Two Recipes and A List

Sihongshi chao jidan (tomato scrambled eggs)

1. Heat up a small quantity of vegetable oil in a wok. If you don't have a wok, I suppose you'll just have to improvise.

2. Stir up some eggs in a small bowl, maybe with a little salt. You have to stir only in one direction. Stir them until they've got little bubbles, which in Chinese is "paopao," which is awesome.

3. Toss the eggs in the wok and swirl them around a bit. You don't want them to be regular scrambled eggs all little curds, and you don't want it nearly as well done as an omelete. The eggs should remain soft and moist and more or less in one big glob.

4. Cut up some nice tomatoes into bite-size pieces (actually, you'd better go back in time and do this beforehand or your eggs will get cold). Put them in the wok with maybe a little MSG if you happen to have some and sautee them gently until they're warm and the skin wants to come off.

5. Put the eggs back in the wok and mix it all together briefly. Serve immediately.

Basi Hongshu (Pulled Caramel Sweet Potato)

1. Wash and peel two sweet potatoes and cut into goodish bitesize chunks.
2. Put a goodish amount of peanut oil in your wok and heat it until when you dip a chopstick in (god, you don’t have chopsticks, you don’t have woks, what is with you people?) small bubbles form.
3. Gently slide sweet potato chunks into oil and cook until soft and yellow. Remove from oil and set aside.
4. Put a little more oil in your wok – maybe a cup. Add sugar – perhaps not as much as you would think necessary. How much? Gee, I don’t know, two thirds of a cup? Try it and find out and let me know. Stir it around with the oil until it is well mixed and the sugar is melted.
5. Add your cooked sweet potatoes to the oily sugar mixture and stir until they are well coated. Remove from wok and put on a plate. When you pick up a piece of sweet potato with your chopsticks there should be thin strands of sugar. You can serve with a bowl of cool water to dip them in so that you don’t get candy floss all over everything.
6. Serve immediately.

ALSO: At my mother’s request – things you can buy on the street in Beijing

1. Flowers
2. Beige brasseires
3. Jewelry
4. Sweet potatoes
5. Sugarcane
6. Popcorn (I was surprised by this)
7. Bootleg DVDs
8. Copies of The Little Red Book
9. Novelty socks