A GOOD EXPERIENCE TO SHARE

I recently taught an English lesson about “food”.  My objective was to get them to talk in English about food.  Towards the end of the class, I pulled out a pan, and all the ingredients for “No-bake Chocolate Cookies”.  I even brought a hot-plate from our apartment.  They really enjoyed helping me make cookies.  It was a good experience!  They’d never had anything like it, although some of them said, “It’s too sweet.” 

One of my students had to leave class early for a “Party Meeting”.  That’s Communist Party, if you’re wondering.  I’m curious about her involvement  in the meeting.  Anyway, she missed the part of my lesson on making cookies.  So I brought her three cookies in a baggy, and slipped them into her back-pack when she was involved with one of our activities.  This morning, I got the following email from her.

Dear Susan,

Thank you so much for the very scrumptious chocolate-chip cookies you gave it to me . It’s one of the very nicest cookies i have ever eaten.

 I had been very sorry that I had to miss the class because I cherish every moment to spend with you since the class is near the end, But  you do make up for my losses and make lots of  wonderful memories for me and other classmates. You are such a nice, beautiful, gentle, kind and happy person  which leaves a really deep and good impression on me .

 I sincerely appreciate your kindness.

 With best wishes for you and your husband - from my bottom of my heart.

 ps: If u have any trouble to go shopping or do other things , you can call me .Since I am just a student, I do have much free time. I 'd like to help u at any time. 

Yours sincerely,  

Lynne   

                             

Dave has received correspondence from is students to the same effect.  It’s these kinds of things that help us to enjoy this experience, despite the crummy kitchen I have, and the low ironing board and counter tops and no clothes dryer.

Blog #23

Experiences with Chinese Food

     Continuing on with the discussion on my “Food” class -- I showed them a lot of pictures of Chinese foods, I had them tell me all about them.  After class, one of my students, who is a professor of health sciences, and used to practice as a Doctor, gave me a food container with Sea Cucumbers.  We’re still trying to get up the nerve to eat them.  But we have plans to eat them for lunch today.  I’ll take a picture to prove that we gave them a try.  If I can eat bugs (cicada), I can at least take a bite of Sea Cucumber.

     Here’s what they look like.  

They’re about the size of sweet pickles. 

     They are in most of the grocery stores and kiosks around town.  They are very, very expensive—around $700.00 for a kilo, or $350.00 per pound.  I asked the students if they were good, and they all said, “No, they don’t taste very good, but they are very healthy.”  That didn’t make we want to try them very badly. 

One of the men in my class sent me this write-up about Sea Cucumbers. 

Professor Alexander :

      Here is the information about Sea cucumbers. 

     Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class Holothuroidea. They are  
marine animals with a leathery skin and an elongated body containing a 
single, branched gonad. Sea cucumbers are found on the sea floor worldwide. 
There are a number of holothurian species and genera, many of which are 
targeted for human consumption. The harvested product is variously referred 
to as trepang, bêche-de-mer or balate.

Like all echinoderms, sea cucumbers have an endoskeleton just below the skin, calcified structures that are usually reduced to isolated microscopic ossicles (or sclerietes) joined by connective tissue. In some species these can sometimes be enlarged to flattened plates, forming an armour. In pelagic species such as Pelagothuria natatrix (Order Elasipodida, family Pelagothuriidae), the skeleton and a calcareous ring are absent.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber       Well, for starters, there are way too many words in that Wikipedia write-up that I don’t know how to pronounce.   Secondly, I don’t eat gonads.  I don’t care what anyone says about how healthy they are – I’m not going to eat “gonads.”  Well, maybe just a taste.

     One of the slides I showed was of an open market with all kinds of weird,
exotic Chinese slimy stuff.  The red-ish food at the forefront of the picture
is Kim-chi.  It’s a Korean dish.  The students said that it tastes spicy, and
good, but smells really bad.

The container right behind the Kim-chi is pickled garlic. 

     I like sauteed garlic in butter, so I wondered how I would like these garlic.  All the students said they liked them, and that they were sweet garlic.  So yesterday when we were shopping I saw some, and bought six garlic heads.  They only cost about $0.85 for all six.  They must not be nearly as healthy for you as Sea Cucumbers : )  .  When we got home, we opened one, and peeled all the wet, papery exterior, and it was very interesting.  Not especially good, mainly because it had a slight perfumy taste – somewhat like rose water.  But they had a delicate pickled taste – vinegary, and somewhat sweet.  The perfume taste killed the deal for me.  I took the remaining five garlic heads  to class last night, and I had one of the girls help me open and peel them for everyone.  Did I have many takers???  NO, I didn’t.   Most all of them were left on the plate when everyone left.  Someone said that, “well, you’re supposed to eat them with other foods. . . “  Yeah, yeah. . . . they don’t like them that well either.