Rock or Banana

I currently teach Oral English in rural China.

[rockorbanana]

First week of classes done, names are always a highlight (Sirius Granger, Gravity Blue Smith, and PP being three of the best). The Uni has me and two other teachers teaching Oral English as a new course, so it seems as if we will have basic autonomy, which, despite having to create an entire curriculum, will be nice.

Also made spring rolls and blueberry protein pancakes.

[rockorbanana]

I was also asked multiple times during class, “What is the topic of the speech so that i can prepare for the impromptu speech?”

[rockorbanana]

I have neglected this for a while, my excuse being “busy” though I know my “busy” is some peoples' “have so much free time”. I've had meetings, paperwork, conferences, paperwork, lesson plans for the Ministry of Education check, paperwork (this paperwork is different because it is from last year...), and planning a trip to visit the US for the upcoming term break. SO with all of that, I leave you these three great shirts I've been able to capture in the recent past.

[rockorbanana]

So what you meant to ask was...

[rockorbanana]

Caitlin and I have discussed how great jackfruit is. I really like its plain flavor, and she said it can make a great BBQ sandwich (similar in texture to pulled pork). So I got a chunk, separated it out, and make a jackfruit BBQ sandwich and it was really good. It is a lot of work, and I think I prefer just plain jackfruit, but for people looking for meat texture without the meat it is a great option.

[rockorbanana]

Not my pictures, nabbed from mostly colleagues, but the other week there was a typhoon and before it a series of brief but violent storms that resulted in rather interesting visual atmospheric effects. The flash storms can be over within minutes, and the quick change from no visibility because of rain and clouds to stunning sunsets is wild.

[rockorbanana]

I am figuring out my new maintenance calories to start slowly gaining weight, and so have been doing more different cooking and baking. These two are of the sweet variety (though the bread can be bland, just adding icing obviously makes is sweet), but I do have more savory concoctions in the works as well. Nutrition and other info below.

Top: Protein Pumpkin Pie Bars

(Crust - banana, baking soda, salt, vanilla, sweetener, oatmeal, flour, vital wheat gluten

Filling - pumpkin, protein powder, spices)

143 calories

22g carbs

2g fat

16g protein

(the toasted marshmallows add 27cal/7g carbs)

Bottom: Protein Bread + Protein Icing

Bread (egg whites, protein powder, vital wheat gluten, baking powder/soda/salt)

95 calories

3g carbs

1g fat

18g protein

Icing (cream cheese, yoghurt, sweetener, xanthan gum, casein)

150 calories

22g carbs

6g fat

12g protein

Note: the casein is the only thing I brought from the US, mostly because it is more expensive here and there is less choice in flavor (I prefer vanilla or unflavored, especially in baking).

[rockorbanana]

Whenever I do not appropriately attribute a quote.

[rockorbanana]

For my midterm exams, the students read a brief passage about euthanasia and had to write a two page opinion-based essay on the topic. (My abundant puns about them being youths in Asia went right over their heads.) 

In the first picture, you can see a translation problem with the student referring to people being in a vegetative state as “plant men”. This is completely understandable and was easy to explain.

What was more difficult to explain was how the student who wrote the essay in the second picture reworded the phrase “good death”. We had worked on rewording ideas as a vocabulary exercise and to cut down on repetitive writing, but explaining that giving someone a “happy ending” does not have the connotation she was going for was awkward.

[rockorbanana]

There is a store within bikeable distance that mostly supplies restaurants, but I consume ingredients in such quantities that this is a nonissue. The restaurant has a decent selection of Western cooking and baking items, including cheese, so I’ve been making a variety of mini pizzas regularly. Top three: spinach and garlic white pizza, pineapple and peppers, banana; bottom three: tomato and onion, cheese, margarita. Using wheat gluten and protein powder for the crust, the average nutrition is as follows:

400cal

12g carbs

15g fat

53g protein

[rockorbanana]

With a fair amount of my free time between having finished classes/exams and the grading system coming online, I’ve been doing more baking.

