the moon festival

This week has been a big week for China. Wednesday was the 60th anniversary of the Peoples' Republic of China and today is the Moon Festival, China's second biggest holiday.

The Moon Festival—also called the Mid-Autumn Festival, or zhong qiu jie, is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar. This is supposedly the day when the moon is largest and it's a holiday kind of like our Thanksgiving. It was originally a celebration of the autumn harvest, but now it’s an excuse for families to get together and eat.

On the night of the festival, people gather in parks and look up in the sky at the lucky moon and eat pastries called moon cakes, or yue bing. Moon cakes are round little cakes that have ornate patterns molded into their tops from the wooden molds they’re baked in. They are coated with a shiny sugary sugary glaze on the outside and on the inside they are dense and rich. Most have a sweet lotus paste filling or a sweet red bean paste. The best moon cakes also have a duck yolk in the center of the filling. This may sound a little unappetizing, not many western deserts have straight-yolks in them, but the chalky yolk in the center of the sweet filling and dough makes these little cakes pack a punch of flavor and textures that will fill you up fast.

People rarely make moon cakes at home. Instead they buy them packaged in beautifully illustrated red boxes from shops and give them as gifts during the holiday. I think of them as the equivalent to our fruitcakes we give at Christmas.

Any Asian grocery store or bakery will have moon cakes for sale. I plan on eating some tonight under the full moon and giving thanks for the harvest, or rather the fact that I didn't have to harvest this year.

-Nate

international food news: chicken feet to be stranded stateside?

Chicken feet are having an impact on international policy. I read a New York Times article this week that talks about how President Obama has decided to levy taxes on Chinese tires coming in to the United States. In retaliation, the Chinese government is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken meat.

China is the United States' largest export market for chicken meat, but the American chicken industry isn't too worried, or their feathers aren't as ruffled as I would have guessed. Chinese consumers have come to love American chicken feet and wings so much that it seems this might just be an empty threat. The Chinese government may be considering new ways of retaliation as to avoid a country full of angry chicken consumers. American chicken producers use selective breeding (and probably growth hormone and antibiotics) to make our chickens fat and have lots of meat even in the feet. Chickens raised in China are scrawny. When I've eaten dishes made from chickens in China, the meat is normally shredded in small pieces and mixed in with vegetables (like kung pow chicken) or served chopped up with the bone. And their feet and wings leave little to chew on.

I would imagine that a lot of feet will go to waste in the States if we can no longer export them to China where they're appreciated. Chicken feet, anyone?

-mary kate

a good read: the fortune cookie chronicles

 One of my first days in Chinese class in college I asked my professor who was from mainland China where fortune cookies came from in her country. She said, "what's a fortune cookie?" 

I said, "well, they're Chinese good luck cookies that they give out at all Chinese restaurants." Duh, I was thinking, how could she not know what fortune cookies are, she's from China! I brought one in for her to see. She opened it and thought it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. This was the first time and not the last that I realized I had a lot to learn about China.

I recently read a new book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee (yes, 8. is her middle name). The author, Jennifer, investigates the origins of Chinese food as it exists in America and why it is so different than traditional Chinese food. She opens the book with a story about the winners of a 2005 Powerball lottery. Normally there about 2-3 people who pick all the correct numbers and win the pot, but on this particular drawing 110 people all picked the winning numbers! The lottery commission knew this huge amount of winners couldn't be a group of cheaters because the winners were from all over the country. It turned out that the winners had all eaten at Chinese restaurants and played the numbers they received in their fortune cookies. In the book she travels all over the country interviewing the winners of the lottery and the Chinese-American owners of the restaurants where the cookies were served. She even goes to China to the birthplace of General Tso to find out about his chicken and digs through old court case trademark documents in California to find who invented the fortune cookie. What emerges out off all this is a comprehensive and hilarious picture of the profound effect Chinese food has had on American culture and how Chinese food has morphed into something unique and new here in the states, for example: Spicy Szechuan Alligator served at a Cajun-Chinese restaurant outside New Orleans.

The book is well researched but also very entertaining; it had me laughing out loud. Check out her video on TED where she talks about the book and her process writing it. Since its publication, Jennifer has been on the Martha Stewart show teaching Martha how to make turkey dumplings and held own against Stephen Colbert.

I finally learned where fortune cookies are from: Japan of all places, brought over from Japanese immigrants. So how did fortune cookies become "Chinese?" As Jennifer puts in a presentation (featured in the video above) "Well, we locked up all the Japanese during World War II including those that made fortune cookies. So that's about the time the Chinese moved in, kind of saw a market opportunity and took over!"

