Former FT in China
- 2016-07-15
Yes we heard from you before what a real ale is. All I am saying is that many reak ale manufacturers brew beer based on their real ales and delivered in bottles. These beers like the real ales retain real ale characteristics and are not designed for chilling.I am suprised that your Boddington comes with a frothing up widget which is ideal for your Guinness. You will know that pull pumps for real ale have changeable screw on spouts, so you can get a frothy real ale if you ask the landlord..not really in keeping and real ale types frown at that.
I don't know about Boddington's having a widget. That oddbobjob poster spoke about that. Yep, I agree that ales needn't exclusively be real ales to be excellent beers.
As for western food in China. Many of us live here for the Chinese wife, cheap beer and fags and we hate rich multicultural UK. We however do not like pork dumplings fortified with toilet flies and prefer bacon sarnies. We also reject infusions at Chinese medical centres for no reason at all. Do you take everything Chinese on board to remain consistent with your Chinese food only?
OH no, I am not a jaozi nor a baozi fan. As for IV injections, I agree with you they're a complete waste of time and of money, as a rule. When it comes to British food, or any imported products, for that matter, I'll do a price analysis. If I think there isn't value for money for such a product, I won't buy it. I've checked out prices at Walmart and compared them to prices at their local rival supermarkets. I wouldn't buy exclusively from any supermarket. I shop around. I avoid coffee and tea shops as I think they are too expensive. I also avoid foreign fast food retailers, but sometimes I have visited Chinese fast food outlets. The prices there are more sensible.
I also avoid travelling by taxi whenever possible, preferring to take the bus and walking short distances as an alternative to enriching taxi companies.
I believe I can retain my independent thinking despite being abroad.
PhD teacher
- 2016-07-15
Yes we heard from you before what a real ale is. All I am saying is that many reak ale manufacturers brew beer based on their real ales and delivered in bottles. These beers like the real ales retain real ale characteristics and are not designed for chilling.I am suprised that your Boddington comes with a frothing up widget which is ideal for your Guinness. You will know that pull pumps for real ale have changeable screw on spouts, so you can get a frothy real ale if you ask the landlord..not really in keeping and real ale types frown at that.
As for western food in China. Many of us live here for the Chinese wife, cheap beer and fags and we hate rich multicultural UK. We however do not like pork dumplings fortified with toilet flies and prefer bacon sarnies. We also reject infusions at Chinese medical centres for no reason at all. Do you take everything Chinese on board to remain consistent with your Chinese food only?
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-14
The widget in a can of Guinness explodes to release gas when the can is opened. This gives the beer a creamy head, just like draft Guinness. You chilled beer addicts can only drink real ale chilled by buying a 5 pint plastic bag of real ale from the publican and taking it home to stick it in the fridge.
Boddington real ale ain't canned. No real ale is canned. No real ale is bottled. Real ale is stored in casks. It's a cask-conditioned beer. Draft beer is beer from the keg or cask. That Tuborg beer I mentioned is described as bottled draft beer. But it can't be real ale, as it's in a bottle.
You guys in China eating Brit food reminds me of Brits on holiday in Spain. If a resort doesn't have an English pub and a fish and chips shop, many Brits won't vacation in that resort. They are incapable of doing without English pubs and chippies for a fortnight. Pathetic!
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-14
What does a widget do, chill it? As you know Boddington do a real ale and half decent bottle and canned, but does that need chiiling? But I may be out of date and Boddingtons have killed off their decent beers.
China does a whisky too, which is sweet and only about 30 percent. Best to stick to Scotland for whisky and England for gin. Ireland do a nice whiskey if you are in the mood for lightweight.
Tonight I just had baked beans with white pepper,which I see the Chinese sell too, with crusty bread and New Zealand butter.Perhaps Brexit will see British butter sold in China.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-14
Go to a half-decent import store and you can pick up Boddingtons or Guinness, (with a widget), for about RMB12 per can. Or stick to the RMB39 bottles of gin and/or vodka, throw in some coke or OJ and sleep well.....
True, also German ale in cans. Right now I can buy Tuborg in 500 ml bottles locally in many shops for 4 RMB/bottle. The bottle tcrowns are ring pulls. I tried it. It's ok, but I think Scandinavian beers and lagers are inferior to German beers and lagers.
paul fox
- 2016-07-13
Home-made bread dough is supposed to be heavy. Have you ever tried 'Scottish Square'? Much heavier than the fluffy rubbish. Fills you up twice as quick and you only need half the normal amount.
I hate pickled eggs, but yeah, there's a 'Metro' Supermarket here that sells the brown pickling vinegar.
