Hosting Our First Dinner Party

Last night we hosted our first dinner party. The invitees included our Mandarin teacher Sammie, and three of her friends. Her room mate Sarah, Sammie's friend Annie, and Annie's boyfriend Jared. In the picture at the table, from left to right around the table are: Annie, Jared, Natalie, me, Zhong Cai Zhen (our Ayi), Sammie, and Sarah. There were many "firsts" for the Bramer's during this party: the guests brought 95% of the food, the guests did ALL of the cooking, and oh, we were the only native English speakers in attendance! Jared and Annie did all of the cooking for us. All I had to do was provide the drinks and some fruit for dessert. What a deal! They are all from other parts of China other than Shanghai. Sammie and Sarah are from Fujian province and Annie and Jared are from the Sichuan province. Sichuan is home to Szechuan cuisine and since that was the home of our cooks, some of the dishes were a bit spicy (yummy). The menu changed a bit after they arrived as they realized that a few ingredients were missing, but we had a total of 10 dishes! They got to our house around 5 and we ate around 7. So in two hours they did all of the prep and all of the cooking. I had no idea what types of dishes would be needed, but we got by with the few Chinese serving ware I had. I asked the Ayi to come and help and so we invited her to join our meal as well. I think she really enjoyed that! That included some small rice bowls, some Chinese style soup spoons, and lots of serving dishes. Here is the menu:

1. Jing Jiang Rou Si (Pork with Leeks)
2. Tu Dou Niu Rou (Beef with potatoes)
3. Ma Po Dou Fu (Literally translates to Freckled Grandmother To Fu!)
4. Shou Si Juan Xin Cai (Water Spinach with Pork)
5. Hui Guo Rou (Twice cooked pork)
6. Dou Fu Yu Pian (Fish with ToFu)
7. Rou Yuan Tang (Pork Ball soup)
8. Hong Jiao Rou Si (Pork with Peppers)
9. Liang Ban Xi Heng Shi (Tomatoes with Sugar)
10. Qing Jiao Tu Dou Si (Potatoes with Green Peppers)

Everyone had their own favorites. Personally I enjoyed the Jing Jiang Rou Si (Pork with Leeks) and the Qing Jiao Tu Dou Si (Potatoes with Green Peppers). I took the leftover potatoes and fried them up like hash browns this morning. Very spicy and tasty!!! At the end of the meal, I made everyone try my home brewed pijiu (beer) which I am not sure was received with the same enthusiasm as the rest of the dinner. Regardless, a great time was had by all, and no one was hungry! And we had plenty of leftovers Sunday. We also captured some good videos (Natalie did most of the recording so beware of low camera angles!), you can find them on our main china page. Unfortunately I did not complete all of the recipes, but will post as I fine-tune the details with our guests via email.