First and foremost that agenda is to help my students and to further the mission of the Peace Corps: help the host country, teach the host country about America, teach Americans about the host country. A close second, however, is to learn about the food of China.
Vying for number two is to learn about the religious face of China, but that's for another blog.
My fellow Volunteers and I not only serve in our official capacity, which differs from country to country. In China, we are university teachers. We also serve the host country through secondary projects: English Corner, American movie screenings, lectures on American culture, teaching at orphanages, music and theater projects, and the list goes on.
Given my interest in food culture and cooking, I started a cooking club with my students. The students teach me Chinese cooking, which they have learned by watching their parents and grandparents, and I teach them English. We write the recipes in English, they (try to) teach me to cook in English, and we talk in English during our time together.
China is new enough to the global hyperculture that the young people here are still connected to the traditional cooking culture. This connection is soon to be severed, but for now it's here and I want to learn.
Today was our first Cooking Club meeting! Ten students came, and on the menu today was fanqie ji dan (tomatoes fried with eggs) and qing jiao rou si (fried pork and green pepper strips). I have no idea what is in store for the coming weeks...my students decide. But I can now cook these dishes, and my students (Jake, Emily, Blue Sky, Harriet, and five other great kids who's Chinese names I can't yet remember) can now explain how to do so in English. There were a few technical difficulties--not quite enough chopsticks, an ancient malfunctioning rice cooker--but all went well and we had an amazing time.
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