Cooking with Jifu

It may not be much, but this common dish is one of my go-to meals, especially as of late as I near the end of my tour of duty here and become increasingly squeezed for both time and energy.

If you think that it may not look like fancy, will then you would be 100% correct. This dish is basically scrambled eggs and tomato; a simple combination that can be found in restaurants throughout Beijing and the rest of the northeast in general. Cooking procedure usually follows very simple guidelines:

1.) Fry up a batch of scrambled eggs (which can be seasoned with chopped garlic and a dash of salt), then remove from pan

2.) Add chopped tomatoes. While they cook, add salt, some pepper, and a bit of sugar (at least that's how I've been taught to prepare it). Fry until they begin go soft, and try to make sure they don't completely turn to mush

3.) Throw the egg back in, and mix together. Turn off the heat, and let cool for a few minutes before enjoying

As I said, this is hardly the stuff of high-class dining, and the combination itself may appear to be a bit odd upon first glance to just about anyone who doesn't live here. However, it's quick, easy, hits the spot, and you'll feel a lot better about yourself than if you just slopped an excess amount of ketchup onto some eggs.

......That, and I honestly need some way to deal with a recent gift that I received.

Recently China celebrated yet another 端午节 (duan wu jie, or "Dragon Boat Festival"). So, as an incredibly kind gesture, the medical college gave each university faculty member a carton of traditional 粽子 (zongzi, sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboos leaves), and a box of eggs. 

Now if you take a close gander at the photo, above, you may notice than the box may seem a tad sizable. And if you peer even closer, you may see the plain and undeniable 50 that marks the lower right of the pictued cardboard container. Now for the teachers and professors who have families of any size, there's nothing like a hefty gift of eggs to share with perhaps the children or their parents back home. However, if you're a bachelor like me, twoscore and a half eggs isn't really something that I would call maneagable.

Thank the Lord I was able to fit them in the fridge; also I should probably double the praise I'm sending heavenwards for the fact that tomatoes are now well in season, so I won't be busting the bank as I try and get through the little regiment of protein sitting at the ready in my tiny refrigerator. Now

I confess, I want to hope that I don't mangle my choleserol levels, but at this point, I may already be running out of minor egg-related miracles......and yet again, life in Jilin has forced me to write a sentence that I'd never thought that I would have to construct.

Comments

[Fr.Brian]

If you get tired of tomatoes and eggs...give eggs and tomatoes a try!!

[zoxwaini]

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