Last week, after watching "Julie & Julia", a movie I thought was pretty forgettable actually, despite the rave reviews, I was still inspired enough to do some of my own cooking. Now, I'm not really a newbie to cooking. I lived in a co-op for a semester where we had to cook for twenty people at once, and after that I slowly learned to cook a few staples. I'm at the point where I can look at a recipe and it'll turn out pretty good, but I wouldn't dare to begin innovating. Well, I've been spending way too much money eating out for every meal here, but its easy to do since a meal is really only about $3, so it doesn't feel like much. But at the same time, if you can buy a cartload of veggies and herbs and such for only $1.50 (rough estimations), then you're still spending way more than you need to. The problem is that I only have a microwave and a hot plate. Now before coming to China, I've never heard of hot plates as cooking devices... I thought they were only for chemistry class. So not only have I never used one before, but I've never used one before that solely has Chinese characters written on it.
Despite this, I went out in the pouring rain last week and decided to buy string beans, cilantro, broccoli, eggplant, garlic, onions, the works. So far I've been able to use the hot plate to heat a pot of water to make oatmeal, but when I put the broccoli in, the damn thing wouldn't heat up. It would start, then make a sudden beeping noise and then turn off. I tried pressing all the buttons but after 45 minutes or so (now, still wet and starving), I ended up microwaving all of it. It wasn't the best, but with enough black bean sauce, it was edible.
Today, I decided to go for something much simpler. Hard boiled eggs. The water actually boiled this time, but after removing the eggs from heat, they were soft and gooey and basically, repulsive. I scooped out the little yolks and tried to mix it together like scrambled eggs. I reached for the pepper shaker, when I realized that I used the SAME pepper shaker a month earlier as a rock for my turtles' aquarium. I had brought the turtles home and immediately started freaking out after reading that they need a surface in which they can dry off... otherwise, their shells will grow moldy and they'll die. In my sudden panic, I took the pepper shaker and stuck it in with the turtles, thinking I really never cook anyway. Anyway, I have no idea if I've washed it since then. Then, I tried to find the salt. The only reason I have pepper in the house is because the girl from last year left it in the room and the only reason I have salt is because when I had a sore throat a friend I had just met that very day went out and bought me salt to mix with hot water and drink. Well, it's just been sitting in this plastic bag and needless to say, half of the salt came pouring out onto the pan with the pathetic tiny yolks scrambled around enough to look like jaundiced mucus. I took one bite, and immediately had to gargle with a cold glass of black tea that has green tea leaves in it from last week.
I just washed everything. No matter how hard I try to get my life in order, things seem to fall apart so much faster than I can take care of them. If I do laundry, I don't actually collect the dry items from the clothesline for a good week. If I remember to wash the pans, then that apparently takes up too much brain power and I forget to feed the turtles. Something always has to give.
This is getting too long. My one rule was to keep these short.
On the upside, I finally bought a top similar to this Complex Geometries one, but in navy and with a few studs... actually, I think mine is way cooler.
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