-Nate

Li Na does the US Open and chinatown

(Li Na walking around Chinatown. Photo Credit: Joshua Bright for the New York Times)

I just read an excellent profile of 27 year old Chinese tennis player Li Na in the New York Times. Li Na is China's best female tennis player and she competed week before last in the US Open here in New York City and made it all the way to the final 8 but ended up losing to Kim Clijsters. On the day of the interview Li Na was taking the day off of practice because of an injury and the journalist got to interview her while walking around and eating in Chinatown. They began the day at Columbus park down by City Hall and Li Na said, "It's exactly like China." I've often thought the same thing. Retired Chinese-American residents sit in the park during the day playing Chinese chess, playing Chinese musical instruments like the Erhu, or practicing Tai Chi in the morning and it's easy to forget what continent you are on. She says she feels right at home in New York City. “I love New York City,” she said. “People in China say: ‘If you love your children, send them to New York. If you hate your children, also send them to New York.’ ” Ha!

Li Na is from Wuhan, China in Hubei province and when she was little she had never even hear of tennis. A tennis coach saw her play badminton, asked to coach her, and she's been kicking butt ever since. During the Olympics she even beat-out Venus Williams. I've read some interviews with her since her loss at the Open and she seems to haves such a great attitude. I have high hopes for her.

I didn't make it to the US Open this year but I went out to Arthur Ashe Stadium the day before it began for the free open practice day with my friend Laurel. We didn't get to see Li Na play but we saw Djokovic, Sharapova, and funny enough, John McEnroe. He was playing for charity or something but still managed to scream the f-word a bunch. I think I would have been disappointed if he hadn't.

Check out out the article in the Times HERE by John Branch. I totally agree with her thoughts on milk tea. The stuff is so addicting, milk bubble tea has replaced my Pinkberry cravings this summer.

-Nate

my top 5 favorite chinese movies

(above: an "uplifting" still from the movie Suzhou River)

When I watch a Chinese movie, I know to keep a few tissues on hand, no joke. Yesterday I watched the movie CJ7, a movie filmed in Zhejiang Province about a boy who finds a little fuzzy alien friend. (The film's unusual title refers to the Chinese space program.) From the trailer, you might think it looks like a cute family flick full of only laughs, but its plot touches on class prejudices even amongst elementary school kids and the pain of losing someone you depend on (tear). I highly recommend seeing this funny albeit moving movie. It has a classical Chinese slap-stick humor like Mr. Bean, but it's done very well.

My top 5 favorite Chinese movies of all time also share common themes: death, loss, unrequited love, introspection, and other sad topics:

1. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has amazing fight scenes. The characters
chase each other across tiled rooftops and atop 10 story high bamboo
trees by jumping fifty feet in the air. I saw this movie before I ever
went to China and I knew I'd have to go there sometime just to see the
physical beauty of the countryside and China's ancient architecture.

2. In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar Wei movies are shot beautifully, like moving paintings, and In
the Mood for Love is, I think, his best. It depicts Hong Kong in the
1960s. It's worth watching just to see the insides of HK apartments
back then and the hairstyles and the dresses women wore! The movie's
sequel, 2046, is also worth seeing.

3. Suzhou River

Suzhou River is filmed with a handheld camera and you can see a first
person view of riding through Shanghai on the back of a motorcycle and
floating down the winding Suzhou River on a boat. The opening scene of
the movie is one the most haunting scenes I've ever seen. It starts
with a blank screen and only dialogue:

woman: "If I leave you someday... will you look for me?"
man:  "Yes."
woman: "Would you look for me forever?"
man: "Yes."
woman: "Your whole life?"
man: "Yes."
woman: "You're lying."

4. Not One Less

Not One Less is a movie about a 13 year old girl who goes to a
neighboring small town in China to teach the village kids. Fascinating
discovery of life in rural China. It's in Mandarin and most of the
dialogue is elementary level (kids are the main characters). I must
have watched Not One Less ten times by now to help me practice my
Mandarin.

5. Kungfu Hustle

The star of CJ7, Stephen Chow, directed, wrote, and starred in Kungfu Hustle. It's my favorite martial arts movie of all time. I'm glad it got as much international attention as it did: 27 nominations, 18 wins including an MTV Movie Awards "Best Fight Scene" nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Foreign Language Film." Rent Kungfu Hustle if you're just looking to watch a good fun movie. You'll forget it's in another language.

-mary kate