From Grits to Chopsticks

The past week has included two noteworthy events: Dragon Boat Festival on June 2nd and The Southeast China Trade Expo which opened on June 6th.  Even though we’ve written about these subjects in the past, it seems worth repeating a little.

As with almost every Chinese festival, a special food is the main attraction during Dragon Boat Festival: “zongzi” – sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves.  A friend gave us a gift pack of zongzi for the holiday:

Inside were some salted duck eggs and four sleeves of different flavored zongzi (note the different colored strings), which we steamed and unwrapped: While our uneducated palettes were mostly fond of the plain zongzi, the different tastes are certainly worth trying.  One thing that we didn’t do, however, was the tradition of selecting water weeds to place over doors to fend off evil spirits:

This past weekend gave us an opportunity to attend the annual Southeast China Trade Expo:Security forces were highly visible to assure the safety of attendees:This trade exhibition continues to grow every year.  If you like to get lost in the crowd, this is the place for you:Most of the exhibitors and sales people are from southeast Asian countries.  Here is Susan getting into position to look at some wood products from Laos:

There are people demonstrating their innovative cookware:There are commercial exhibitors (awake and asleep) selling carving and packaging machines: This is the first year that some American products and brand names were on display: Many countries are trying to court Asian tourists.  This is probably the closest that Susan will ever get to feeding the pigeons in Cambodia:Educational institutions are also present, including my parent college:And yes, we did buy something – a $24 helicopter to include in my students’ “small money” auction at the end of this semester: