I'm backkkkkkkkkkkkk with more pics!!!! :D

I can't believe that I was absent for almost two weeks!!! What did I do during all this time???? Busy? not really!!! Lazy? perhaps! Happy? for sure!!!! ^___^ I think it's the being-at-home symptom!
The first week I spent shopping around with my mom, visiting relatives, eating out, doing yoga at home, sleeping a lot!!! (which explains how stressed I was before) and cooking nothing!!! (my mom prepared all these fab meals that you'll see! I don't know, I'm lazy and wanting to eat mom's food at the same time. I think this pushes my being-at-home feeling to the maximum!!!
The second week I spent at my home outside of shanghai because I started working and I need zero distraction! Don't get me wrong, I'm not obsessed with work, not at all! I could live on vacation forever!!! :D However, if I want to avoid stress on the near future, I'd better start working. The Boyfriend is coming back next weekend and then it will be the Chinese New Year. As I won't be able to work later, I'd better do something now. It was a pretty productive week, I worked hard, around 9 hours a day, in my Pj's and having my mom in charge of my eats! ^_^ It's soooooo much better, sooooo less stress working this way!!!! Every time that I found a problem and could not solve it, I walk out from my studio, talk to my mom, after few minutes I felt better and full of confidence. A inner voice tells me: there's nothing so hard that you can not overcome. It's just another little challenge, just as thousands others that you've surpassed.

Well... that's mainly what I did and hopefully you'll understand why I was absent this time and bare with me on that (I know you will ^_^)

Now it comes to some greeat eats! I have tons of photos taken but forgot the cord when I came to this apartment. Hopefully I can remember what I had. (I didn't took pics of everything, just those that I thought interesting for you guys! Although I was not blogging, I had all you guys on my mind~)
Dishes made by my lovely Mom
tofu wrap filled with veggies
sauteed broccoli with mushrooms
spinach, rice noodles and chicken blood soupsteamed fish (my favorite)
Such a fabulous meal!!~~
More!
Sauteed water celery
sauteed greens
dove and black fungus soup (very nutritious)
you guys can tell that my mom wants to pack me some weight! ^_^
Pork with egg cooked with soy sauce, sugar and spices.
fish
sauteed vegetables
soup made of lotus, peanuts and pork feetOne meal that we had in a restaurant
greens salad
marinated shrimp
very spicy pot made with beef and veggiestofu with crab meat with a crab dish
veggies+beef and noodles
tofu paper in a seafood sauce
i don't even know how to call this: it's part of pigs viscera
sauteed beef with smoked tofu
sauteed chinese yam
sauteed shrimp
pumpkin salad with red dates
celery salad with mushroom
I don't know what's this :(, but it's sweet and tasty!
fried fish
filled lotus with glutinous rice
fried fish
okay! enough food pics for today. More to come in next post! ^_^

Some of you were interested on Chinese eating culture. Let's see.
1) What is place of food in Chinese culture?
Eating is extremely important for Chinese people. (I used eating and not food, because they're not equivalent for Chinese culture) There's an old saying: people puts eating as high as the sky! Because most of the population lived on countryside, their daily eats consisted on grains, vegetables, very few meat and fat (not because they chose that way, but because they were so poor that they couldn't afford it). Because of past hunger, whenever people get rich, eating until satisfied is on top of their to-do list. When someone puts eating so important, two things can happen: 1) eat for quality to improve health and general well being 2) pursue more and more tasting food. Both occured in China, but the last dominated. People spend a lot of time preparing the most delicious food ever, trying different method, new ingredients (that's why Chinese people eat everything, even rats!). Eating out is so often now (most of people I know eat out at least three times a week and most of young people like me eats out every day). Westerns always wonder why all restaurants are always full although there are millions of them everywhere.
Chinese holidays involve food. For each holiday, we have a special dish. Family gathering involves food, friends meetings involves food. Whenever someone wants to meet you, he/she will invite you to eat.

2) Chinese diet.
Varieties of food is extreme. There are 600 kinds of vegetables (100 kinds in most of western countries). Vegetables used to occupy 40% in Chinese diet, 50% in grains and 10% in fats and meats. Nowadays, fats and meats occupy larger proportions (decreasing grains %).
Canned and processed food are rare in Chinese diet. Food markets are everywhere. You can see stands of vegetables even on the street. So, fresh produce is easy to access and much cheaper than processed and/or canned food.
Most of Chinese people eat 3 main meals, few or none snacks.

3) Weight loss mentality in China.
Only small portion of Chinese people consider weight issue a problem, because most of them aren't overweight. Although they eats a lot, most of the food they eat aren't high in fat/sugar. Precisely because they do not concern about weight loss, they don't get obsessed with food. They enjoys eating and eats intuitively, they stop when they feel full.

I hope you like this post! ^_^ I know many dishes are weird for western standards, I'm showing you these because they're as normal as carrots in China. ^_^ I said before, we eat everything!!!
I will cook today for my Dad and a friend, my second cooking since I am here! ^.~