Once again I come upon an important traditional Jewish holiday and find myself in a place where I have no access to the traditional foods that I would buy for such a celebration. Thus it falls to me to make some of the food as best I can.
Today it's matzo.
Using the same flour that I used for making dumplings I mixed flour and water together to form a soft dough, tore it into pieces the size of hacky sack balls, then used my rolling pin to flatten the balls into large flat pancakes.
I experimented with two methods of making the bread, and both methods took only a matter of minutes.
The first method was to coat a wok with some peanut oil and fry the bread almost like a breakfast pancake. This method produced bread that was much chewier than normal matzo, but for some sections had the same slightly charred taste that I associate with the Manischewitz® brand of matzo.
The second method I attempted was to place a piece of dough on a plate and run it through the microwave for almost ten minutes. This produced a very thin, golden colored bread that was crispy and rather delicious, though admittedly nothing like the store bought, truly kosher, matzo I typically eat for Passover.
A look back at what's been going on, this last week I taught nearly double my normal class load so I could request leave from April 9th - April 18th. Hence I've spent the past week teaching most mornings, often changing lessons one period to the next to take care of each class, and juggling these commitments with my recent drive to seek out grad schools and the necessary steps needed to prepare for applying.
The reason I requested more than a week of leave (something I'm told no foreigner has been given before) was so I could go to Beijing this Thursday afternoon and meet with Uncle Mike and Aunt Susie and we could all travel to Xi'an (西安), Shanghai (上海), Suzhou (苏州) and Hangzhou (杭州). Having brought Mike's book with me on this trip, I thought it a good idea to lend it to my colleague 薛菲菲 so she could have an idea of who I'm off traveling with.
Admittedly the book centers around Mike and Susie and their experiences backpacking, but I thought it fitting for the occasion.
Two weekends ago I went with two of my students, and the father of one of them, to a very nice park in the city. Here's a sampling of what I saw.
Even a cloudy day couldn't damage the beauty of the flowers here.
The weekend prior to that I went to watch a piano performance at the Music College. Being that I have the musical ears of King Midas (ears of an ass), most of the music sounded beautiful to me, and none gave me the impression of being particularly gifted or stirring. However I was in the company of a very experienced musician who was quick to point out who had talent.
My newest colleague and friend Richard Pearl (himself a famous banjo player of several decades, http://www.richardpearl.com/) noted that one girl (a sophomore, pictured below) had the most talent of anyone in the competition.
