Kiss the Cook!

This month our assignment as a class was to cook a traditional Chinese meal (with less than traditional means). My good friend Natalie and I were the chefs for the evening, and created a rather nice meal (Natalie is also going on the China trip… her blog is http://www.NatalieWChina2010.blogspot.com). I’m not very good at cooking, and would have been completely lost without the help of my little sister, Savannah (the chef in the family) and me and Natalie’s friend, Katie. Here’s to our sous-chefs, who made sure things went smoothly! We couldn’t have done it without you!

On the menu is huo tui tan ch’ao fan (for those of you who do not speak Chinese… myself included… this is ham and egg fried rice), egg drop soup, hot bananas in coconut milk, and a favorite between Natalie and myself; homemade fortune cookies (again not exactly traditional… fortune cookies originated in California, but still very fun to make!).

We made the fried rice first. The first thing we did was heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, adding in chopped onions. Then we stirred in rice, eggs, salt, and ham. After about 5 minutes we added soy sauce. This dish was very good, however we ran into a problem with the rice. The recipe called for cold cooked rice. We had just made the rice and it was cooled, but not cold when we used it. As a result of this our rice didn’t really fry, it was still pretty mushy when it was done. Despite this, this dish was still wonderful.

The next item we made was egg drop soup. This dish is exactly what it sounds like. Basically what you do is slowly pour beaten egg whites into boiling chicken broth while stirring. When the eggs are in the broth, they cook and become lumpy. The slower you pour the eggs the more strands of the egg form. By putting chopped spinach leaves on top of the soup, we completed this dish. In the end it looks other-worldly, but tastes good all the same.

Thirdly we made Savannah’s favorite, hot bananas in coconut milk. This is another easy and delicious recipe. In a saucepan we poured in the coconut milk (and much to our inexperienced eyes' surprise, it is not white, but a brownish cream slimy mixture… not exactly appetizing), and after it was boiling we added sugar and cinnamon. We then brought the mixture down to a simmer and added in the bananas. The timing on this was rather important because we had to cook the bananas until they were tender but not mushy. This dish was different, and no one in our group of chefs really knew what coconut milk would taste like. We all tried it, and our sweet-tooth would agree that it was very good. It tasted better on the second bite after our tongues weren’t so scared. J

Lastly we set out to make homemade fortune cookies. Natalie and I were set on making “The Perfect Cookie”. This recipe is very hard and timing is extremely important. We made the batter for the cookies, which has the consistency of pancake batter. We put them in the oven (375 degrees) for about 6 minutes. When the recipe says “Now for the tricky part: move fast during this step!” it’s not kidding! When you take out the cookies you have to quickly scrape them off the pan, place the fortunes inside of them, fold them in half, and the fold them in half again. If you do this too quickly, the fortune sticks to the cookie, and if you wait too long they will break and fall apart. In the 3 batches we made, we did achieve our goal; we had some pretty awesome cookies! I believe we got “The Perfect Cookie”, and it tasted delicious. Yummmmm…

“The preparation of the food and its presentation often take longer than the actual cooking”. This was certainly the case in our kitchen. By the time we were done cooking we had to reheat everything, as a result of the length of preparation for each dish. The plating of the meal was very fun, and the food was great! I loved cooking this meal and had a great time.

We served this meal to the four of us and my mom and dad. My mom said “I was amazed at how good everything tasted! The presentation of the meal was very professional. I was surprised that one could make ‘homemade fortune cookies’! All in all, it was a very delicious meal and the girls should be quite proud of their accomplishment.” Savannah said “Shelby and Natalie’s food was amazing. I especially liked the banana and coconut milk dessert. Loved it!”

Our critic, Ms. Katherine gave us her review:

“Chinese cuisine is highly praised and admired for its beauty and preparation. The beauty and grace of the dish is paid unique attention. When such a thing is homemade it’s completely sensible for someone to be skeptical, but after tasting the four dishes that were prepared for criticism, I was delightfully surprised. The egg drop soup, although deceiving in appearance, was fortunately editable, even good. The rice, fortune cookies, and coconut bananas were also quite incredible. Most were humorously deceiving in looks but impeccable in taste. The only unfortunate part of the meal was that it was served cold due to the frantic preparation and mess. After spending at least two hours making the food, my servers spent another hour cleaning and carefully styling the table, taking constant pictures. All in all the meal was made beautifully.”

Stolen Lives

The 'One Child Policy', and the stolen sons in China...

Preface~ (for those like myself, who like to know the background... and learn new things!)

