A week in meals...

You are what you eat is a frightening proposition.
Unless you're talking about communion, in which case it is divine.

Monday

Breakfast of steamed buns dipped into butter tea (what's easier than spreading butter onto bread? Dipping it) in the company of an excited team of students ready to go on a day long hike.

Lunch was a plastic bag of steamed buns into each of which was squeezed from an accompanying plastic package some spicy vegetable matter labeled, unconvincingly, PURE. Eaten on a flat ridge of a mountain in the afternoon sun with a group of students singing a song dedicated to their English teacher.

Dinner of chicken, cheese zucchini, and mashed potatoes with a teammate providing relief from the steamed bread repetitions of the day.

Tuesday

The breakfast of the week starting today was a semi-failed attempt at cinnamon raisin biscuits. Nothing spectacular of mention, though repetive.

Lunch was a ceramic bowl filled with homemade broth, tofu, and an assortment of vegetables pulled out of the fridge and placed on the gas burner, eaten in haste as company was expected shortly.

Some refried meat momo's and leftover bean soup for dinner took care of some random things colonizing in my freezer.

Wednesday

A long walk to a tea house with a handful of giggly, hyperactive girl students resulted in a lunch of semi-cooled street potatoes overdosed on la jiao, maddening amounts of butter tea, and a plate of meat momo's which were tasty but surprisingly medium-rare. Followed with a walk around the monastery and then washed down with sweet milk tea.

Dinner was a shared plate of dumplings with a monk friend after an utterly fascinating hour and half of watching his debating. Dumplings being excellent choice of food to ruminate on the mystery and futility of such events as well as declare next week a prime hiking opportunity.

Thursday

Another crack at the meat momo's and sweet milk tea for lunch was a really satisfying experience. You know they're good when fat drips out of them and congeals in your dish of pickled radishes. You know you're company's good when you do not tire after two hours and additional random friends drop in to join you.

Dinner was a much needed plate of vitamins and minerals in the form of spinach at the restaurant that has a miraculous way of consistently making everything delicious. Eaten while correcting some papers and passing time until the next sweet milk tea extraveganza.

Friday

A dash up the street into a makeshift alley to meet a nun friend where the first course of the best fried potatoes I have ever eaten and some strange clear noodle-esqu dish was eaten on a plastic stool facing a crumbly wall. Second course was the best getuk (flour noodles in meat broth with green onions, bits of pork, and peanuts mixed in) I have ever eaten along with sweet milk tea at the tea house next door where striking dilapidation of the building is easily forgotten in light of the deliciousness of the food.

Dinner with two tiny Chinese girl co-teachers was a giant bowl of what could have been elephant bones for the size of them boiled in a broth with turnips, sea weed, cabbage, and potatoes. Finished off with some sesame filled boiled rice balls. A belly ache ensued, not from the meal, but from the near continuous laughter.