Passing a Birthday in Beijing
Today I thought I'd talk a little about passing a birthday here in China.
Throughout the day, I got several text messages that all said the same version of 'Happy Birthday' in Chinese. The consistency was probably a result of the fact that Chinese mobile phones come with a set of pre-saved text messages for all important occasions. Others include "I'll be about XX minutes late, please wait!", "I'm busy now and will call you later," and "Happy Spring Festival, Have a Good Time with Your Family". Anyway, a constant stream of Happy Birthdays was arriving on my phone throughout the day.
In the morning, Teacher Tan prepared a bowl of "Ba bao zhou" or "Eight Treasures Conjee," a thick, rice-based soup that tasted very sweet (Teacher Tan had added a lot of sugar as this made it more appropriate for a birthday). I'd had Ba bao zhou on the streets of Shanghai before, but what I had on my birthday was sweeter and chunkier.
Teacher Tan prepared a large number of dishes to have for a celebratory lunch, which he had on a folding table in the living room.
I made the mistake of taking this second picture after we'd done some serious damage to the good. The empty silver pan on the right had held tasty steamed buns containing pork and red bean paste. There was also an delicious, crispy sweet and sour dish that I initially thought was lightly fried fish, but Teacher Tan told me was actually some kind of plant. Most important for my birthday was a bowl of "Chang shou mian" which basically means "Longevity noodles".
Overall it was a very filling meal, and I barely ate anything for dinner that night on account of still being full.
At night I did save room for a birthday cake that Teacher Tan had procured from a nearby bakery. She had also managed to find a cardboard crown like the kind you see in fast food restaurants. She really wanted to get a picture of me cutting the cake on the living room table, which I think may have annoyed Teacher Diao as he was watching Peking opera on the television.
I ate the cake for breakfast all throughout the following week.
During my birthday weekend I also received from individual friends a couple of little cakes (about 2 inches in diameter). You can find these in all of the bakeries that blanket the modern Chinese cityscape. Almost no one in China actually bakes cakes, since even the most modern apartments often aren't equipped with ovens. Oven-cooking is a western import, and Chinese people still mostly cook with steamers and woks. Thus Beijing has hundreds, if not thousands, of little street side bakeries catering to people's cravings for Western-style baked goods.
Overall, not a bad day, though I spent a lot of it doing homework and never got to hear the Birthday song.
Throughout the day, I got several text messages that all said the same version of 'Happy Birthday' in Chinese. The consistency was probably a result of the fact that Chinese mobile phones come with a set of pre-saved text messages for all important occasions. Others include "I'll be about XX minutes late, please wait!", "I'm busy now and will call you later," and "Happy Spring Festival, Have a Good Time with Your Family". Anyway, a constant stream of Happy Birthdays was arriving on my phone throughout the day.
In the morning, Teacher Tan prepared a bowl of "Ba bao zhou" or "Eight Treasures Conjee," a thick, rice-based soup that tasted very sweet (Teacher Tan had added a lot of sugar as this made it more appropriate for a birthday). I'd had Ba bao zhou on the streets of Shanghai before, but what I had on my birthday was sweeter and chunkier.
Teacher Tan prepared a large number of dishes to have for a celebratory lunch, which he had on a folding table in the living room.
I made the mistake of taking this second picture after we'd done some serious damage to the good. The empty silver pan on the right had held tasty steamed buns containing pork and red bean paste. There was also an delicious, crispy sweet and sour dish that I initially thought was lightly fried fish, but Teacher Tan told me was actually some kind of plant. Most important for my birthday was a bowl of "Chang shou mian" which basically means "Longevity noodles".
Overall it was a very filling meal, and I barely ate anything for dinner that night on account of still being full.
At night I did save room for a birthday cake that Teacher Tan had procured from a nearby bakery. She had also managed to find a cardboard crown like the kind you see in fast food restaurants. She really wanted to get a picture of me cutting the cake on the living room table, which I think may have annoyed Teacher Diao as he was watching Peking opera on the television.
I ate the cake for breakfast all throughout the following week.
During my birthday weekend I also received from individual friends a couple of little cakes (about 2 inches in diameter). You can find these in all of the bakeries that blanket the modern Chinese cityscape. Almost no one in China actually bakes cakes, since even the most modern apartments often aren't equipped with ovens. Oven-cooking is a western import, and Chinese people still mostly cook with steamers and woks. Thus Beijing has hundreds, if not thousands, of little street side bakeries catering to people's cravings for Western-style baked goods.
Overall, not a bad day, though I spent a lot of it doing homework and never got to hear the Birthday song.
posted by Warner Brown at 7:26 PM
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