Today saw the completion of a goal that I've hard for a very long time in China: I successfully baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies. This is more difficult than it initially sounds like and was only possible after overcoming a variety of obstacles.
Firstly, ovens aren't a really a thing in China. While we wouldn't really consider it a full kitchen without an oven in the US, they are not common at all here. In order to get mine, I had to find an appliance store that sold large enough electric ovens. This took a bit of searching (I could have bought it online, theoretically, but the Chinese internet is scary), but I eventually found a place and was prepared to buy my oven, when I was informed they had a sale the following week. Eager to save a bit of money, I waited a week and returned this past weekend only to discover that the oven that I was intending to buy did not qualify anyway. Why the initial salesperson did not clarify this for me is unclear. Regardless, I successfully obtained my oven.
Then, I had to find necessary ingredients. Eggs, flour, white sugar, brown sugar, and (surprisingly) butter, were all easy to find, located in the giant grocery store right next to my apartment. Baking soda, vanilla, chocolate chips, and a baking sheet, however, proved more difficult. Baking soda and vanilla were found at the first foreign grocery store I tried in Guangzhou, which stocks many of the brands you'd expect to see in the US as well as lots of Japanese brands. For a baking sheet, I was, to my confusion, directed towards an electric appliance store, which (to my not-that-great surprise) did not carry any. However, I found cheap aluminum BBQ pans at the second foreign grocery store I checked, and decided those would be good enough.
Chocolate chips, on the other hand, have still proved elusive. Spending the better part of an afternoon checking multiple grocery stores, both Chinese and foreign, across town, turned up nothing. I found cinnamon and butterscotch chips at the last foreign grocery store I walked into, at the whopping price of about $10 per bag. So instead, I picked several chocolate bars from the convenience store in my apartment building, chopped them up, and threw them into the dough. Close enough.
My equipment is still not quite up to standards. I have no mixing spoon and so relied on my giant pair of cooking chopsticks. And that's not actually a mixing bowl, but a bowl for tossing salad in. Still, it was pretty effective.
And the final product, all packaged up and ready to go. The taste is not quite as I would like it, but I will continue playing around with it. The texture turned out pretty good though, but it took much longer in the oven than I would've guessed. Still, overall a success.
Firstly, ovens aren't a really a thing in China. While we wouldn't really consider it a full kitchen without an oven in the US, they are not common at all here. In order to get mine, I had to find an appliance store that sold large enough electric ovens. This took a bit of searching (I could have bought it online, theoretically, but the Chinese internet is scary), but I eventually found a place and was prepared to buy my oven, when I was informed they had a sale the following week. Eager to save a bit of money, I waited a week and returned this past weekend only to discover that the oven that I was intending to buy did not qualify anyway. Why the initial salesperson did not clarify this for me is unclear. Regardless, I successfully obtained my oven.
Then, I had to find necessary ingredients. Eggs, flour, white sugar, brown sugar, and (surprisingly) butter, were all easy to find, located in the giant grocery store right next to my apartment. Baking soda, vanilla, chocolate chips, and a baking sheet, however, proved more difficult. Baking soda and vanilla were found at the first foreign grocery store I tried in Guangzhou, which stocks many of the brands you'd expect to see in the US as well as lots of Japanese brands. For a baking sheet, I was, to my confusion, directed towards an electric appliance store, which (to my not-that-great surprise) did not carry any. However, I found cheap aluminum BBQ pans at the second foreign grocery store I checked, and decided those would be good enough.
Chocolate chips, on the other hand, have still proved elusive. Spending the better part of an afternoon checking multiple grocery stores, both Chinese and foreign, across town, turned up nothing. I found cinnamon and butterscotch chips at the last foreign grocery store I walked into, at the whopping price of about $10 per bag. So instead, I picked several chocolate bars from the convenience store in my apartment building, chopped them up, and threw them into the dough. Close enough.
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