Jeez, we sound like a couple of old fish-wives lol.
paul fox
- 2016-07-13
Go to a half-decent import store and you can pick up Boddingtons or Guinness, (with a widget), for about RMB12 per can. Or stick to the RMB39 bottles of gin and/or vodka, throw in some coke or OJ and sleep well.....
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-13
You are right but you can buy some real ale types of beer in a bottle that retain a lot of the flavour of real ale, and you don't chill them.And brown ales is traditionally sold in bottles.
Yeah, that's that's right. I prefer bottled beer to canned beer/Newcie Brown is sold in cans and in bottles. Canned beer in CHINA IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN BOTTLED BEER. Draft beer in China is in PLASTIC firkins! Tastes good, but PLASTIC!!
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-12
In the 50's you could buy steamed bread in UK.if partly baked rolls and batons is steamed bread you can still buy it in UK. In China they use a different flour in steamed bread than we use in baked, so whereas the latter will make toast it won't be the same, although acceptable.
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-12
You are right but you can buy some real ale types of beer in a bottle that retain a lot of the flavour of real ale, and you don't chill them.And brown ales is traditionally sold in bottles.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-12
About real ale. It is sold in pubs. The casks do not need CO 2 cylinders to froth the ale up, unlike bright beers and lagers in kegs. Newcie Brown ale is sold in bottles and cans. It's NOT real ale.
Supermarket label beer and lager brewed in the UK on behalf of supermarkets and may be available in 2 litre PET bottles. Weak and watery!
Average beer alcohol contents:
Germany - 5.5% UK - 4.5 % China - 3.25%
But Chinese beer is NOT watery tasting.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-12
All the milk I have seen is expensive. In UK you don't need to pay more than £1 for half a gallon of milk.And there is actually precious little milk in a box of Chinese milk.
That's right, mate. Bread here is expensive too. However, steamed bread is cheap in Northern China, and it's NOT sweet. I hate sweet bread! Coffee is expensive here, but black tea, or is it red tea? is cheap if you avoid buying the imported teabags.
Cheapest quality red meat dish, cook at home, is pork ribs/backbones. Buy an autoclave to cook them. Price here is between 15 and 18 RMB/ 500 grams. The butcher will chop them up for you. Delicious with potatoes and seasoning, including chillis.
I should add that potato crisps are expensive here. Biscuits are around 7 RMB/500 GRAMS in supermarkets. Cheese, as we know it, is virtually unobtainable. If it is, it'll be expensive. Bean curd in a red sauce can be bought in a big tub from some street markets. It tastes a bit like cheese. Oats are expensive. Avoid eating porage for that reason.
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-12
All the milk I have seen is expensive. In UK you don't need to pay more than £1 for half a gallon of milk.And there is actually precious little milk in a box of Chinese milk.
paul fox
- 2016-07-12
Make your own sausage meat, buy puff pastry on Taobao, and bingo.....!
I make my own mincemeat for Christmas mince pies, (easy).
Butter is expensive, milk is not, and margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic - so avoid it.
My father was a margarine freak for many years. He would never hear a bad word said about it. One day I set him a challenge. Buy a tub of margarine, remove the lid, and then go and put the tub of marge in the garden shed for 30 days.
I told him that even after 30 days there would be no mould, no flies, no insects....nothing! It would not deteriorate one iota.
He accepted my challenge and has never touched margarine since then.
By the way, you said fried eggs on toast are tasty....well, poached eggs on home-made toasted bread.....ooh....
I should open a cooking school, lol
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-12
I have tried many times to make bread dough but the bread always turns out twice asheavy as it should. I understand breadmakers are cheapily bought online in China. I feel I shouldn't have to worry about waistline as my new flat is on the sixth floor.
Just thinking about your pork pies and how you should also make some pickled eggs. But can you get the right vinegar?Eggs pickled in white vinegar look and taste insipid.
.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-12
Butter and milk are easy to find, but I really missed a good British banger and a Melton Mowbray. At the risk of sounding boring, I learned to make my own sausage meat, (sausage rolls / scotch eggs), pork pie, (complete with jelly), and after giving up on Chinese bread, (due to sweetness), I bake my own.
I used to enjoy Indian and Chinese curries back home in Blighty. I preferred that kind of food to most British dishes back home. I detested both black pudding, white pudding, haggis and pizzas.
My favorite Brit foods were roast beef, sirloin steak, sausage rolls and mince pies, Fish and chips was eaten by me at least once a week. Macaroni cheese was disliked by me.
When I first came over, milk could only be bought by the box, and was not pasteurized. Butter wasn't available, neither was margarine. There's a Chinese dish with thick bacon, I think maybe almost the thickness of gammon, with green bean pods, or some kind of vegetable like that.
