Miss May of Momo Bar

May works at Momo Bar, a local shop selling milk tea, coffee, and assorted beverages. The shop is also the closest available purveyor of French fries. Try eating endless bowls of rice: The fat content of fries ceases to matter.

May is a firecracker like many Hunan girls – who are known for both their beauty and temperament as fiery as their province’s cuisine. A visit to Momo Bar is an almost daily activity. Bar is a misnomer – there is no bar. The shop is small storefront with chairs outside. Closed for Chinese New Year I spent ten days Momo and May-less.

I recently learned May is from Chenzhou, Hunan Province, a stone-throw from where Mrs. Stevo was raised. You can’t say much about Chenzhou: It’s small by Chinese standards, only 600,000 residents. I’ve spent some time in the city but haven’t really explored. A few years back I missed meeting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who arrived in Chenzhou after the city was ravaged by a summer flood, a day earlier than me .

Milk tea, for the uninitiated, is an interesting beverage made of tea and milk, served hot or cold. Some may have tried the similar bubble tea, available in some areas of North America. I’m sure Paddy has a had a milk tea or two in Hong Kong. Daily Bubble Tea, from the island of Taiwan, is a blog not a beverage. You can’t drink it but it’s certain worth a visit.

I shot this with my repaired Canon 40D, on-the-sly with a Phottix Hero Live View Remote. While the Canon is fixed the same cannot be said for my main computer. It died last weekend. My 22″ monitor is idle (and probably lonely). This old laptop is tired. If the photo appears really strange (color-wise) please blame the aging laptop monitor, not yours truly.

My life has undergone drastic changes over the past year.  I no longer get to “hang” with the young folk  of various nations as I did when teaching ESL in China. Most of my “hanging” is with my wife, although I don’t know if one can “hang” with their spouse. I’m not down with all the hip lingo.

One of the teachers I worked with last year has returned and is living in my spare room. The strapping lad, English teacher cum skater/writer has given me back the ability to “hang.” I recently tagged along while he tricked with some local Chinese skate rats. I snapped a few with my old Canon 400D, lamenting its poor performance.

Strapping lad, a former Nike intern, is putting together a blog on Skating in Shenzhen China. Skateboarding in China isn’t what it is in North America, he explained. In China, you can skate almost anywhere. And, given the effectiveness of Chinese security guards, skaters have little, if nothing, to worry about.

That said, the sport has been slow in taking off. A flickr commenter mentioned pro skate teams have been coming to Shenzhen since 2001. The sport has yet to become widespread among young people. While Shenzhen has a population of 12 million – being hip-deep in Chinese skaters isn’t a real fear. Yet.

Socially, China is 20 years behind the west. I have witnessed women’s fashion progress from the Cyndi Lauper-esque outfits I saw in junion high to the sweater dresses I remember from high school.  Aside: A member of the world’s oldest profession (not farmer) dressed in a Cyndi Lauper outfit, complete with crimped hair, is amusing. Sometimes, life in China is like a look at your past, or a never-ending Halloween party.

I hope to spend some more time shooting the skaters (with a camera, not a gun) if it gets warmer. The weather has been dreadful. Four days of temperatures near freezing in an apartment with no insulation or central heat is not something anyone sane wants to undertake.

Imagine: You’re waiting for your bus, standing at the side of a Chinese street at 6:30 am. The bus, the first of a day to another city, is 30 minutes late. The bus could be late because (pick the correct answer):

1. The bus was the leave the station at 6:00 am. The driver thought getting up and leaving home at 5:59 am would be good enough.
2. The driver’s watch has only three times: Breakfast time, Lunch Time, and Dinner Time.
3. The driver waited because a rider said his mother, brother, friend, or lover was on their way and would there  “soon.”
4. The driver stopped the bus to get gas.
5. The driver stopped to buy breakfast.
6. The driver stopped to smoke a cigarette at the side of the road.
7. The driver lost the key to the bus in a game of Mahjong.
8. Two of the above
9. Three of the above
10. All of the above.

Select the correct answer and receive a free ride on a Chinese bus – if that bus arrives (airfare to China not included).

As I was saying, Shenzhen, China is a sprawling city, it’s hard to believe that places like Sanmenkou Island co-exist with monolithic concrete creations. The airport and the Shenzhen’s beaches are separated by 50 km. I’ve been to the beach twice in my almost five years in China. I like the beach, I don’t like public transportation. Luckily, on our October holiday excursion, a friend had a car.

Dongchong beach was our destination. From there it was tickets on a small and scary boat across the water to Sanmenkou Island. The boat’s pilot, a Kejia man, has skin the color of leather from his daily journeys back and forth across the south China Sea, smiled as his craft smashed through the waves and his passenger squealed.

A large dog, in China? Sanmenkou Island must be a magic place.

If you’re from a large city you can appreciate what Sanmenkou has to offer. The island rises like a tree-covered, crooked finger from the Pacific. There are few cars, few people, and the only sounds are children splashing in the sea and the waves lapping at the sand and rocks.  Peaceful. Serene. Idyllic.

A photographer (or two) have been known to shoot Shenzhen's Sanmenkou Island.

Most of eastern Shenzhen is undeveloped. There are settled areas, but the green mountains make urbanization difficult. Two nuclear power plants and a prison share the area, as do merry-makers looking for a quiet escape.

Sanmenkou Island is place where time has little meaning. People seem to drift from place to place, ghosts of their busy city selves. Small hotels, fresh seafood, the remains of a military facility, and climbable hills offer these ghosts a variety of way to stay content. An afternoon on the island is a restful tonic to the weary urban warrior or the burnt-out traveler.

The day never ends at Sanmenkou and Dongchong beach. As dusk settles hordes of people arrive to spend the night on the beach. Facing east, it offers the early-riser a chance to watch the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean

Dusk over the mountains at Sanmenkou Beach, Shenzhen, China.

Thanks to David at Random Wire for recommending this great spot. His flickr images gives a much better picture of the place.

Getting to Sanmenkou Island, Shenzhen

Boats run from Xichong Beach and Dongchong Beach to Sanmenkou Island. Prices vary, be prepared to bargain.

An extravagant dinner is a big part of the recent Chinese Mid Autumn Festival celebration (a much tastier part than the moon cakes). Mrs. Stevo and I were lucky enough to dine with some friends, Kejia or Hakka people. When I heard snake was on the menu I started to highly anticipate the meal. Would it taste like chicken, as I had heard? Frog, another legendary chicken-flavored meat, does taste somewhat like chicken I had discovered.

Snake is much better than Chinese Mooncakes

Mrs. Stevo has a pathological fear of snakes. Not like, “Yikes, a snake!”  More like, a crying fit that requires a sedative. This fear isn’t limited to the live reptile: It also extends to anything that looks like (in her perception) a snake. Toy snakes, the elongated shadow of a moth, gerbils, all cause a screaming fit. Mrs. Stevo was a little hesitant to attend the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration in case live snakes were slithering around. That was not the case, the snakes were cooked.

The yellow-tinted snake wine tasted venomous. It was if the snake was biting the inside of your mouth from the great hereafter. It wasn’t without its charms but not a tipple I would partake of every day.  I did not sample the snake gallbladder wine. I will only go so far in my efforts to culturally assimilate.

An earthen pot held snake and chicken soup. The steamy, light-flavored broth did indeed taste like chicken. I didn’t get to eat the snake meat: Mrs. Stevo’s nerves started to get jittery when she realized the pot was full of snake. The fact the snake was deceased and had been cooked for several hours didn’t matter much.

The giant platter of snake meat looked a lot like fried fish fillets. The skin was a greyish black. As I pulled the meat from the bones I was a tad repulsed. You’re eating a snake, a gross slithering creature, my inner monologue droned. I pushed forward, eating the snake fillet, and then another.

Yes, snake does taste like chicken. The texture, at least of the snake I ate, was chicken-esque.

My next goal, a difficult one, is eating monkey. Yes, the look cute on TV, that’s just good PR. If you have ever dealt with a real monkey (the little bastards) you’d ask for an invite to the feast.

Asians around the world are preparing to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival aka the Moon Festival. September 14 will be the date for the 2008 festivities. The festival is popular in China, Vietnam, Korea, and other east-Asia nations.

I’ve talked about other Chinese holidays (Seven-Seven and the Dragon Boat Festival). The Mid-Autumn Festival originates from a folktale about a rabbit, an archer and his beautiful wife, immortality, and celestial bodies.

This is no simple holiday, like Christmas. There’s no man in a red suit giving you presents. It’s complicated stuff; you need Cliff’s Notes to keep the characters straight. Luckily, dear reader, you have an intrepid journalist deep in the heart of (south) China, willing to go to any length to get the skinny on this fête.

…there was an immortal named Houyi, part of the court of the Jade Emperor, the King of Heaven. Before they wed, Houyi’s lovely wife Chang’e, had been an attendant to the Queen Mother of the West (the Emperor’s wife).

Houyi the archer and Chang'e the lady on the moon.

The immortals, probably because they had little else to do (and bowling had yet to be invented) liked to squabble. Houyi somehow aroused the other immortals’ jealousy. Being petty, they slandered Houyi before the Jade Emperor. He and Chang’e were banished from heaven. The couple lived upon the earth and hunted to survive. Houyi became a famous archer.

In the days of yor, 10 suns circled the earth, a different one each day. Then: Catastrophe. All 10 suns appeared in the sky the same day. The earth was a mess. Crops were scorched, people received nasty burns (SPF ratings, like bowling, had not been invented yet) and without the invention of electricity there wasn’t a cold Coke in sight.

China’s Emperor Yao commanded Houyi to shoot down nine of the 10 suns, lest The Middle Kingdom be destroyed. Houyi, skilled bow-and-arrow dude that he was, complied and shot the fiery balls of gas from the heavens. The Emperor was pleased and gave Houyi a pill that granted eternal life, but warned the archer to fast and reflect for one year before taking it.

At home, Houyi hid the pill in the rafters and started to prepare himself as instructed. Enter Chang’e. She noticed a beam of light from the rafters and discovered the pill. Houyi returned and she swallowed the pill to mask her discovery. He wasn’t pleased, and berated her for her transgression. The pill had given her the power to fly, and that she did, into the sky. Her husband chased her until a strong wind forced him to return to earth.

Chang’e ended up on the moon. her flying powers spent. She coughed and half the pill fell from her mouth. She lived with the Jade Rabbit, that according to Chinese mythology, resides on the moon.  The rabbit, an apothecary to the immortals, was put to work trying to replicate the second half of the pill so she could return to earth.

The Jade Rabbit, resident of the moon.

Aside: There are many explanations for the rabbit on the moon. Some versions say Chang’e took the rabbit with her, another says the rabbit was already in residence, having been given a place in the moon palace after sacrificing himself for three hungry sages.

Somehow, Houyi built himself a palace on the sun. Once a year, on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month – Mid-Autumn Festival – he visits his wife, thus explaining the moon’s brightness on this day. Houyi was the yang (male symbol) and Chang’e, the ying (female symbol).

Trying to decipher this tale is difficult. In one version Houyi is a tyrant that saves the world from the suns and then takes the throne. He has his court wizards prepare a elixir of immortality so he can be king forever. Chang’e doesn’t like her husband’s despotic rule and steals the elixir so he can’t lord over his subjects for eternity. Another tale is similar to the story of Pandora’s Box.

Mid-Autumn festival is the second most important Chinese Holiday (Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year being the first). It’s a time for family reunions and a celebration of the harvest.

The food of the festival is the Moon Cake: Lotus seed paste wrapped in a thin pastry. Egg yolks or salted eggs are often the center of the cakes. It is a heavy delicacy, often eaten in small portions with tea.

From Wikipedia:
Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for “longevity” or “harmony” as well as the name of the bakery and filling in the moon cake. Imprints of a moon, a woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit may surround the characters for additional decoration.

Mooncakes are expensive and considered a delicacy, and production is labor-intensive and few people make them at home. Most mooncakes are bought at Asian markets and bakeries. The price of mooncakes range from $10 to $50 (in US money).

The holiday can be traced back to 1060 BCE, to the Chinese Xia and Shang Dynasties. It was during the Tang Dynasty (5th to 8th centuries) that it became very popular. With the recent change in national holidays, Mid-Autumn festival is now a day off. Previously it was celebrated but not granted “day off” status.

What do people for Mid-Autumn festival? Simple: Go to a restaurant or someone’s home. Eat a big meal, drink, and consume moon cakes. A less-than-reliable website has a different idea, it lists the following as the activities engaged in:

A mooncake - the food of Mid-Autumn Festival.

• Eating moon cakes outside under the moon
• Putting pomelo rinds on one’s head
• Carrying brightly lit lanterns
• Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang’e
• Planting Mid-Autumn trees
• Lighting lanterns on towers
• Fire Dragon Dances

I should be Wiki’s man on the ground. That list is not entirely correct.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. I’ll be thinking of you while eating moon cakes.