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With my wife and extended family in her hometown in rural Henan. It's bloody cold and the air quality is absolutely miserable, but everyone is having a good time.
Sounds fun! Same situation here. Windows stay open in the home to let air in right? Haha. It was a super blue sky today further west but it has been gray for the last two weeks
Yeah same blue sky here, we only arrived yesterday so I can't tell what is was before. Windows had been open for 2 years, so we had a nice cover of assorted carcinogens all through the house. Always nice to visit... ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
What’s the best dish you had?
Some smoked beef chunks, the in-laws are beef wholesalers, their game is spot on.
Yours?
That sounds awesome! Lucky you for having awesome cooks in the family.
I don’t eat meat anymore but the best meat that I know from when I did was probably huiguorou or larou. The first is like a pan fried thick pork belly. The second is winter curred sausage. I just had a pan fried tofu dish and jiucai. Both yummy. Grandma gave me her pickled garlic which I really liked.
Took the time to interview her about the 60s. It was interesting!
Oh yeah I know both of those dishes, they are excellent as well! Pickled garlic is also amazing, especially on a Friday night if you don't plan to meet anyone all weekend 😂
How challenging was it to bring across that you don't eat meat? I have a feeling that would be quite alienating with my in-laws, their whole world revolves around meat.
That’s fun they make it too :) Is your Henan food spicy or what? Never been!
I think pretty much every family member in China doesn’t really get it and frequently tells me I can in fact eat meat. They said, my PILs have cooked plenty of plantbased meals for me. Eating this way was a personal choice but I am also Buddhist. I also get a lot of comments telling me that monastics in China eat meat, which isn’t necessarily true, so why don’t I. Then I also get the silly questions saying well what about shrimp? Or fish? Or pork? lol more silly than pressured.
Henan food is actually quite mild, Hunan is the chilli province. Here it's mostly stews or an assortment of dough stuffed with veggies and meat in an shapes and forms, from dumplings over pancakes to steamed buns. Allegedly the original baozi came from here, but I'm sure if you research it you'll find a million origin stories for every province.
Right and I guess if you cite religious reasons, they leave you mostly alone. Alcohol wasn't as straightforward since I have no reasons aside from health benefits, and then it's the usual "but once a year won't kill you" spiel (that I have to go through on every single occasion, even if they drop it ultimately and are happy to have a dedicated driver when the night moves on...).
How many times a year do you generally visit the hometown?
That sounds not up my alley compared to Sichuan food, haha! That's interesting about baozi!
IDK your family, but the religious reasons is where they say oh monastics really eat meat.... My PhD studies are Chinese Buddhism, I would know haha. The once a year this is annoying. You can always say you're eating some medicine that you can't drink. No crazy drinkers there?
Last week I went with an uncle and his friends and they drank an absurd amount. I probably had 5 plus standard drinks of baijiu. Too much... I don't get the fun in too much.
If we are in Asia we always come but I haven't been back since COVID so this year is a big one for us. What about you? I hope to come annually in the future.
I guess there might be some monks that stray into haram territory, but yeah following the doctrine properly, they sure aren't allowed to.
Love Sichuan food, though it fucks up my stomach regularly... And yeah we got crazy drinkers here as well, but if I say no then it's a hard no and they understand I don't budge, so that's that. I can't handle the taste of baijiu at all, had to drink years ago with some business partners, and ever since my first proper baijiu vomit session, I'm done and over with that stuff.
Opposite for me by the way, I'vebeen living in China all through covid since late 2017, and we only just left to Malaysia last August. So I've been in the village a bunch of times, though usually we'd celebrate CNY where the family actually lives, trips to the village are only for special occasions. In the future we'll probably still come annually, but not necessarily for CNY when everybody is crazy, roads blocked and shit twice as expensive as regular.
Any baijiu for you? My uncle made 50kg of homemade stuff. It was good too :)
Nah I actually stopped drinking years ago, luckily they respect that. I'll have some mild 杨梅酒 in summer every once in a while, that's pretty refreshing. But other than that I pretty much abstain.
Good for you! I also drink less as it really is less enjoyable. I don’t think I’ve had that. I’ll have to look :) Yeah I’m the same, like the taste or the feeling in specific instances. Some uncles here have upwards of 500ml of baijiu. That’s just horrible