Cooking with limited resources - in China!

alyth

I don't come onto the OS board very often but I thought this might be the best board for advice - please move if I'm wrong.

I'm an English teacher in rural, and we're talking very rural China. I have supermarkets but I can't buy milk/cheese/ham/bacon/sausages/pate/fish (unless I want to buy it live from the tank!) or any sort of convenience food. Think lots of unidentifiable meat, fruit vegetables and rice. I can get a sort of bread but it has fruit in it (and it really nice!)

I'm really struggling food-wise -I've lost a stone in 3 months. In my apartment I've got two gas rings and a microwave. I can make soup, and I have a wok but I've never used it. I'm not a great cook, I worshipped at the alter of M&S ready meals in the UK, but if I don't try and find something that I can cook and eat here I'm going to get quite ill.

Can anyone come up with any suggestions for things I can cook and eat? I can get chicken - legs and breast. Today I was able to work out with a friend pork. I can get frozen beef and mutton. There's no such thing as cooking sauces but rows and rows of soy sauce and cooking oil. Vegetables are unlimited and are very fresh.

I'm on my own with no one around to even show me how to try and cook and use the food I can find and the language barrier is a nightmare as mandarin isn't spoken, more a very rural dialect (I've asked my students for help already!). Any help or advice would be so gratefully received.

-taff

you tube is your friend.....at least for instruction on how to cook. As you've already asked your students, you could try and find out fi you can keep chickens, or someone can show you how to cook something?

You'd be best off looking for chinese recipes on you tube and using the ingredients you have to hand instead of worrying what you can't have.


you'l be looking at stir fries, with rice and veg for now I'd imagine, keep it simple to start with....

alyth

-taff wrote: »

you tube is your friend.....at least for instruction on how to cook. As you've already asked your students, you could try and find out fi you can keep chickens, or someone can show you how to cook something?

You'd be best off looking for chinese recipes on you tube and using the ingredients you have to hand instead of worrying what you can't have.

you'l be looking at stir fries, with rice and veg for now I'd imagine, keep it simple to start with....

Even with a VPN youtube is difficult to access in China unfortunately, especially as I am a very remote area and internet access can be patchy at the best of times, but thanks for your reply. Rice - I cannot eat it, after 3 months of rice being served with every meal at school I'm rice'd out ;-)

PasturesNew

Just see the wok as a saucepan and use it like one.

You can make a basic edible instant bread with a little flour/water and fry it (dry fry or small spray of oil).

You can fry meat/veg in the wok - with or without making a sauce/gravy in there.

I'd probably end up getting a lot of noodles .... no real cooking required, just use hot water until they're soft. Google for "3 ingredients" and "4 ingredients" recipes - and camping recipes.

Get onto some chinese ex-pat forums, bound to be people there that'll give you some clues/recipes or where you can get some stuff.

Dunroamin

You could manage perfectly well on plainly cooked meat or fish and fresh vegetables for as long as you need. Stir fries are very much throw in the pan in the right order, add spices/soy sauce and serve.

Don't turn up your nose at buying fish from the tank - how much fresher could you get?

suki1964

Do you not have any cooking skills at all?

Wok cooking is actually very easy. My husband could not cook but one year I bought him a wok and ken Homs book and he can cook lovely Chinese meals now from scratch

MrsAtobe

This may help with identifying the veg, and what to do with it:

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/vegetablesrecipes/ig/Chinese-Vegetables-Pictures/

BitterAndTwisted

I'd be minded to exist on street-food if it was me. Or get myself invited to someone's home and ask them to show you what they prepare and how. In some parts of China they don't eat much rice, it's more noodles and dumplings. Char Sui Bau! MMMMMMMM!

Fish from a tank? Perfect! Just like buying carp in Germany

-taff

alyth wrote: »

Even with a VPN youtube is difficult to access in China unfortunately, especially as I am a very remote area and internet access can be patchy at the best of times, but thanks for your reply. Rice - I cannot eat it, after 3 months of rice being served with every meal at school I'm rice'd out ;-)

You'd best find some potatoes, or flour, or as suggested make some batter, and deep fry veg in batter with a soy dip? Ever had sweet and sour pork balls from a chinese takeaway here?

See if someone can send you a cook book, or while you do have interent access, look for recipes you can stir fry.

Rosetta92

Really sympathise with your challenge, but since you're adventurous enough to go all the way to China I think you'll look back on this as the opportunity that made you a fabulous Chinese cook.

A couple of practical thoughts to help. Get the Kindle app on your computer (if you don't have it already) and get a couple of electtronic cookbooks from Amazon. I did a quick search and you can get a copy of Chinese Food Made Easy. The author's cooking always looks simple and tasty when I watch her shows, although more of my cooking has been from Ken Hom.

For the live ingredients - you might be able to get the stallholders/ shopkeepers to kill your choice of fish etc. perhaps explain that you don't have the skill to do it properly. I've read the Chinese have great respect for edible creatures - saying you must respect them by cooking them properly - so hopefully you can get help with despatching them.

Can the organisation that arranged your stay put you in touch with some local help? And as has been mentioned before, visiting and cooking with locals would be a good way of learning. Would a student's family be prepared to help? Perhaps taking you shopping, and then cooking together?

Please post again and let us know about progress.

Good luck

R

VfM4meplse

Seriously, stir fries are so easy with the fresh veggies you have access to. You may be all rice'd out but have a little bit cooked in the fridge / cold cooked noodles to bulk it out a bit to make Chinese rice / noodles. Tofu will be in plentiful supply if you can't face the wet markets.

If you're not eating dairy or carbs I can see why you're losing weight.