Plants

I went to a flower and plant market with two of my colleagues today.  Half of the building was a cut flower market, and the other half a nursery.  I got myself a tiny water fern and a large plant with green and purple leaves.  (Anyone know what these are?)  Now my apartment looks like someone lives here!  Hopefully the plants' oxygen production will also make the apartment more comfortable in the summer when it gets hot.

Street Food

The street sellers are coming out with the warmer weather.  This is part of the China I came here to see, and I find it fascinating.

As the weather gets warm there are more and more people selling things in the streets, food, socks, shoes, underpants, bathroom buckets, handbags... you name it.  If they can carry it they will sell it.

They have these kind of three wheeled bicycles and motorcycles that have a cart in the back part; they can put almost anything in this cart... even a whole restaurant in miniature.  By my bus stop in the early morning are a bunch of portable "restaurants" with the tiny tables and chairs; by noon they are gone.

I found this great little street near the university where all these people set up street food vendors. The cooking equipment is mounted on the back of carts, so at the end of the day it disappears.  I love the street food! Unlike a restaurant, I can not only see what the food is before ordering, but I can also watch them making it.  I can eat for 3RMB; that is less than a dollar.

This cold noodle dish is my favorite food so far.  There was a stack of big flat circular sheets of noodle. They take one sheet, scrunch it up, then chop it into wide strips to make noodles.  You get a bowl of vegies such as bean sprouts, julienned cucumber, and fried tofu, topped with the noodles.  Then they ladle on several different sauces.  At a guess, the sauces are vinegar, garlic, sesame, and chili oil.  Since it's a cold dish, I can enjoy it all summer.

Then you sit on the world's smallest folding stool at a miniature table, like Alice in Wonderland.  The bad thing is, eating noodles with chopsticks is messy... I got a bit on my clothes, but it was worth it.  Yum.

I also love the baked sweet potatoes, from a large metal cylindrical oven which rests on the back of a cart. 

Here is the stuff that goes into the noodles:

 

 And my lunch, yummmmmmm:

The view from my table to the right:

 

 To the left, I can see the vendor next door, selling the same thing:

 This man is making a kind of bread, formed into rolls, sprinkled with sesame seeds, and then cooked in the press by his shoulder resulting in a salad plate sized flatbread.

 This stall has some squid-on-a-stick, you can see the raw ones beyond the woman.  They also sell a pizza-sized round flatbread that has green onions and sesame seeds.  It's oily but very delicious.  It's cut up in rectangular pieces and sold by weight.

Power Outage

The power was out from the middle of the night until 11am today.  I have really got to get a flashlight and some candles!

Discovered the hot water tank has an electric switch, but fortunately I was able to take a quick shower with what was left of the hot water.

Working this afternoon and this evening and all weekend, will try to write on Monday.