DAY 30

Today is Thursday, it’s a normal school day. I take the bus home at afternoon, then I put my backpack into my bedroom, then I ran out to play basketball. When I go back into the house, my throat feels thirsty. Then I walk to the kitchen and open the freezer, I saw there was some ice cream in there, and I took them out.

The name of that ice cream is Japanese, but there is also Chinese, so it probably is from the Chinese factory. I'm a Chinese, I’m not really excited about ice cream, I'm okay with ice cream. That ice cream looks like a big egg, the outside is ice cream cone, and the inside is the ice cream that's made of matcha and some red beans. Eating that kind of ice cream, it feels like eating Chinese bread because there is something in the inside of the shape.

When I was in China, I only see the big size of that kind of ice cream. The one in China has matcha, red beans and some other things, it tastes better than the small one. I think they just make two cone, and put the ice cream into each cone, then put two cone together. But they make the matcha ice cream and red bean ice cream in two layers. When I'm eating that ice cream, I can taste the cone and to matcha ice cream and red bean ice cream.

DAY 29

Today is Wednesday, it’s a normal school day. I take the bus home in the afternoon, when I get home I went out to play a little bit and come back in. I saw there is so many ZongZi in the table, I think it’s made by my grandma. The shape of ZongZi is like a triangular pyramid, most people from FuZhou make that kind of shape ZongZi.

ZongZi had a story, the story tells in 278 BC, there is a man jumped into the river, but he is a good person work for a country(that country and other country became to China) at that time. And many people don’t want the fish and shrimp in the river to eat his body, so people throw glutinous rice into the river. And anyhow it becomes to ZongZi because there is so many glutinous in the ZongZi. They have so many kinds of ZongZi in China, but my favorite kind is salt. People called salt, but it doesn’t taste like there is so much salt in there, they just change the things that go with glutinous. The outside of ZongZi is the special leaves for ZongZi, and the inside is glutinous and other things with it.

For me, to make ZongZi is hard because I don’t know how to make the shape of ZongZi. The first thing to make ZongZi is wash the glutinous, then get whatever you want with the glutinous, then put them into a bowl, and stir them. And use two special leaf that’s use for ZongZi to make a shape(make sure your shape has one surface is open), then put glutinous with the things that you want into the shape, then use the leaf to cover the open surface. And use thread to bundle whole ZongZi, then put them into a pressure cooker that has water in it, and cook them for 40 minutes. I will use soy sauce or sugar for the sauce of ZongZi.

DAY 28

Today is Tuesday, it’s a normal school day, I take the bus home in the afternoon. When I get home, I went out to play a little bit,  then I come back inside. When I come I heard the sound that’s frying things, then I take a walk to the kitchen. Then I saw my grandma was making the fried taro.

The people from FuZhou must have fried taro before because there are many restaurants in FuZhou sell fried taro, and there is also the food car in the street, and everyone can see it, smell it. When I was in China, my grandpa brought me to his friends home, and he sells the fried taro everyday, and I saw he had the steam taro in his desk, the steam taro are cut to the triangular prism, and I have been thinking in my mind, so I think it’s the first time I know how they make fried taro. In FuZhou, the fried taro are not expensive, one fried taro only cost 2-5 Chinese yuan(about 0.3 dollars-0.72 dollars).

I never watched how they make the fried taro, but I have only seen the fry part. I think they mashed taro like mashed potatoes, put some flour into the taro, and stir them. Then they steam the mashed taro, and cut the taro into many triangular prism. Then they put all the triangular prism taro in to a pot that has hot oil in there, then fry them. Then put them into the top of paper towel, make sure there is no more oil on the fried taro. When I eat the fried taro, I will get some soy sauce and put the hot sauce into the soy sauce, and stir them, and put the fried taro into the sauce, then put them in to your mouth, it taste very good.

DAY 27

Today is Monday, it’s a normal school day. I take the bus home in the afternoon, when I get home I feel a little hungry. So I opened the cabinet, and I saw some noodles in there, then I was thinking about to make BanMian. And I opened another cabinet, then I saw some peanut butter in there, so I took them out.

BanMian is a very popular dish in China, but every place has different flavors BanMian. I’m from FuZhou, so I like to eat the FuZhou BanMian. FuZhou BanMian is made of peanut butter and lard, so it smells very good. When I was little, my mom make BanMian for me a lot of time, but now I can make it by myself, and make it for other people. I like to eat BanMian in my hometown’s restaurant because they can make the flavor of homemade, and when you walk into that restaurant, you will feel like that was my home.