Top: chocolate chip blondie/brownie combo (chickpea flour as a base with vital wheat gluten, casein, stevia, and so on) (330 kcal, 37g carbs, 10g fat, 29g protein - pictured serving)

Bottom: pecan pie tartlet (coconut flour/wheat gluten/casein crust, sugar-free syrup/egg/butter filling) (200 kcal, 25g carbs {mostly sugar alcohol}, 12g fat, 16g protein - pictured serving/one tartlet)

I found both to be satisfying and delicious, but am still working out the timing for baking with a small toaster oven.

[rockorbanana]

I finally got a small toaster oven and an electric mixer, and got seasonal with a pumpkin pie:Crust:

50 g flour

50 g protein

30 g vital wheat gluten

10 g salt

20 g butter (melted)

Pie:

2 eggs 

500 g pumpkin, pureed

10 g salt     

vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spice, stevia (to taste)       

+ Whipped Cream:

20 g protein

10 g egg white

milk (just enough to get a good consistency)

vanilla, stevia (to taste)

Nutrition (1/4 of the entire pie + whipped cream):

380 k calories

25 g carbs

11 g fat

50 g protein

[rockorbanana]

Happy Holidays! 节日快乐!

It is always great to see/talk with my growing family; no Christmas in China is complete without a video chat session, and of course apples from students.

[rockorbanana]

DI外卖*

Food delivery service is a huge business in China, and it is relatively cheap and convenient. I prefer to do my own cooking, mostly so I can know exactly what goes into dishes (for reasons of health and diet), but the uni issues teachers a monthly (non-transferable) balance on a meal card. In an effort to not let the money go to waste I sometimes go to the canteens on campus. I have been able to buy some basics like bread, fruit, and diet sodas, but also end up buying meals that I think are way too heavy on the oil.

This was my latest haul, half-loaf of bread, 300g mango, and double servings of pumpkin, eggplant, tofu, and rice (all for under 30元). In efforts to avoid ingesting all the oil in some of the dishes, I’ve come up with the following three step process:

Drain excess oil from dish, and transfer food to another dish.

Refrigerate dish tilted so remaining oil runs to one side.

Extricate food from dish, leaving as much congealed fat and oil behind as possible, reheat and eat.

The entire process removes about 30g of oil/fat from the dish, about 270 calories worth. (It also gives me the opportunity to extricate pieces of meat if necessary.) This still allows me to eat delicious Chinese food at home without the cost of having it delivered. I usually bike to the canteen and take the food to go, doing a DIY type of food delivery.

* 外卖 (pronounced wàimài or “why my”) is take out/takeaway, so this is wordplay I am quite proud of.

[rockorbanana]

A few weeks ago the uni organized a trip for the foreign teachers to Bo’ao city. If I recall correctly, we first went to lunch, then a golf course for some driving practice (we don’t have any true golfers, but all had fun), then a coffee shop. The coffee was amazing rich and robust (and dark), and there was a good view of the sea. Then we went to the hotel (Wyndham, I’ll post more on that later) and then dinner. Some went out to a bar after this, but I went back to the hotel for a swim and then to sleep early.

The second day, we had breakfast (at the hotel there was a great mix of Western and Chinese foods), then went to an ecological park area and walked through it for a bit, after which we headed back to Haikou with a stop for lunch before arriving home.

It was cool to spend time with some of the other foreign teachers and get to know them better, but I was also really impressed with how well my vegetarianism was accommodated. The trip leaders were very understanding and helpful, making sure I was full at each meal, so much so that after the two days I weighed in 3kg heavier.

[rockorbanana]

Comrades, Confidants, & Homies

In a lesson on relationships this week, a class asked me to distinguish between these three.

[rockorbanana]

FOOD is important. Two recent food related points of pride for me:

I successfully created a low sugar/low carb orange sauce (using orange flavored fiber supplement samples). It is great on veggies and tofu.

I manipulated a chickpea based cookie recipe (to have more protein, less carbs/fat) and it came out absolutely fabulous.

Both of the above are results of me experimenting with xanthan gum and erythritol, which I am able to find rather cheaply here.