Shanghai Tech Writer

Right in the center of our office floor is a snack table with all sorts of food and snacks on top of it. Every day, someone brings something to share with the whole department. If someone traveled somewhere, he/she brings back something indigenous to that area. We’ve got snacks from Sichuan, Chongqing, Suzhou, Hunan, U.S., and of course, home-baked goodies complement of me.

I’ve got two ovens at home, an actual full-size oven and a smaller one. Most homes in China, I’d say 99%, do not have an oven. Baking is not common in China, not to mention, the lack of space in the kitchen for an oven. You can buy small toaster ovens but they’re so small you can bake like one muffin/bread or 4 cookies at a time.Two years ago, I found and bought a portable bigger-than-toaster oven and was able to bake about 8-10 cookies at a time. It was great, except finding all the right ingredients was really difficult. Ingredients like baking soda/powder, chocolate chips, vanilla extract, cream of tartar, etc… were either nonexistent in local supermarkets or ridiculously overpriced at import stores ($8 USD for a bag of chocolate chips!!).

End of last year, we bought a home in Shanghai and it came “mao pei”, meaning it’s just an empty space with slabs of concrete between your “home” and your neighbor’s “home” (We’re in a ten-story apartment building). We spent half a year doing “zhuang xiu“, a Chinese word without an adequate English translation, but I guess it could be very loosely translated to “remodeling” except there was nothing to “re”-model. It was all from scratch, everything electrical wiring, water piping, central AC, wall partitions, to drop ceiling, molding, paint, flooring, and cabinetry. It was half a year of nightmare, but the good thing was that we got to design everything the way we wanted. We modeled our kitchen after what an “American kitchen” should be, only one-third in size! We installed built-in oven (imported from Italy), built-in dishwasher(rare), garbage disposal (never heard of in China), and drinking/water filter system (what’s that?). We’re probably one of the very few homes in Shanghai with these amenities but we figured, if we’re going to be in China indefinitely, we need to feel at home.

All that said, we now have two ovens and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the kitchen. As mentioned earlier, finding all the right ingredients is really difficult and even import stores don’t have everything. When I was back in the U.S. for a few weeks in September, I brought back a few things like Costco-sized chocolate chips and various baking mix. Some ingredients I couldn’t bring back and cannot find here, I make-do with substitutes. On top of that, I realized that my full-size oven isn’t calibrated properly so the temperature setting is off. I can’t find oven thermometer here so it’s been a lot of trial and error, experimenting with different ingredients and temperature setting. I’ve burned several batches of brownies already and created interesting cookies that haven’t quite reached perfection.

Regardless, I bring to work whatever is still edible and they’re all gone by the end of the day. That’s enough motivation for me to keep baking and experimenting, otherwise I’d hate to eat all the failed products by myself. My husband is allergic to anything that is wheat and dairy based, so he steers a mile away from the kitchen when I’m baking. I do some gluten-free baking for him, but I’d never bring that to work. In my opinion, they taste terrible but that’s all he can eat so he can’t tell the difference.

Next week, we’re hosting a Thanksgiving dinner party for both our colleagues. We’re not going to attempt to bake a turkey but I am planning to teach my colleagues how to bake! It’s going to be so much fun! I’ve already in mind to make chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cheese cake.

The eating continues…

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