americantakeout
tasty bytes from China
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11/11/10
Sorry that I Got Fat
Filed under: General
Posted by: @ 4:46 pm


Okay, I can hear my mother-in-law right now, “What did you do to my baby? He’s so thin!”
It’s true. About all of the men I know who moved to China have lost an average of 20 L-Bs, including Jeff. I’m not sure if it’s because the local cuisine doesn’t agree with their stomaches or if it’s because there’s no Sunday Football (ya know, every man’s excuse to park his butt on the sofa and eat junk all day).
Whatever it is, weight gain is not a problem in Kunming for the guys.
As for females? We don’t seem to lose weight in Kunming but we don’t seem to gain it, either. No Oprah-yo-yoing, either. We’re all have pretty much the same thighs, muffin tops and ankle fat that we left with from the land of Ben & Jerrry’s.
Kunming is in the mountains, so hiking up a flight of stairs leaves you a little more short winded than what you’re used to. It’s serious exercise, so serious exercise is a real work out. At our school, my classroom is on the fifth floor. While it’s not a big of a climb as the Great Wall of China, believe me, your thighs feel the burn.
I’ve actually done a test to see how much I could eat before gaining weight. The answer? A lot. Mrs. Field’s cookies aren’t common here, and even if they were, you wouldn’t be able to find a glass of milk that actually tastes like it came from a cow to wash ‘em down with. Then, right about when you think you’re gaining weight, you get a bout of, well, ya know.
There is Skippy Peanut Butter, the real deal and a bootleg version. We got a big jar at the wholesale market, but I noticed that the label was a bit funky. No “circle r” by the Skippy name and, the font was a bit different.
I can deal with bootleg 007 DVDs, but not something that I swallow.
Here’s a little video about a day in the life of a local “wet” farmer’s market. It’s called wet because when it rains, you get wet. There are also inside “dry”markets. Both have butchers with meat cleavers are right out of a Freddy Krueger movie. It also contains a few short clips of a tasty local bakery chain and the Westerner’s Best Friend, Auntie’s Garage Market. You can find many of the packaged goods you miss from the states at Aunties, including Good N’ Plenty, Hershey’s Syrup and Miracle Whip.

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