Eating Out Habits Here

I have no idea how I raised 4 children to maturity. During those years, I did not cook. And I mean I did NOT cook. They learned how to care for their food needs at very young ages. I thought the boys would marry for food as much as love, but neither of their wives really enjoy cooking all that much. (I guess it must have been for love, huh?) Anyway, that changed about 8 years ago when we moved to Panama. I am not completely sure why. Maybe it was that with the kids gone I actually had more time to cook? (Counterintuitive). Or maybe it was because finally I had some cooking aids like a machine that chops my onions and carrots, and some better knives. Or maybe it was that I was in a country that had things like Cream of Mushroom soup, and cheese. (Previously, although I might bring some of these kinds of things back after furlough, I would horde them so thoroughly that they would go bad, or else still be on my shelf when it came time to take another furlough.) But in Panama I could buy any of this at prices that I could actually pay. (I have memories of all of us drooling over a can of pork and beans sitting on a shelf in a store in Ecuador. It cost $10.) Anyway, I started cooking during our time in Panama, and even learned to halfway enjoy it.  Now when we are in the US, I spend many warm hours with the grandkids cooking, making memories. (Our children just shake their heads because they certainly have no memories of cooking or even sitting down generally to eat at the house together. There was one point when they were young in Taiwan when I had to put my foot down and say we could only eat out once a day!)

But here we sit in China, now. Eating out is a cultural pastime. And supported by cheap diners and other food sources. I do still cook at home. I bought a crockpot when we first moved to China. Not an easy feat, searching through shelf after shelf of rice cookers for the one lone crockpot in the department store. I even brought an Instant Pot back with me last summer. (I really have enjoyed it, partially because we only have one small toaster oven, besides the two stove top burners, and you can “bake” things in it: recently this has included a cheesecake and a zucchini chocolate cake.) I usually try to do the same thing I did in Panama and cook for an hour or so once a week and then have 2 or 3 dishes to put in the fridge and eat on for the week. Our kitchen is an Asian kitchen, meaning a “one-butte” kitchen with no counter space and not enough room for two people to move around in. However, Rick and I have our assigned spaces and can make it work, but it still is a tight fit. I continue to need help with some things because of my hip and a long ago shoulder injury and Rick is a good support.

But like I said, here we sit in China. I have not cooked a meal in two weeks. I made a pasta/chicken dish in the instant pot and a potato/cabbage/ground pork skillet 2 weeks ago Tuesday. We finished eating on those yesterday. So that means we have been to 2 pizza places, Burger King, a dumpling lunch room, a Chinese diner and today a Western restaurant in the passed two weeks. None of these places are expensive and we always have food to bring home. The Chinese diner is 120 feet from our apartment, and we could get Kong Pau chicken, corn, scrambled eggs with tomatoes for just over a $1 and it made two meals. I still have half a meat eaters pizza in the fridge, although I WILL cook on Tuesday, my next reasonably free day. Maybe I will make tomato soup (from tomato juice and canned and fresh tomatoes) and a chicken burrito bowl in the instant pot. I just can’t figure out why I am expending the effort. I also absolutely must be out moving every day whether I want to or not, because of rehab for my hip, and getting food seems to be a good motivator. When students ask me about what we eat, I tell them I cook, and they are very, very impressed. Maybe their mom’s in the villages cook, but no one else that they know of.

I am not necessarily proud of our eating/dining habits, but I thought you might like to see a slight peek into what actually happens really for most of us in China.