Buy a toaster and slice your steamed bread. Then toast it. Jam is expensive here, but fried eggs on toast are tasty.
paul fox
- 2016-07-12
Looks pretty nice mate. I had a breadmaker when I lived in Australia, but to be honest they are the best thing for adding kilos. Waking up to that smell of fresh bread every morning and then demolishing most of it for breakfast, ain't so crash-hot for the old waistline, lol.
Nah, I'm back to half an hour of kneading by hand and then chuck it in the oven. At least that way I can justify to myself that I'm sweating calories when kneading, and then replacing those lost calories by eating, lol.
Talking of calories, the old Melton Mowbray takes a total of 3 days to make. That's actually a good thing because it means they only get made when I have time or the inclination. Any quicker and they'd be a weekly 'treat' and I'd be the size of a house before too long....
Sausage patties on the other hand are a daily requirement. Thanks to McDonalds, the sausage was re-invented into a pattie. No need for skins or even a sausage shape any more. I've honed my sausage meat recipe down to perfection. Happy to share it with any Brit who misses a good old pork banger. (With a fried egg and sliced mushrooms, cooked in butter, and then slapped between 2 slices of freshly baked crusty bread....heaven 
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-12
The bread you get in half a sliced loaf packet in Chinese supermarkets which is not sweet is called breakfast bread. But well done for making your own. Do you have a breadmaker?
Got some value furniture in today. Still not spent a night there yet.
paul fox
- 2016-07-12
Butter, milk and bacon, I can do without, no problem at all for me! BORING MATE!!!!Now I'm retired, and will be 65, later this year, God willing!
Congrats on your retirement. At the risk of stating the obvious, you must have seen a few changes during the last 20 years or so.
I laughed when I read your comment about butter, milk and bacon - spoken like a true Brit!
Butter and milk are easy to find, but I really missed a good British banger and a Melton Mowbray. At the risk of sounding boring, I learned to make my own sausage meat, (sausage rolls / scotch eggs), pork pie, (complete with jelly), and after giving up on Chinese bread, (due to sweetness), I bake my own.
If you can't buy it, make it. However that doesn't fix the bacon problem, lol.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-12
All things are relative, that's true.
Here in China, I have taught for more than 2 decades, pm daily after 3-4 bottles of beer on average, and smoked at work and in restaurants, without any negative repercussions, without a criminal background check or any kind of TEFL qualification. Back home I wasn't qualified to teach English, though I was qualified to teach high school maths and physics there.
Much more freedom here for me than back in Blighty, and my job has been a walk in the park here over the years. That's perhaps the most important advantage of teaching here, and the next one is the low cost of living compared to the salary, and also free accommodation.
Butter, milk and bacon, I can do without, no problem at all for me! BORING MATE!!!!
Now I'm retired, and will be 65, later this year, God willing!
Odd Bob Job
- 2016-07-11
Ah but these things are relative. If you're sixty and teaching English in China you could feel a winner' retrieving shopping trollys from the far reaches of Tesco car park might be a loser at 60. As for 30 years old, it is generally accepted that you enter middle age at 35.
Former FT in China
- 2016-07-11
China is just a place where failures from USA and the UK come to teach English. They then appear on boards like this and brag about their "grammar skills". The fact is, if you are 30 years old and teaching English in China you are a loser.
Just get a fake degree. [edited][edited][edited] You can find somewhere better than China, but if you really want to go there the forged degree is the way to go. Nobody checks, nobody cares.
Never ever heard of any Chinese university verifying a degree, certainly not any training school, don't make me laugh! There is no "new rule". As for Korea, Thailand, Japan, yes, they do, a fake document should not be used in those places.
The fact is, you clearly believe China is not a good place for FTs, so we shouldn't be surprised you think China's FTs are failures. Of course, you'd never admit that you yourself are one, too!
paul fox
- 2016-07-11
China is just a place where failures from USA and the UK come to teach English. They then
appear on boards like this and brag about their "grammar skills". The fact is,
if you are 30 years old and teaching English in China you are a loser.
Don't you just LOVE sweeping statements such as this?
"Oh, you are.......so you must be.........."
Stereotypical nonsense written by a person who not only KNOWS all of us, but knows WHY we are here also. Awesome!
Watch out American people. You're American so you MUST be fat! You're British so you MUST be xenophobic! You're Australian so you MUST swear a lot!
Love it!
We're all losers. Yippee!
Mike Milken
- 2016-07-11
China is just a place where failures from USA and the UK come to teach English. They then appear on boards like this and brag about their "grammar skills". The fact is, if you are 30 years old and teaching English in China you are a loser.