To make BanMian is not very hard. If you want to make the BanMian, you just need noodles, peanut butter, lard and soy sauce, I will like to put a little bit hot sauce in there. The first they you have to do is cook some hot water in a pot, and put the noodles into the hot water. Then put peanut butter, lard and soy sauce into a bowl, and add some hot water into the pot(don’t put too much hot water), and use a spoon to stir all the things in the bowl until it’s melted. When the noodles are soft, then put the noodles into the top of the sauce that you made, and stir them(make sure when the noodles comes into your mouth the sauce are with the noodles.

DAY 26

Today is Sunday, I wake at 11:30 PM. Then I brush my teeth and clean my face, and walk down to the kitchen. I open up the fridge, and trying to find something to eat. I don’t see anything that I want to eat. So I open the cabinet, and I saw two packs of instant noodles, it’s spicy beef noodles.

They named it spicy beef noodles, but there is no beef in there, the only thing that I know if I use the flavors from that instant noodles pack to make soup, the soup will taste like beef. I never ate instant noodles or cup noodles from that company in China because it’s not the most popular instant noodles. In that instant noodles pack, there are two flavors pack, vegetables pack and noodles. That’s what Chinese instant noodles always have. One flavor pack is salt, and another one is spicy, the vegetables pack has carrots and something that I don’t know because it’s too small.

When I cook instant noodles, I always add some other things in it. This time, I put vegetables and egg. To cook instant noodles is very easy, the first thing is to put some water into a pot, and cook the water until the water is boiling, then put the noodles into the boiling water, and keep cooking it. Then put all the flavors pack into the pot, and stir them, if you can’t eat spicy stuff, you can choose to not put it in. Then add the vegetables into the pot and egg. I don’t like the well done egg, so I put the egg in there when I almost finished cooking. Then put them in to a bowl, and it’s done.

DAY 25

Today is Saturday, I wake up at 11:00AM. It's late, so other people already ate breakfast. And I have to make my meal for my breakfast and lunch. I walk down to the kitchen and opened the fridge, and I see there is some rice cake in the fridge. Then I feel like I did not eat the rice cake two months, I like how the fry rice cake taste like, it's so good.

And I took out some vegetables, eggs, pork that has been cut to the little piece and the seafood that was like the clam( it was been cut to small piece). The rice cake that was used for fried rice cake is made by the steam the mashed rice. I eat fried cake a lot in China because in China, we buy the rice cake that was made in the midnight of that day, so it tastes better. The rice cake in the United States is made by Krean, it doesn't taste well when we using Chinese cooking way to cook it.

The way to cook fried rice cake is not hard, but it takes a long time. The first thing is to cook some hot water in a pot and put the rice cake into the hot water( make sure the rice cake is not stick together). Then get a bowl, and break the egg, then put the egg liquid into the bowl, then stir them. Then get another pot, and put some oil in there, and put the egg liquid into the pot, then quick stir them, then put them back to the bowl. And then put some cooking oil in there( not too much because the pork will make some oil), then put the pork that has been cut to little piece in to the pot. And add the clams and vegetables in to the pot, and stir them, then put the fried eggs into the pot and keep stir them. Then put the rice cake in the top of those things, and add some flavors, IThe always add a little Fu Jian cooking wine in there. And keep stir them, and put them in to a plate, them enjoy it.

DAY 24

Today is Friday, it’s a normal school day. When I get home I went out to play a little bit and go back in to the house. And I watched a Chinese TV show, when I finished watching that TV show I feel hungry. So I walk down to the kitchen and find something to eat. It’s a food that the Chinese people eat it often, especially the people from north of China.

It's called a dumpling. There are so many types of dumplings, but they just add different things in there. The most popular type of dumpling in China is chives pork dumpling, it was easy to make. I like so many types of dumpling, I saw a dumpling restaurant in the YouTube video, it was in China, there are so many types of dumpling in there, you just have to pay 20CNY(20CNY is round in 3-4 dollars) and you can eat whatever you want from that restaurant. When I go back to China I will go there to eat. I think I will like to eat the Chinese sauerkraut dumpling, but I never eat them before. The reason that I will like Chinese sauerkraut is that I like the Chinese sauerkraut, I like to use the Chinese sauerkraut to cook with the noodles.

I eat the dumplings different today. I make some soup with dumplings, it tasted very good, so I don’t have to use any sauce. It’s very easy to do. The first to make it is to get some water in the pot and wait for the water to boil. Then put the dumplings into the pot, and when the meat in the dumplings are cooked, that means it’s done. Then put some flavors in a bowl and add the dumplings in, then put the hot water into the bowl, and stir them. I also put the hot sauce in there, it makes the soup taste so good, but if you can’t eat any spicy stuff l, so you better don’t add hot sauce.

