Today we went to the Jiangsu New Eastern Culinary School for an introduction to Chinese cooking. We made a variety of dishes, pastries, and soups, and almost nobody got hurt in the process.
Upon arriving, we saw dozens of young Chinese men doing military drills outside the school in camouflage uniforms. Upon inquiring about this, we th
en learned that freshman recruits for the culinary school must first undergo 4 weeks of military training before touching a wok. These cooks are pretty intense.
Afterwards, the recruits drilling outside were taking a break around some outdoor ping pong tables. Our local ping pong champ, Daniel, showed them how it was done in the USA and thoroughly embarrassed the Chinese army.
Next week (starting Friday the 27th, in fact) we have our 10-day independent trip. A friend and I are trekking out to Beijing for the first three days and then are going to wander around somewhere, more likely rural. We're looking at Inner Mongolia, but it has crossed our minds to head on up to the North Korean border and ask them if they've seen their authoritarian dictator lately.
Pictured below 1) The head chef having me learn how to make sweet-and-sour sauce, 2) the culinary school's militaristic intensity on display and 3) a brief video of Daniel kicking Chinese butt at ping pong.
1 comment:
are you going to label every post with "culture shock?" i hope so.
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