Day 24: Barbecue Today

Today our fantastic hosts, the local students organized a barbecue for us! Kudos to them for choosing a considerably nearby and scenic location to hold the barbecue. Of course, this being China, nearby means an hours walk, but I'm not complaining.

At first glance, their barbecue is really different, but when it comes to the real thing, their is no real difference. Have a look:

Chopping and skewing Chicken Gizzards, which I have never done or seen in Singapore for a barbecue. Regardless, I straightaway stepped in and joined them in skewing the gizzards, which wasn't every easy at first, but it got easier later on.This is their barbecue pit, which is really very different from the ones we commonly use, but it certainly looks more professional, since this is what satay-men use also. But what was very strange was that they barbecued all sorts of vegetables! Mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, spring onions, enoki mushrooms all skewered and cooking!

The seasonings they used were also somewhat different from us, such as oil, salt, chilli powder and some sort of mixed spices powder. And instead of marshmallow, the large, white, fluffy-looking things I'm cooking are actually mantou.

Overall, the food today was excellent, in fact, I think my barbecues in Singapore will never be the same again, because I'm going to be too influenced by their way of barbecuing.

After that we had some activities, and I tried my hand (or feet) at roller-blading, something I had not tried for almost 10 years. Unfortunately they didn't have the roller-blades in my size, so I had to squeeze my feet into them and try. However, I really couldn't do it, so a little while later I gave up, body exhausted and feet in pain. We also spent some time in the community centre where there were free sports equipment for use so we played badminton, table tennis, billiards and basketball. Finally, 4 weeks since arriving here, I was able to play some table tennis with the local students. And then the sun set, and it was time to go home.

Reflection:

I'm really grateful for today, because it gave us real time to interact with everyone, and through preparing the food, cooking the food, eating the food, and playing games, we got to know everyone a little better.

Through the barbecue, we can see that our cultures might be different, but at the root, we are all the same. Although their equipment and how they cook and what they cook is different from us, the atmosphere and the end result is the same. This proves that no matter how we do things, as long as we do it with sincerity, we can still achieve our goals.