotta give Linsey props for not only shooting bijiu with me (although she did not know it was 56% when I poured her a shot) but also trying a whole shrimp with me. Atta girl!
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