Christmas in China

It is possible to find Western food stuffs in China.  They are pricey, but when it comes time to get my holiday cooking on, it’s worth it.  We decided to host Christmas Dinner in Kunshan- at our co workers house, since they have a 3 floor townhouse- they place where you can gather 19 people and feed them with tons and tons of food and ply them with lots and lots of drinks.

Christmas dinner prep started a few days prior to Christmas eve- made Irish Creme fudge (from scratch, in China, with no candy thermometer.  Take that Martha!), peanut brittle and over the next few days added rice krispy treats, spiced nuts, chocolate no bakes, roasted garlic. Danielle came into town Friday night to help (and to watch American Horror Story with me on netflix- who can watch that alone?)  Early in the AM we loaded up 4 large grocery bags with the supplies, made our way out to Bubbas Texas BBQ to pick up our pre cooked USDA hua ji, or turkey, gravy and stuffing.  I asked my boss if his driver could take us, cause there was no way I was going to be able to lug all those groceries out there on the high speed train.  no.way.jose.

We arrived in Kunshan at noon, right on time.  Started with the prep work around 1:30….I had a lot of helpers in the kitchen with me.  We had differences of opinion on how to peel the potatoes I wanted to go for speed, given we needed to peel about 14 of them, they want to conserve potato and not ‘waste’ food. But we managed to peel them all up,  mash them up (the guys had a potato masher, AWESOME)  and then served the first course at 6.  Turkey at 7. The turkey amazingly fit into their HUGE toaster oven, so we were able to warm it up and as a result  everything went off with out a hitch- man, did we feast!!!   Turkey, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (yes, I found campbell’s cream of mushroom soup but no French’s fried onions), green beans with toasted almonds,  maple glazed carrots, stuffing, gravy, patas bravas, garlic and chili shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, roasted garlic with crackers and french bread, home made salsa and all the deserts I mentioned above.  Our host, Dom, said a heartfelt grace and we chowed down. The crew consisted of us expats, an Irish girl, Chinese co workers,  Mexican from Texas, a southerner from Virginia,  an Indian with an English accent, an Indian from Indiana… you get the picture.

After dinner we started up the Wii, played some bowling, then somehow it involved into a dance party with some Micheal Jackson moments, line dancing, Indian dancing and me attempting to learn some Irish folk dancing from Sarah.  I am sure I would have been a better student had I not had a few cocktails by that time of night.

We had such a great time bringing expats together and introducing our Chinese co workers and friends to the wonders of Christmas- like home made egg nog.  And Patron shots.   Only thing missing was snow….. but I can live with out that.  Friends become your family when you live so far away and I am blessed with some truly exceptional friends.   Merry Christmas!