My Chinese cooking class

Now, for those of you who know me well, don't have a heart attack or anything but because of the sheer amount of free time I have here, I decided to sign up for the "Healthy Chinese Cooking" class offered through the community center. In general, I don't cook. And especially in China because first of all, we don't have an oven (it's pretty common here not to have an oven since the Chinese don't bake). And second of all, imported ingredients are expensive and hard to find and I can't read the labels on the local stuff to figure out what it is which really limits my ability to plan a dinner menu.

I think I've mentioned this before but real Chinese food is totally different from the stuff we can get in the States. For the most part, it's much less greasy and fatty and they use a lot of fresh veggies and spices. Some of things that I've learned to cook in my class include a fresh spicy shrimp salad with lemongrass, pork ribs steamed in lotus leaf, and steamed clams with ginger.

Below are some photos from class:

Dana, our excellent teacher!

Fresh ingredients- ready to go for class.

Spinach and pine nuts flavored with chinese cooking wine.

Live river clams ready for cooking.

The finished product- clams with ginger, chilies, and green onions- yummy!