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My Heart's Desire

What I really, really want is to have someone over for dinner.  It is something I think about every. single. day.  Back home it was what made me tick and that hasn't left me, but here there are just so many hurdles....

❇ I'm very happy to eat Chinese.  I want to learn to cook good Chinese food, after all that is what is cheapest and most accessible.  But I *am not* going to feed Chinese people Chinese food when they come to dinner.  Just not going to do that. (But, dear friends, when I come home, I will be able to feed you some pretty yummy Chinese food, and I'm very excited about that!)

❇My ability to find foods from home is challenging.  Ingredients are hard to come by.  Dairy is especially hard--good cheeses, Greek yogurt and sour cream.  Good meats.  Fresh herbs.  Some produce items such as avocados. Condiments (US mayo and dijon for salad dressings).  Chipotle peppers and canned tomato products...I could go on and on.  Those are just the ones I've really been missing.

❇I have so little equipment.  You really can only do so much with 4 plates, 4 cups, 4 spoons, 4 forks, 2 pans, a few measuring tools, a few mixing bowls and an Easy Bake oven.  And until my shipment arrives, I will not be adding much to that repertoire because of storage issues.  (Status on the shipment:  We *finally* got the work permit last week and sent it to the shipping agency.  But now we have to wait for a slow boat to come to China.  There are not too many of those, so who knows how long that will be.  Once it hits the ocean, it will be about 2 months + whatever time it takes to get through customs.  Perhaps a reasonable hope is to get it before Christmas??  But this is China--that may be an unrealistic expectation. 😔)

❇The few tastes from home I have managed to make have only been semi successful.  I won't feel badly if Chinese people don't care for the same tastes we like, but I want to give them the best chance to like it and if it is only sub par to us, how can it be good to them?  

❇I have no serving dishes. I didn't ship my dishes from home so this is something I get to buy here! So once we have a paycheck and I can find a set I want, that hurdle can be put down. The difficulty will be in finding what I want. Shopping for them is difficult because I've only seen two stores with *really* nice sets, and I'm not looking for fancy china, but just a nicer every day set. Shopping here is NOTHING like it is in the US, so finding the right kind of store is quite a bit harder.  But I have some ideas, so this is not a super big hurdle, but just something that has to happen before guests can be invited. (Then again, everything is harder in China, so perhaps I shouldn't quickly dismiss this hurdle.....Who knows?  But I'm crossing my fingers it's only a smallish hurdle.)

❇I have a list of 3-4 meals that I can get the ingredients for and that I am slowly fine tuning.   Hopefully in the next month or so, we'll be able to have dinner guests!  

In the meantime, I can only dream and anticipate that day.  But after our year+ of waiting I've learned to wait.  Calm down little heart's desire, the time will come.  The time will come.

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