Soccer Park

After dinner the other night, I took a walk with J's dad over to "Soccer Park" (Zu-Qiu Gong-Yuen). The night air was crisp, and I quickly put up my hood to keep warm. The park is just a 5 minute walk or so from their place, and it was nice to get some exercise after a very large dinner.

We had made a massive amount of food to eat over the new year holidays coming up, which I'd helped to make. It was fun to see how they make everything, and also to try and communicate with J's parents on my own (J was in the other room working on her computer). Her dad, W, showed me how to make a mixture of radish and pork, with some spices and flour mixed in, which I then scooped up in a spoon and dropped into frying oil to make a small fried ball of the mixture, called wanzi. We also made a dish a fried-fish (zha yu). W showed me how to make sure the fish didn't stick together after putting them in the oil, and also to lift the fried fish out of the oil once for a few moments with a wide laddle, then drop them back in for a minute, and then scoop them out one last time. It was a lot of fun, and made it all taste that much better knowing that I'd helped to make it.

The next day we had a large lunch, including the dishes above, as well as steamed buns (man tou) and corn porridge (yu mi zhou). Actually, I wish I could name ALL the different dishes we've had, but I'm sure I'll get to them, little by little--I'm a perpetual foodie blogger. Again, W and I strolled over to Zu-Qiu Park for some exercise. This time when we got there, I saw a forgotten soccer ball in the field. I ran out and gave it a kick toward the goal. W soon got the idea and joined me, so we passed it back and forth a bit, and then took turns as goalie. After a few minutes, one of the park staff came out and joined us too. He was a young guy and spoke a bit of English. I think he said he was a teacher, so I think he was a sports coach of some sort. Anyway, after about 20-30 minutes, we managed to kick the ball out of bounds and over a fence into the basketball courts. It wasn't a problem, but the end of our game, so we said farewell to the coach and W and I continued our stroll.