DAY 23

Today is Thursday, it's a normal school day. When I get home, and I went out to play a little bit and come back to eat dinner. My dinner for tonight is from my uncle’s restaurant, it’s an America Chinese food. America Chinese food means the chef make the flavor of Chinese food more Americans like, it’s not real Chinese food.

It's sesame chicken, it's not a real Chinese food because the flavor is made for American. There are so many Chinese foods that taste like sesame chicken because they taste sweet and sour and a little bit spicy. The people from FuZhou like sour and sweet, they have more dishes that taste sweet and sour, like sour soup, sweet and sour pork ribs… The food that was in the sweet and sour dishes, most of them are been fried. I think why they call that dish sesame chicken is because they put sesame in the chicken, but this time I didn't want sesame in there.

I have been to the kitchen of uncle's restaurant, I can't really see how they make sesame chicken, but I can think about it and imagine how they make it. The first thing is to use a pot of oil fried the chicken and took them out for later. Then make the sauce, I watched the video of how to make sweet and sour food when they make the sauce of sweet sour food, they always have vinegar and sugar and a little ketchup and some water, they put them in a pot and heat them, then stir them. Then they put the chicken that was already been fried in there, and stir them, and put the broccoli into a pot that has boil water in there, then use the water to cook the broccoli, then put the broccoli into the bowl. The last step is to put the chicken in the top of the broccoli, and put some sesame into the top of the chicken.

DAY 22

Today is Wednesday, it’s a normal school day. I go to school as normal and take the bus home at 3:25PM. When I get home I went out to play for a little bit, and when I get home, I feel really hungry. So I opened the fridge, and I saw a box of lo mein in there, and I took it out for my dinner and put it in the microwave to heat it up.

Lo mein is my most favorite noodle, I like how the lo mein noodles taste like. In China, when my mom doesn't want to cook, she will give me 10 Chinese yuan to buy fried noodles. Their noodles are like the noodles that was used for lo mein, but they don’t add soy sauce into the noodles, I like that more. I like the flavor that they make for the fried noodles, I love it, I want to fly back to China now, and get some fried noodles.

The lo mein is from my uncle’s restaurant, today I choose chicken with lo mein. I know how they make the lo mein because I watched how they make it in the kitchen my uncle’s restaurant. They put the lo mein into boiling water and cook them until the noodles get soft. And they fried the vegetables and chicken, then put the noodles that has been cooked in the boiling water into the pot and stir them,and then put a little soy sauce around the inside of the pot. They make it very quickly so the noodles will not get to soft. Then they put them into a plastic box, and use a plastic cover to cover it.

DAY 21

Today is Tuesday, it’s a normal school day, but we have a field trip to Boston.This is my first time going to Boston, I have only been to New York City and Albany, so this is my first time leaving New York State. I know there is a Chinatown in Boston, but I can’t go there. I think that Chinatown is not really big, I saw that in the google maps.

We visited the Boston for one day, and at 4:00PM we take the bus back to Albany. At 6:00PM, our buses stop at the service area, and most people are choosing to buy MacDonald for there dinner, me either. I don’t eat MacDonald often, just sometimes we wants to there, and we will order some food. In China, they also have MacDonald, but I like KFC more because the KFC in China is much better than MacDonald in the United States. The KFC in China, they make the fry chicken crispy, and they just use the real chicken to make it, it’s 100% chicken. And the KFC in China also has some Chinese meal and they make the bread that was used for burgers more colorful, they had pink, black, yellow…

I ordered a medium size french fries and 10 pieces of chicken nuggets and a drink cup. In my drink cup, I put half coke and half sprite, when I was in China, I always do that. The french fries are made with potatoes, in China, they make the french fries very long, what they do is mashed potatoes and use some cooking tools to make it,when they potatoes come out, they must put it in to the boil oil, otherwise it will be out of shape. I think the chicken nuggets are not whole chicken, maybe they put some other things in there, I never watched how they make chicken nuggets. The chicken nuggets in China is very expensive, one chicken nuggets cost one Chinese yuan, one Chnese yuan can buy a public bus ticket, I think most people think it’s expensive.

DAY 20

Today is Monday, it's a holiday. I wake up at 10:30 AM, and I brush my teeth and clean my face, and bring my basketball to outside. First I meet my friend in the street that was close to my parment, and we want to eat first. The restaurant we go to is a Guang Dong restaurant, Guang Dong is next to Fu Jian, so they are also southern, The people from Guang Dong and Fu Jian, they had the same eating habits, so I don't feel strange.

The meal that we going to eat today is like put the meat and vegetables and rice on a plate, then eat it. We ate it before, but is in a different restaurants, so it will taste a little different. The people from Guang Dong make it a lot, but the people from Fu Jian doesn't, I don't know why, but I like it, I hope the people from Fu Jian also make it a lot, so we will make the best flavor for us. It's not very expensive, one meal only cost six dollars and fifty cents. Or maybe some people will buy some drinks and soup, they also sell fried rice, fried noodles, soup noodles…

I ordered a meal that has two different kinds of meat and vegetables and rice. I don't really know how they make it, but I know it's very yummy. I saw some video that how they make the meat, it's not hard, but I need the different pots and oven. The first meat is Cha Shao, they use some honey and other flavors to put on the meat, and wait for a long time, then put them in the oven and cook it. And another meat is like Bei Jing Duck, they put some flavors in the duck, and put them in the oven and cook it. Then the way to make that vegetables is just use a little oil to fry it. And they put the rice in the bottom, then put the meats and vegetables in the top, and that's it. It only cost six dollars and fifty cents, and I also pay for my friend, so I paid thirteen dollars.

DAY 19

Today is Sunday, I wake up late. When I wake up, I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth and clean my face, then I walk down to the kitchen. My breakfast is kind of like rice. In Chinese XiFan is two words, Xi means dilute, and fan means rice, so in FuZhou, Xi Fan uses a lot of water In cook rice. In FuZhou, Zhou means XiFan cooked with glutinous rice. In other cities Zhou means XiFan.

If you are from FuZhou, and lived there a long time, you will have a lot of choice for breakfast in your dream, XiFan is just one of them. But a lot of people choose XiFan for their breakfast in FuZhou, and some people Just eat rice for breakfast, so we think it's weird because rice is dry and a little bit hard. When people eat XiFan, they always get something to eat with XiFan because XiFan and rice both need something to make up the taste. But when my Mom or somebody cooks for me, I always choose rice, not XiFan, I don't even know why I will choose rice. You can also eat XiFan in every meal.

I eat flammulina with my XiFan. The flammulina is in a package, but they cooked the flammulina. The flavor of flammulina is spicy and salt, it’s pretty simple, but it tastes very good. Actually I don’t know how they make it, but I think I can imagine how they make it and think about it. I think they put a little spicy oil( Use a lot of oil to fry a lot of chili, then throw ll the chili to garbage, the oil is spicy oil) in a pot. Then they pit the flammulina into the pot, and they will add a little salt, and stir them until the flammulina start shrink. Then they put them into the package.

DAY 18

Today is Saturday, I wake up at 10:00 AM. When I wake up, the first thing that I do is sent message to my friends in New York City because we have a plan. Our plan is go to the Chinatown in Flashing, and eat real Chinese food. So I brush my teeth and clean my face, and bring my basketball to the park, my friends are waiting me there. We play basketball for an hour, then we take the Chinese bus to Flashing, Queens.

Flashing Queens has a big Chinatown, most people think the Chinatown in Flashing and Brooklyn has more Chinese people and more Chinese restaurant and more Chinese Market. We get to a mall that was called “New world Mall”, it’s a kind of Chinese mall, we just go to the basement of that mall because there is a lot of restaurant in the basement of that mall. So we take the elevator to basement and I see a lot of people and Chinese restaurant, I feel I was back to China. In the center is all tables and chairs and the restaurants are around the tables, so you can go to any restaurant and get any food, then bring them to the table.

We bought a pot of fry dry hot pot and the soup bun. The only difference between the fry dry hot pot and hot pot is the fry dry hot pot don’t have any soup. The soup bun has a lot of meat soup and meat in there. To make the fry dry hot pot is not really hard, they just fry some sauce they was use for hot pot soup and put the meats, vegetables and seafoods in there then fry them, it was spicy, so a lot of people will choose rice to eat with it. The soup bun make a lot of people confused, but I already know how to make it then I was 10 years old. The thing that makes people confused is how they put the soup into the bun, it’s not hard. They make the meat soup and put them into the fridge, so the soup will solidification, then make use the skin that was made from flour to cover the meat and the soup that was been solidification , and steam them. When the soup bun came to your bowl, it will have a lot of soup in there, some people just use the straw to drink it.