What do we eat in China? Day 1

Okay, so this isn't inspired by my loyal readership abroad; rather, it stems from the ubiquitous question lobbed at me so often it hurts: What do you eat here in China, Teacher Jane? Well, here's the answer. Though my students might not actually see this, this should be interesting to chronicle what we do, indeed, eat in China.

Breakfast (oops, missed a picture of that meal today):

Oatmeal with golden raisins soaking in sweetened jasmine tea, soaking since Christmas Day and "red dates" and "red sugar" (that's what they call brown sugar)

Lunch:

Left-overs: fish soup with brown rice; a bunch of some sort of greens from our organic farmer who delivers to us (cooked with Planters mixed nuts sent to me by Mom and black sesame seeds); left-over pasta and veggies (pasta purchased at one of the major big-box stores over in Chengdu).

Zekey sat for a half-hour after everyone else left and devoured every last bit of the greens, sighing happily and asking me if I could cook so well every day, pleeeeeeease?

Dinner:

Tonight was the first night we implemented "Cook with Dad" night. It was lucky Xander's turn to go first. They used an amazing loaf of whole-wheat bread I'd just baked using my own, home-grown sourdough starter. This bread was sliced, topped with a delicious, well-seasoned tomato sauce ala bruschetta, sliced, boiled yellow potatoes and a bit of cheese. Xander was at one point putting his nose to the steam coming form the pot, inhaling deeply, saying, "Ahhhh... Every time you add another vegetable, I need to smell it more. It smells more and more! Ahhhhh!"

Here's our oven! Notice the brown melted-plastic, steam-vent-escape-area(?) stains on either side of the face of it. But hey! It gets the job done nicely:

The family loved it:

Voila! Day 1.