Happy New Year

Happy New year to all who may or may not be reading this blog.

This year, I managed to get a whopping 1 day off for Christmas and 1 day off for New Year. Taking my work schedule into consideration, I have had the following schedule since 22 December: work, work, work (half day), off, work, off, work, work, work, work, off. That is a crappy holiday schedule. However, the fault is mine since I did not negotiate for specific days off. Hopefully your holiday schedule was a nicer one.

Awkward schedules aside, one might wonder what there is to do in Wenzhou for the Holidays? The answer to that is...not much. The options for staying in the city range from staying at home and relaxing to staying home and eating food. OK Odessa (and most of the bars in Wenzhou) do host parties on 24 and 31 December that are usually very entertaining. I chose all of the options.

December 22nd: End of the World/Zombie Apocalypse party at Odessa
December 24th: Christmas Eve party at Odessa
December 25th: Lay about at home and go to two (yes, TWO) Christmas dinners hosted by friends
December 31st/January 1st: back to Odessa for a New Year's Eve bash
January 1st (later in the day): made the mistake of shopping at Wanda Plaza (more on this later)

Below, I have posted a few pictures from the past 10 days:

IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!

This picture is from the Christmas party at work.

Live music at Odessa on Christmas Eve

Party #1

Party #2

Holidays

Guide to Holiday Celebrating in China:

Step 1: Get the day off.

The holidays are a time for fun, food, and...WORK!?!?

Yep. Believe it or not, you will most likely be asked to work on Christmas Day. This may come as a shock to some, but most people in China (and Asia in general) don't celebrate Christmas. Therefore employers don't think to let the foriegners off for the day. However, you do have one card you can play.

According to Chinese law, all foreigners are entitled to their usual national holidays. Your employer can not force you to work on your national holiday if you tell them you don't want to work it. Of course you can always work on Christmas or New Years or any holiday you choose, but many will want the extra day off instead.

Step 2: The celebration

Here you will be able to do pretty much whatever you want. If you choose to host a dinner at your place, go for it. If your firiend is hosting, all the better since you won't have to clean up after. Another option is to go out for the night and celebrate with all the foriegners at your local bar or pub. Really, it's totally up to you and the limits of your imagination.

Tips for hosting:

•  Potlucks are a MUCH cheaper way to go. Have every party goer bring 1 dish or drink.
• Make it a BYOB (Bring Your Own Booze) party.
• Visit some of my earlier posts for ideas on main dishes that can be made with local, easy to find ingredients.
• Play music and tell people they can arrive early. This increases the chances of someone offering to help set up the party so you don't have to do it alone.
• If you're not doing it potluck style, try to buddy up with someone and co-host to cut back on costs.

Tips for being to "goer" to a Chinese hosted party:

• If you are going to a Chinese-hosted party, it's OK to bring a bottle of wine or other small gift. Stay away form food as a gift unless you really know the person and the guests.
• Be prepared for a lot of alcohol.
• Arrive on time.
• If it is New Years Eve, be prepared to be both blind and deaf tomorrow.
• Always sample the food, even if you don't like it. It might be considered rude if you don't at least rty the food that is offered.
• Offer to help with the clean up after. You will be told it isn't necessary, but offer anyway.

Tips for being the "goer" at a foreign-hosted party:

• Try to bring a dish or drink to the party to lessen the burden on the host.
• Arrive early or on time.
• Offer to help with the set up and/or clean up.
• It's OK not to try all the food, but try to eat some of it.

Hope this helps. Below are a couple pictures of my apartment decorated for Chirstmas. I will be putting up more decorations in the coming days.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was excellent. believe it or not, you can make a decent Christmas dinner in China; especially if you do a sort of pot-luck thing. It helps of course if your family sends you some things like cookie mix, but most of the things that we generally think of as belonging to a Christmas meal are available in China.

Things that are not available:
Turkey------replace with chicken or pidgeon or duck.
Ham---------same as above
Cranberry sauce----------replace with a home-made currant or raisin sauce.
Dried cranberries***-----replace with dried currants or raisins.
pumpkin pie filling------replace with a home-made pumpkin or sweet potato puree.

***These can sometimes be found in foreign markets.

If you have an oven, you can cook a whole duck or chicken. You can even make a stuffing to put inside it.

Stuffing:

ingredients:

Dried, lightly toasted bread crumbs (most bakeries in China do have a selection of french bread. Just cut it into 1/4inch cubes and toast them in the or on the stove-top until they are dry)
Celery (chopped)
Green onions (diced)
Garlic (crushed or minced)
Chicken stock
113 g stick of Butter
toasted nuts (almonds or walnuts)
Chicken/duck gizzards and heart (optional)
carrots (cut up)
Salt and Pepper


Directions:

The amount of each ingredient will vary depending on the size of the bird or how much you want to make. One good handful of crumbs will make enough for 4 or 5 people.

Sautee the garlic in some butter or oil in a pan on the stove. You can add red onions if you want also. When the garlic is clear, add the butter and the bread crumbs. Gently stir until the crumbs are lightly coated. Add more crumbs if necessary. When all the crumbs are lightly coated, add in the remaining ingredients. Remember to cut up any larger organs before adding them. Add just enough chicken stock or water to make the bread moist. Salt and pepper to taste. place entire mixture in an oven proof casserole and bake at 375 F or about 185 C until the center is hot (30min-1 hour). You may have to add more more liquid half way through.

To stuff the bird:

Loosely spoon the stuffing into the cavity. DO NOT PACK IT IN.Tie the end shut with string. Cook the bird until the center of the stuffing is hot. If there is extra stuffing, place it in a casserole and cook as above for the last 45 minutes or so that the bird is cooking.

Stuffing can also be cooked on the stove top over med0low heat, turning gently until all the vegetables are cooked.

Salt and pepper to taste.