The Year of the Rooster
This week in Chinese New Year-- Wednesday, I think. Its a national holiday and most people go home and spend time with their families for two weeks. It is impossible to travel so most of us will be hanging out in Hangzhou for a while.
This year will be the Year of the Rooster. To celebrate, one of my neighbors took a dead, plucked rooster and hung it by its neck out their apartment window to dry. If you let the meat hang for a while (weeks perhaps?), the fat drips out and the meat dries and gets really tasty. I tried dried lamb at lunch yeaterday and it was pretty good. Anyhow, I looked out the window last week and was surprised to see what looked like a big rubber chicken rooster hanging up. I was informed later that it was real. It was then that I noticed the other things my neighbors are hanging out their windows-- a large fish (whole), a few small ducks, and a few unidentifiable things. I wish I had taken a photo of the rooster. They have since taken it down, probably because of the rain. Or perhaps they wanted to cook and eat it.
Monica and I walked out to Trust Mart, the big grocery store, yesterday. We were on the hunt for CHEESE. We have had no cheese in the past week and we'd really like to have some, especially Monica because she was just in Romania where the cheese is very good. The Trust Mart had three kinds of cheese-- two colors of the kraft style indivually wrapped slices and a small wheel of some kind with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it. We opted for the Eiffel Tower cheese. We'll see how it is.
The Trust Mart sold lots of other things that we weren't expecting-- bicycles, kids stationary, eighty varieties of rice makers, live bull frogs, live snakes, live turtles, large pieces of freshly butchered cow (you can watch the butcher cut off the piece you want), dried meats of every variety, jellyfish, every kind of dried fruit you could want (yum!), freshly roasted nuts (yum!) and freshly steamed buns and fried dumplings (yum!!!). We loaded up on dried fruits and nuts, ramen noodles (which are very good here), and steamed buns.
While we were outside feasting on our findings, a couple of elderly beggars came by damanding money. They were very persistant so we gave them some food. They immediately sat down and ate the food. I have never seen a beggar in the US or Europe sit down and quickly eat food I give them. Usually they scowl and refuse the food, wanting only money. They are certainly wealthy by chinese beggar standards.
Firecrackers are going almost continuously now. (In Hangzhou, you are allowed to light them only during these two weeks of the year. Wei tells me that in Beijing, firecrackers are forbidden altogether.)
And people are hanging big red banners everywhere.
Most of the students at Zhejiang University have gone home for the holiday so its pretty quiet around here.
This year will be the Year of the Rooster. To celebrate, one of my neighbors took a dead, plucked rooster and hung it by its neck out their apartment window to dry. If you let the meat hang for a while (weeks perhaps?), the fat drips out and the meat dries and gets really tasty. I tried dried lamb at lunch yeaterday and it was pretty good. Anyhow, I looked out the window last week and was surprised to see what looked like a big rubber chicken rooster hanging up. I was informed later that it was real. It was then that I noticed the other things my neighbors are hanging out their windows-- a large fish (whole), a few small ducks, and a few unidentifiable things. I wish I had taken a photo of the rooster. They have since taken it down, probably because of the rain. Or perhaps they wanted to cook and eat it.
Monica and I walked out to Trust Mart, the big grocery store, yesterday. We were on the hunt for CHEESE. We have had no cheese in the past week and we'd really like to have some, especially Monica because she was just in Romania where the cheese is very good. The Trust Mart had three kinds of cheese-- two colors of the kraft style indivually wrapped slices and a small wheel of some kind with a picture of the Eiffel Tower on it. We opted for the Eiffel Tower cheese. We'll see how it is.
The Trust Mart sold lots of other things that we weren't expecting-- bicycles, kids stationary, eighty varieties of rice makers, live bull frogs, live snakes, live turtles, large pieces of freshly butchered cow (you can watch the butcher cut off the piece you want), dried meats of every variety, jellyfish, every kind of dried fruit you could want (yum!), freshly roasted nuts (yum!) and freshly steamed buns and fried dumplings (yum!!!). We loaded up on dried fruits and nuts, ramen noodles (which are very good here), and steamed buns.
While we were outside feasting on our findings, a couple of elderly beggars came by damanding money. They were very persistant so we gave them some food. They immediately sat down and ate the food. I have never seen a beggar in the US or Europe sit down and quickly eat food I give them. Usually they scowl and refuse the food, wanting only money. They are certainly wealthy by chinese beggar standards.
Firecrackers are going almost continuously now. (In Hangzhou, you are allowed to light them only during these two weeks of the year. Wei tells me that in Beijing, firecrackers are forbidden altogether.)
And people are hanging big red banners everywhere.
Most of the students at Zhejiang University have gone home for the holiday so its pretty quiet around here.
posted by Michelle at 11:32 p.m.
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