Day 4: Breakfast

Having had three mornings here so far, I feel qualified to explain our position on breakfast. We eat two meals a day in the flat, which are provided to us by our hosts. The starch overload from the heavy white rice dinner means that we attempt to find other sources of fuel for breakfast. Out of hospitality duties, Frank tries to provide us with suitable breakfast food - they eat wheat-based dumplings - which takes the shape of wrapped sticky rice (familiar?), “thousand year old eggs” (two week fermented eggs) and fruit! Fortunately, we were farsighted in our packing, bringing with us two small bags of cereal and milk, plus crackers and cheese. The fruit goes down nicely, washed down with warm or hot water, as tea or coffee are unavailable. E, the more adventurous member, had two banana-leaf-wrapped sticky rice balls yesterday, (with red bean paste!) but she drew the line at the eggs. 

Breakfasts are actually more dangerous than you would imagine, thanks to some of the kitchen customs. The bowls that we use for cereal are the same we had for rice the night before as they only have four bowls in the entire house. (NB. Only two spoons and four pairs of chopsticks too. These are reused every meal.)  These bowls are “washed up” in soap-less cold water and are put away wet - still wet the next morning! In contrast, the pans, like cats, are left to self-clean and are re-used every night. We’ve been unable to find a tea towel or washing-up liquid anywhere. Precious about hygiene as we are, we have purloined the handwash soap from the bathroom and use that, as we eat breakfast on our own after the family has left and do our own washing up. Thankfully we have ziplock bags to keep our milk and cheese a little separate from the ancient brown food remains in the fridge. 

The source of the smell in the kitchen is as yet unidentified, but there are numerous suspects lying on the counter. 

We are hugely grateful for a Western toilet, and sharing the bathroom with the family has been easier than we thought. Unsure about the etiquette for the ‘wet room’ shower, we realised that the mop in the corner is for decorative purposes only. After a few hours the water on the floor dries up, but in the meantime, a pair of wellies would be useful when going to the loo. By trial and error we have located the one dry spot in the bathroom for clothes while the shower is on!  As a side note, Chinese toilet paper is a solid roll of paper - no cardboard tube, just solid tissue. It rests on the floor or the toilet, since you can’t put a spoke through the centre. Who knew?