Tag: Food
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More Things That Are Ridiculously Easier in Your Own Language: Food!
The other day, we decided to order dinner in from a kebab shop in our neighbourhood here in Leicester. The menu was online, but it wasn’t linked to any of those nifty websites that also let you place your order and pay in advance. I’d have to call the kebab shop directly. And, like,…
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It’s Beginning to Look Not Even Remotely Like Christmas: Faking Festiveness in Shanghai
Actually I lie. I live in Shanghai (which, if you ask the Shanghairen, is barely even China but rather its own magnificent autonomous kingdom of wealth and awesomeness) and oh, the shiny accoutrements of the festive season are out in a big way. Have you seen the giant tree outside Prada on Nanjing Road West?…
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Helpful Household Tips from Chinese University Students
Do you want to know one of the fastest ways to wrap your head around a new country and culture? Teach there. Let me show you some things I learned today whilst marking my students’ process essays. How to wash your hair First, you need to buy shampoo, wash basin and face cloth…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Self-Medication
I’ve had a bad cold for about a month now. I blame my students entirely. They have been coming to class with such dedication that the absentee rate is nearly nil and the cough-cough-hoark-hoark-sneeze-snort rate is very high. The desks and floor are littered in crumpled tissues, eyes are watery, noses snuffly, brains foggy, heads falling to…
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Awesome Things We Ate in Myanmar
Before we went to Myanmar, we really had no idea what to expect, food-wise. It wasn’t a cuisine that was well represented in the South East Asian culinary repetoire internationally. We knew it was just across the water from all things Indian and Bangladeshi, and surrounded on the other side by Thailand and China, with…
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(101 Things about Shanghai) Batting for Both Sides
I’ve been living abroad for most of my adult life, give or take a few semesters back home trying to finish my never-ending degree. Most of my time has been spent with very little money and/or very little access to outside comforts. In Ghana, I ate foufou and kenke and jollof rice until I…
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(101 Things About Shanghai) Brutally honest meat
I love Chinese supermarkets. A lot of foreigners I know simply refuse to shop in Chinese supermarkets because some sections can be viscerally overwhelming. Like the meat and fish section. Our local supermarket reeks of fish and flesh, most of which is not neatly packaged in little styrofoam containers. There are tubs of live frogs…