The cafeteria on campus, which normally provides us foreign teachers with three warm meals a day, is closed over the summer break. This means that lately I have been cooking again, and I’ve been enjoying that rather rare pleasure. For dinner, I decided to give myself a treat and have a light German dinner, with homemade rolls (as bread in China usually is sweet, which German bread usually isn’t), cheese, meat and some vegetables. Yummy!

We haven’t had the food corner in a while, and since my time in Hong Kong wasn’t all too long ago, I thought, I’d share some of the culinary  goodnesses we got to enjoy there! This was a dish that we had the day we went to the escalators and stopped by a Pizza restaurant. Italian Food in Asia, that’s what it is!

Here’s another very common dish: meat, fried together with onions and carrots. It comes with a delicious sauce, though I can’t even tell whether it’s real sweet and sour, or just one of the two. In any case, it is a very popular dish around here and often ordered in restaurants, and served in our cafeteria several times a week.

Yes, I admit it right away: I’m a Muesli lover! At least when I can help it! True, living in China, one doesn’t always have a chance to get muesli. But I call myself lucky! A couple of months ago, my parents brought me one of my favorite muelis ever: Strawberry Yoghurt Muesli, and every once in a while I’ll allow myself this special treat!

Cold dishes on the side are a very common addition to every proper meal here. Usually, various kinds of vegetables, nuts and tofu are offered in all different kinds of variations. These, for example, are beans combined with a kind of tofu. Tofu in China comes in many different ways, and the tofu here has the texture of bread.

I have to say, salads and fresh vegetables are not very common in Chinese Cuisine. Most vegetables come fried in the wok (like almost everything else). If you look hard enough, though, you can find some fresh vegetable dishes like this green leaf salad. I can’t even tell what kinds of leaves actually made it into this salad, though around here, salads often come with mint leaves. The dressing usually consists of some spices combined with vinegar, and though they may not look like the typical green salads we can get in the West, Chinese salads still can be quite tasty!

I have yet another very typical dish that I want to introduce to you today: fried mixed vegetables. This dish is comprised of onions, carrots, bamboo sprouts, and mushrooms, which are fried in the wok, together with peppers and other spices. It’s very popular in our area, and quite delicious, too!

Yes! Strawberry season has begun, and for us that means lots of delicious delights. My friend just got me a huge bag of fresh strawberries just the other day, and now I can enjoy them for breakfast, with yogurt, or as a snack on the side. Since I am talking about snacks already – have you ever tried to make strawberry ice cream? All you need to do is, get a couple of strawberries and freeze them. Then you throw them into a blender, add plain yogurt and a teeny-bit of vanilla extract, and there you have the most delicious, and yet very healthy ice cream dessert!