Last night a group of us, becoming increasingly tired of Chinese food, attempted to cook an American(ish) feast. Anika's mom took us on the 30 minute drive to Metro, the international food store. We must have spent at least an hour in the store searching for cheddar cheese, butter, and brown sugar, three ingredients that are apparently very scarce in China. We finally made our way out successfully; we had purchased everything we needed (minus baking soda for cookies) all for a total of 800 yuan (a crazy amount to spend on groceries in China).
The hard time we had shopping was nothing compared to the even harder time we had with the actual cooking. For three hours the six of us, about half of which had never even cooked pasta, bustled around the kitchen, never without a knife/spoon/pot in our hands. After curdling the milk for our chicken-broccoli alfredo and nearly melting a pot in the oven, we were finished. Our efforts had resulted in: surprisingly good quesadillas (homemade tortillas!), rigatoni broccoli and chicken alfredo, apple crisp (really just apples with oatmeal and brown sugar mixed in-we had many difficulties), and oatmeal raisin cookies/globs. While maybe not the best looking food I've had, it certainly was American: messy, filling, and a much needed taste of home.