Delicious Dish

I've been pleased with myself for not getting sick of Chinese food. Well, occasionally Tanu and I get into a downward spiral where we take turns describing deliciously decadent Western food (we basically hypnotized ourselves before Thanksgiving with lush descriptions of turkey, gravy, stuffing, cheesy corn casseroles, baked sweet potatoes dotted with marshmallows and soaked in a dizzying butter and brown sugar glaze..... oh, there I go again). Anyway, aside from my breakfast of banana+snickers bar, I'm perfectly happy eating lunches and dinners of Easter cuisine.

But if you know me, you know that I love sweets. So much so that I used to enter into baking competitions at the county fair in my early teens. And I'm sorry, but I'm just not in love with most of the baked goods that China offers.

To remedy this, I've taken it upon myself to teach my lab mates how to make several desserts. Of course, this facade of "cultural exchange" is really just an excuse for my self-indulgent behavior. But so far, we've enjoyed making--and eating-- lemon microwave lava cake, chocolate fudge, chocolate banana cream pie, and last night we made chocolate chunk cookies (thanks for the recipe, Jess!)! (now that pizza is considered a vegetable, perhaps I can petition for chocolate to be a food group?) Before last night, I was restricted to the dorm-provided hot plate and microwave, but I recently discovered that my neighbor owns two ovens! This opens a world of possibilities.

Food prep area

Carnage from Jie's chocolate chipping

In order to make these Western desserts, we usually have to venture into the import foods section of various supermarkets. A bag of ho-hum chocolate chips can cost up to $7.50, so we bought Dove and Chinese chocolate bars and chopped them up. And vanilla extract is nowhere to be found, but the sugar cane-derived sugar isn't as purified as it is in the US, so I imagine that extra lil flavoring supplements the lack of vanilla. Because I lack most of a kitchen, I get to be creative: my bathroom sink doubles as a dish washer and a cooling station. And I use my microwave cake tub as my mixing bowl. Considering my resourcefulness, I like to think I'd do very well in the zombie apocalypse.

if Kramer can make salad in the shower,
I can cool cookies in the bathroom.

In the end, the cookies turned out wonderful. Actually, due to an unknown temperature gradient in the oven, one pan of cookies turned out very crispy (would I still eat them? yes.), but most of them turned out ooey-gooey delicious. My lab mates enjoyed them too, and conveniently the overcooked cookies resemble the store-bought sad excuses for cookies that they're used to, so we have a case of Jack Sprat and his wife.