Stuffed!

Gòu le! Enough! I’m stuffed!

You see, I’m one little pig who is running way behind schedule this Friday night because I just couldn’t wait to cook up some goods from our semi-annual pilgrimage to the Metro in Chongqing. The Metro is a big German store—in some ways like Carre Four or Cosco or Sam’s. The one in Chongqing stocks both local goods and imports, and it’s the one place to get cheese or other hard-to-get things, most of them wicked and delicious. Chocolate. French wine. New Zealand butter.  French bread (made in Chongqing). Feta cheese. Walnuts. Basil.

The secret ingredient in the foods my Chinese friends
have most appreciated--including banana bread.

The waiban packed a dozen of us foreigners into a small bus and took us to stock up on whatever sinful things we craved—and that we did. For me, part of the treat was being able to buy some items in bulk—rice and oil—without having to carry them the long way from the local Yong Hui market back to my apartment. (Although I can get some things—fruit, vegetables, eggs, and tofu—at the food stands at the foot of my hill, I must walk four or five blocks for things like yogurt, oil, nuts, rice, noodles and so on. No big deal, but I don’t try to save money by buying these things in bulk when I have to carry them a long way. And no elevators in my apartment.)

So I stocked up on things both practical and impractical—including some ingredients I’d been awaiting for months to be able to make a delicious cheese soup and cheese muffins that were part of a Christmas package some dear ones sent me from home last year. I hadn’t even unpacked the toothpaste and such before I’d gone down to the corner shop to get a Shancheng beer, another ingredient for the cheese soup. I whipped up the biscuit mix and soup—and then wolfed down half of what I made, which was probably meant to feed a family of five.

But I’m full and satiated.

It’s interesting because I never thought much about “fullness factors” before coming to China. Here I eat exceedingly well—probably more nutritiously than ever in my life—and I eat quite a lot. But I rarely feel full.

Part of it may be because there is so little bread, butter, sweets, cheese, or milk products in my diet, things that are fattening but also satisfying.  Many (most?) Chinese are lactose intolerant and don’t drink milk or eat cheese. The Chinese do use meat and potatoes in various dishes, but they usually cut them up in tiny pieces and mix them in with other ingredients—you won't find big slabs of any kind of meat. And, traditionally, the Chinese are not bakers. They don’t have ovens. Typically, they don’t bake bread or desserts. In this part of China, spicy dishes are much preferred to sweet things and even children don’t seem to have much of a sweet tooth. So many of the things that might make me feel full at home just aren’t available in my neighborhood.

So, much as I like Gongbao Jiding, Yuxiang Qiezi and other Chinese dishes, I thoroughly enjoyed pigging out on my cheese soup and biscuits tonight.

And now . . . I’m going to indulge in a bite of chocolate.