This policy was put into effect to help regulate the population growth in China. In the 1950’s Emperor Mao Tse- Tung encouraged the people of China to have many children; in turn strengthening the country. This increase in the population did the opposite of its intention. With the rising numbers of people, came the rising of worry of the government. There were too many people to feed, and China was on the verge of famine. To resolve the problem, the government issued the ‘One Child Policy’ in 1979. The goal for the policy was to get China’s population under 1.3 billion by the year 2000. The reason this act remains in effect is because the population of China is over 1.2 billion people. The government wants to keep these numbers at this point (under 1.3 billion), so they have kept the adopted policy. Any couple who violates this law is subject to receiving fines and possible jail time. There are a few exceptions to this law however. For example, in many rural areas the limit of children has been increased to 2 children if the firstborn is a daughter or has disabilities. This law is influenced by the culture of the area. The preference for sons in China is centuries old. Chinese families feel that if they do not have a son they are incomplete and feel they are a lower class than the other families in the region. When their daughters grow up they go to live with their husbands and their families. On the other hand a son will stay with the family, and take care of his parents when they are old. Currently this principle has been taken too far. Many Chinese families feel the pressure for a son to be too great, and will therefore do anything to get one. Instead of paying the fine for having a second or third child (this fee can be the equivalent to three years’ salary for many people living in China), they would rather pay approximately half that fee to buy a stolen child off of the black market.

Reaction~

When I first read this article and found all of this information, I was really taken aback. I could not believe all of the terrible actions that are occurring right now. I can’t even imagine the mourning pain and agonizing guilt that befalls the parents of the stolen children. When you read something like this, you think it’s horrible and then many move on with their lives. Many people don’t take these situations as seriously as they should. They are on the opposite side of the world, and can’t truly see the extent of the pain these tragedies bring. However, in some cases, even people who are close to the situation have trouble believing it. The Chinese government believes this to be a great policy that has helped the government in many ways. It does not see the horrible repercussions of these actions. As stated in the article “the Chinese government insists there are fewer than 2,500 cases of human trafficking each year… but advocates for abducted children say there may be hundreds of thousands” (Jacobs 1). These numbers are frightening, and will not get better unless something is done. Another problem with the Chinese government believing so greatly in this policy is that “desperate families… get almost no help from the local police. They say the police insist on waiting 24 hours before taking action and then claim that too much time has passed to mount an effective investigation” (Jacobs 1). This proves that the government is not helping these families and does not want to help even to the slightest degree. This fact really bothers me because it is very hypocritical and unjust. To me, this sounds like an excuse; a way out of having to admit that they might have made a mistake, that this policy is doing more harm than good.

Pros and Cons~

The ‘One Child Policy’ has some good pros but many major cons. The positive purpose of this act was to help alleviate social, economic, and environmental issues. As a result of fewer births, the Chinese health care has become stronger in helping women with pregnancies. They provide free pre-natal classes and closely monitor their health. Also because there are fewer children for the adults to care for, the individual savings rate has increased. Young Chinese no longer can rely entirely on their children to take care of them when they are old, and are therefore saving more of their money for retirement. A continuing problem in China is the pollution. With less people the pollution is becoming better; however it still needs some help. The original intent for the ‘One Child Policy’ was economic. Fewer people in China meant a decrease in the demand for natural resources, and it maintained a steady labor rate by reducing unemployment. It also kept the country safe from overpopulation. In doing so the people of China were protected from famine. Overall these positive goals were achieved; however they came with a price. With the strong demand for sons, many citizens will go to extreme measures to get one. The stolen children can be bought on the black market for less than the fine of having another child. This keeps the demand for the injustice high, and does not show signs of stopping. Often when a family ‘suddenly’ has a new child in their home, the government will turn a blind eye. This is because the child is not new to the country and does not need to be registered. He is not a new mouth to feed, and therefore they let the family go no questions asked. On the other side of this issue, the families in which the sons are stolen from are completely devastated. One minute the children are playing outside, and the next they are gone; out of the parents lives forever. These stolen children are a direct result of the ‘One Child Policy’. Since the citizens cannot have more than one child, the black market for human trafficking has been set up. The only hope for this situation is the parents of the stolen children. Many of them have formed petitions, and are doing everything in their power to find the one thing in the world that will give them joy; their child.

Opinions~

Was it worth it? This question has caused a lot of controversy about the ‘One Child Policy’. Personally, my opinion is that it is not worth it. To sacrifice people’s lives and those that they love for only a few positive aspects isn’t right. I do accept and understand that this policy has helped China in the past, however with the new problems; I believe it would be better to start anew. There are other ways of fixing these social, economic, and environmental issues. I believe that China should look to these other ways, and stop the horrible injustice that is going on today. This policy is no longer working, and something needs to be done.

Information found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy

http://china.adoption.com/chinese/china-adoption-background.html

'China's Stolen Sons' article by Andrew Jacobs in Shenzhen, China