Back to Shanghai

And so begins my blog.

Tomorrow officially marks the beginning of the second half of my year spent at Junior Achievement, Shanghai. Thank you 8 pound half ounce baby Jesus.

I have convinced myself that once I've found a new job, everything will be great and my love for Shanghai will be rekindled. Naive? Perhaps, but I'm stickin' to my guns.

Plans for the day:

1. Drink so much coffee that my back muscles twitch. Check.
2. Go to cute cafe and pretend I am living in a romantic European city. Urban white flight, anyone? Does it count if I'm Chinese in China? I'm sure sociologists have an overly complex explanation for this phenomena.
3. Go to gym post gorge-fest at cafe.
4. Sit on couch.

After a very long flight yesterday I have come to the decision that airlines should discontinue the use of any planes made before the dawn of the personalized TV screen. Those TV screens are like crack and now that I've had a taste there is no way I can go back to the pull down screen with the wibbly color stripes. Of course, I suffered the lack of personalized TV screen luxury for both 15 hour flights to and from Shanghai. The horror!

TACO NIGHT.

Thankfully, I had a wonderful belly full of Taco Night deliciousness to soften the blow. Now, Taco Night is actually a misnomer. This weekly tradition should be titled Burrito Night, but that just doesn't pack the same punch, does it? There are many ways to host a successful Taco Night, but here are some tried and true methods via Amanda and Sarah.

1. Taco Seasoning. If you ain't got that, you ain't got nothin'. Double negatives confuse me. What I'm trying to say is that you must have taco seasoning.
2. Cilantro.
3. Tons of avacado cut in to little tiny bite size pieces so you can shove them in to the completed taco/burrito to ensure avacado goodness in every bite.
4. Huge burrito shells that can be grilled to a warm, crispy, chewy encasing.
5. Cheese, Cheddar.
6. Ground beef with...TACO SEASONING.
7. Onion.
8. Lettuce.
9. Tomato.
10. Pace salsa (only the gods know why this salsa is so damn good).

Tips:
1. Put the cheese and beef on first to ensure maximum cheese meltiness.
2. Don't overstuff. This is easy to do. Add much less than you think you need. Exploding Taco Night is not fun for anyone, right Amanda?
3. When wrapping completed taco, start with a slide flap and wrap in a clockwise direction. Your taco is now a steel trap of flavor. Yum.
4. Stuff as much avacado as you can in every bite.
5. Do not skimp on any of the above ingredients. We have added and subtracted with great care and we know what we are talking about.

The beauty of Taco Night is not in the cultural accuracy of the dish, but rather the amazingly delicious culturally insensitive result. It's perfect for college (how I miss thee) dinners and burgeoning career dinners.

I mourn the lack of pictorial documentation in my first post. This will not happen again.



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