Shenkeng, I Have Found Thee
After this afternoon, I found myself perilously close to tofu burnout.
But I'm now on the rebound, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to normal, a tried-and-true bean curd junkie.
Seven other lab workers and I went to Shenkeng for lunch today. You might remember Shenkneng was the place I was looking for on the day of the disastrous tea farm adventures, but I gave us because I had no idea what bus or ultimate location I was looking for. Today we went via two automobiles, and I finally got to see the place for which I have been longing.
It was like a mini night market, with activity peaking at lunchtime. Upon arriving, a few others and I got some fried tofu on a stick at the famous tofu shop. I was surprised because it was really more of a stand than a shop, but the most amazing things I have eaten have come from places of complete simplicity and sometimes dubious cleanliness. The one place that looked rather well-established made me sick, so there you go. This fried tofu was very good as all are, but this kind had a slightly different sauce and before giving it to me, they sliced it in the middle and stuffed it with pickled something-or-others (I'm guessing radish).
After that, we went for the 'real lunch.' There was so much food the table almost wasn't big enough. Every time I thought the last dish had been brought out, there was more! This included bamboo, two kinds of fish, stinky tofu, fried tofu, duck, cabbage, noodles, and tofu soup. It was madness, and I think we left some behind. The lab folks wanted me to take the fish head back to Dr. Yu as a token of gratitude, but I declined.
I also bought some peanut candy and other assorted goodies. If I can prevent myself from eating them in the next ten days, I'll try to bring some back to the states. Alice had given me a bag from Shenkeng that sold the best peanut candy, so I showed my labmates the bag, and after laughing hilariously, they finally found the shop.
In the afternoon Zhuo started to teach me the process of DNA transformation. It is similar to transfection in that foreign DNA is inserted into a new chromosome or plasmid, but transfection is rather transient, while transformation implies a longer-lasting or permanent effect. Since I don't have much time left here, this is less of a grand presentation and more of an FYI project (at least I say it is).
I grabbed dinner and brought it back home, where I ate with John and Alice. While we may arrive home at different times and may or may not eat together, we already seem to have a post-dinner ritual of TV (in which I am usually lost, but they explain) and fruit. And more often than not, I'm finding whenever we turn on the news, the Yus happen to personally know the person in question. Tonight it was the minister of education, last night it was some other politician, and tomorrow...who knows?
But I'm now on the rebound, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back to normal, a tried-and-true bean curd junkie.
Seven other lab workers and I went to Shenkeng for lunch today. You might remember Shenkneng was the place I was looking for on the day of the disastrous tea farm adventures, but I gave us because I had no idea what bus or ultimate location I was looking for. Today we went via two automobiles, and I finally got to see the place for which I have been longing.
It was like a mini night market, with activity peaking at lunchtime. Upon arriving, a few others and I got some fried tofu on a stick at the famous tofu shop. I was surprised because it was really more of a stand than a shop, but the most amazing things I have eaten have come from places of complete simplicity and sometimes dubious cleanliness. The one place that looked rather well-established made me sick, so there you go. This fried tofu was very good as all are, but this kind had a slightly different sauce and before giving it to me, they sliced it in the middle and stuffed it with pickled something-or-others (I'm guessing radish).
After that, we went for the 'real lunch.' There was so much food the table almost wasn't big enough. Every time I thought the last dish had been brought out, there was more! This included bamboo, two kinds of fish, stinky tofu, fried tofu, duck, cabbage, noodles, and tofu soup. It was madness, and I think we left some behind. The lab folks wanted me to take the fish head back to Dr. Yu as a token of gratitude, but I declined.
I also bought some peanut candy and other assorted goodies. If I can prevent myself from eating them in the next ten days, I'll try to bring some back to the states. Alice had given me a bag from Shenkeng that sold the best peanut candy, so I showed my labmates the bag, and after laughing hilariously, they finally found the shop.
In the afternoon Zhuo started to teach me the process of DNA transformation. It is similar to transfection in that foreign DNA is inserted into a new chromosome or plasmid, but transfection is rather transient, while transformation implies a longer-lasting or permanent effect. Since I don't have much time left here, this is less of a grand presentation and more of an FYI project (at least I say it is).
I grabbed dinner and brought it back home, where I ate with John and Alice. While we may arrive home at different times and may or may not eat together, we already seem to have a post-dinner ritual of TV (in which I am usually lost, but they explain) and fruit. And more often than not, I'm finding whenever we turn on the news, the Yus happen to personally know the person in question. Tonight it was the minister of education, last night it was some other politician, and tomorrow...who knows?
posted by Shannon @ 9:11 PM
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