Well I do. But I went on a quest. Two in fact. The first, more importantly to me was to find a bike. not just any old bike, but a blue, foldable bike I can take on the subway. The second quest was to find the aforementioned ingredients.
Why do I need a bike? Well, I loved my other bike, classic style, so much so that I stupidly tried to take it with me to LA - and there you have it the reason I didn't get in to the US in October. But I begrudgingly gave it up for a pittance. My new place is only a 40 minute walk to work - so I wanted to buy a bike to get me there instead of the subway because that's just not as fun as weaving through crazy Chinese city traffic sans helmet.
And, why do I crave a meal that I can't have easily in China? Well, I grew up eating my nanna's curry. She is a magic food making Dutch Burgher from Sri Lanka. Eating curries like hers takes me back to a warm, safe, loving place and after watching an episode of Rick Stein in India, I just craved my nanna's curry all the more.
So I set out this morning to find the two.
The first, the bike, was miraculously bestowed upon me at the entrance to the South China Normal University. (I don't know yet why it's called normal but what happened to me certainly wasn't). I had looked up where to buy a bike and came across a site that advised me to visit the area around the university, about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. I knew some stores would not be open due to the Spring Festival, but I thought I might be able to find at least the location of the store. I approached the security guards of the University driveway and asked them in my currently (but hopefully not for long) very poor Mandarin where I might be able to purchase a danche.
They promptly answered me in over-the-Donita-speed-limit Mandarin and so I couldn't understand them at all. They seemed very keen to help me, but they pointed around the corner and I went that direction hoping to find a store full of wonderful, shiny new bikes. But I only led myself to a group of students arriving back from New Year holiday, so, with a puzzled face but without losing determination, I walked back thinking I would have to just go to the other place some metro stops away that the website had mentioned had a store for sure.
On my way back though, I bump into one of the security guards. I ask, 'Where?' again and he beacons me around the corner to some apartments. I am not so stupid to just follow along without my guard up, so I hesitate a lot along the way. Thankfully there are a lot of people around and he points to a ground floor apartment. I quickly get the gist of what he is doing - he wants to sell me his bike - that's what he was getting all excited about before. I checked it over and had a go, making sure the breaks and folding part worked. It even has a shock absorber in the seat - very fancy. It is a bit rusty, but I only need it to last a year. and of course the best part is that it's blue, almost the same exact blue as my last bike. $35 later, I have what I need and had set out to find.
I brought it home, cleaned it up and then set off on my second quest - to the Indian grocery store.
Unfortunately, that quest was not fruitful today because the address for the store was an old one. The spring rain happened to show itself and I was quite unprepared for it's strength. However, the lovely waitress of a cafe I stopped outside of to take refuse from the rain looked up the new address and another Indian store location. I decided to have lunch at the cafe. They made great bruschetta, but they could learn a thing or two from me about how to make pumpkin soup.
My curry will have to wait until another day.
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