Fire- fries in the country side

SO SO SO SO sorry about the months and months that have passed without blogging, but we'll try to catch you up on what's going on!

Scott and I most recently have returned home from a whirl wind of traveling.
We've visited what I'll nick name 'Starbucks city' where Scott and I and a friend saw a famous panda exhibit and enjoyed a few cups of coffee; after four days there we went to 'the big city' for 4 days and then down to another city near us for just 2 days to visit some friends.

As soon as we got back from all that, we hopped on a bus to go to the country side and we treated our friends to a VERY American meal of fried chicken, french fries, and green beans that I cooked.
They were in complete culture shock while I was in their kitchen. By the way, it's hard enough to cook western food while in an eastern country- try doing it in an Asian persons house!! no oven, no spatula... just woks and chopsticks!!

While I was breading the chicken wings, the green beans had been simmering for about 3 hours. (fresh from the garden- not canned) They kept turning off the stove with the green beans on it because they couldn't FATHOM eating soft green beans. (I kindly kicked them out of the kitchen and told them to suck it up! "I eat your fried pig fat, congealed chicken blood and impacted goat stomach- I'm sure you can handle soft green beans.")

After the chicken wings were fried and crispy, we set them on the table. The mother, who I had begun to call, "Ayi" (ah yee) ("Aunt"), told me that she doesn't usually eat chicken, and that she also doesn't like potatoes. I looked at the basket fulls of chicken and the fries I was getting ready to fry and felt my heart drop.

Her daughter- who speaks amazing English- came in and was sampling the wings and the green beans and kept making 'yummy' noises. The mom watched her warily and then I heard her mutter "Ta shuo hao chi.... hmmm" (she said it tastes good.. hmmm) and suspiciously picked up a chicken tender and nibbled on it. Complete surprise came to her face- it looked like she was thinking "the American woman's food WON'T kill me!" Such relief! Even though she did cook Tofu and fish stew to 'suppliment' my meal, it felt good that she at least ate a piece.

So every one was scarfing down the fried chicken and french fries (the green beans are almost gone at this point) and I ask Ayi to take over on the last batch of fries. After a few minutes I go in the kitchen to check on her- she's slyly adding MSG and red pepper to the fries!! When I caught her she acted so guilty and said "We don't like salty food, we like it spicy!!!!" and I just laughed and tried the fire- fries. "Mmmm, hao chi!" I reassured her.

So, all in all we had a lot of fun exposing this big family to western food, but they didn't offer to keep all the left overs. Next time we think they'll understand more when we say, "No thanks, we don't eat stewed pig stomach". Ha ha ha