Step 1: Season the Wok

I haven’t managed to get myself adopted by a Chinese grandma (yet). So I signed up for a cooking class instead. Last Thursday was my first day. And until last Thursday, I thought I had a pretty good handle on what it meant to “stir-fry” something. Right.

First off, I got a little lost. It was my first real trip out sans translator/husband. And that’s fine. I’m a strong independent woman and all that. But it turns out that I can’t really read street signs yet. Luckily my phone works now and we bought a little compass in Hong Kong, so between heading in the general right direction and calling my cooking teacher a few times, I made it (although a little late).

Cooking class was great.

We started with a market tour to buy our ingredients for the day. I learned about cabbages and lotus root and which green beans are in season now, how to pick good Sichuan peppercorns and the difference between the in-house tofu and where to get a softer kind. Duck eggs versus chicken eggs versus quail eggs and finally what all those grannies are looking for when they pick up a handful of rice at the supermarket and inspect it while letting it run through their fingers.

Then, back at the hutong, wok and cleaver class. Have you seen the cleavers? They're huge and used for everything from peeling ginger to dicing cabbage. I have yet to get my own, but soon enough – I know now what to look for in a good one. I’ve also learned round-bottom woks are the best, and are nearly impossible to find in the average department store nowadays (at least in Beijing).

It was a class of three people on my first day, and we learned and cooked and ate as we went. Thursday was Dry Fry day - dry-fry green beans, dry-fry chicken, steamed pork ribs, and blanched vegetable.

Day Two was Seasoning Class and more cooking and eating. Vinegars and soy sauces and rice wines. I never knew how much I didn’t know. It was also braising day, so I got to add four more dishes to my repertoire.

Day Three – Dumpling and Noodle class. Now- I learned to fold dumplings over the New Year’s festival, but what I wanted was the dough and filling part. Which I got. Great.

I’ve been testing everything at home on Andrew of course. Noodles and dry-fried greens beans and jiachang doufu – he eats it all, but then again, the boy rarely refuses food. So who can say how it's turning out - the real test will be cooking for our chinese friends. I think I need more practice first though.

At any rate – I’ll be taking a few more cooking classes, but not until March. In the meantime - language classes start on Wednesday (finally).

On the Andrew front – he started his post at the China Academy of Urban Planning & Design. So far, so good.  He commutes by bus in Beijing rush hour traffic and is still searching for the best route (i.e. less than 1.5 hrs and greater than 1.5 sq. cm of personal space).