Friday 4th September, 2015                   0200

Ok I definitely used too much milk in the bread pudding. We live and learn. Although it all didn’t evaporate during cooking and I tried some long before it was cool and was a trifle damp I still pronounced it fine. Once it was cold it was more firm. Not quite like mother used to make but not far off and I blame not only excess milk but the bread - give me Wonderloaf and I will replicate it perfectly!.

Notwithstanding, Joan ate a good chunk of it and pinched a goodly amount for her breakfast yesterday. The rest I left in the fridge for her to take this morning. I think I will have to make another batch later today.

I never came to China as a “missionary”, being an agnostic anyway. However it appears to some degree I have unwittingly converted Joan.

First one has to remember that besides when eating in restaurants, the Chinese normally have their meal served up whole, everything mixed straight from the wok (not that they call it a wok) so they don’t have to think. Give them  multi-ingredient dishes and they invariably eat one thing at a time. I may have mentioned this before but give them a Sunday roast chicken dinner and they will eat the cabbage first, progress to carrots, roast spuds etc before finally eating the chicken.

This is why they - the world’s lovers of spicy food - consider our cuisine bland, they simply don’t benefit from all the flavours at once.

Cheese doesn’t feature in their diet either, which is why when I have made macaroni au gratin it has met mixed reactions from students.

Well the first breakthrough came when I served up a multiple choice dish and I noted after my telling her the above she was putting a bit of everything on her fork. Without trying to sound melodramatic, it touched a chord, she was learning to appreciate another way of eating food, one which doesn’t incinerate your eyeballs and blow the top of your skull off after one mouthful.

Anyway, yesterday morning I was on the bus on the way to get some more “on sale” wine when I texted her. I told her to choose what I would cook for dinner. Immediately she asked for spaghetti Bolognese. That in itself is not unusual, I haven’t met a student yet who doesn’t like it. What WAS unusual is that she actually asked for the Parmesan!

I don’t think I have subverted or converted her, I think she is simply one who will try anything but it warms my heart to see someone embrace an aspect of another culture, even though I can’t stand many of the dishes offered to me at formal meals!

1700

When I got up I noticed a mouse had been nibbling at the bread pudding in the fridge. My guess is Joan was in a hurry and never had time to grab much to eat. She did return to do some singing at noon and also polished off the last of the pudding. I got one small slice from a large tray full.

I have a night off from cooking. Joan has been practising all day for some show and this evening her classmates are all going for dinner together. So, I bussed to town - only just managed to get a seat so plan B effective very soon - simply to shop. This was mostly for the on sale wine so doubtless I will go again tomorrow and Sunday. I struck it lucky coming back and hopped aboard a buss which wasn’t standing room only. My victuals tonight will be cheese baguette. Unfortunately I never thought to buy an onion but I do have half a cucumber and some salad cream left.

Andre and Juliette are like two puppies. They take me back five years when I was straight out of the cardboard box both in Chizhou and as a teacher. They are trying all the different local foods on offer and taking random buses to explore. Today they went to where the ferries cross the Yangtse and they seemed a little disappointed when I told them I was pretty sure foot passengers travel free. Mind you, they didn’t know they run regularly during daylight hours so probably wouldn’t have made the crossing anyway. With nothing the other side apart from a small town that would take an hour to walk to it’s probably better they didn’t.

I said I wasn’t cooking but that’s not strictly true. After consulting with my mother I am now making more bread pudding but soaked the bread in milk rather than water (as Netmums instructed) as she did, plus I have used two eggs instead of one. I think I can count on two hands the times following a recipe to the letter actually produced the desired results and it is small wonder why there are literally thousands of cook books out there and online. But it’s fun experimenting!