A taste for the macabre

By Chen Ximeng Source:Global Times Published: 2014-10-30 18:48:02

Beijing’s expats cook up scary treats for Halloween


The McManus family at their home. Photo: Li Hao/GT



In the week leading up Halloween, 33-year-old Pamela McManus and her husband are busy making preparations for the party they will host at their home.

Artificial cobwebs are dangled from ceilings, plastic spiders are scattered throughout the house, and cardboard skeletons are hung from lighting fixtures. Pumpkins carved into jack-o'-lanterns will greet visitors at the front door on the night of the party.

It is the third year that the McManus family is hosting a party for Halloween, and they are expecting about 30 guests both young and old.

 "It is nice to come together and celebrate, to kind of feel at home for a couple of minutes, like we are back in the States celebrating," said McManus, who is originally from New Jersey. Both she and her husband currently teach at international schools in Beijing's Shunyi district.

As part of the evening's revels, McManus is preparing a Halloween-themed banquet, inspired by the "graveyard dirt" her mother used to make - pudding with "crushed Oreo cookies, gummy worms and 'headstone' cookies."

She will draw jack-o'-lantern faces onto oranges, make cheese look like ghosts, and prepare hot dogs in the semblance of distended fingers. 

"You have to make it look either scary or gross or cute," said McManus. "I think that makes it different from other meals like Thanksgiving. Halloween has to be very creative, because it is more fun for kids."

McManus said back in the US, there would usually also be pumpkin soup and bread, but in Beijing, they would only be serving creepy-looking finger food.

"It's just fun. It's fun to make silly treats, especially for the kids," she said.

3-year-old Liam McManus samples one of the scary treats his mother has prepared. Photo: Li Hao/GT



Scary feasts

Kyle Henderson, 33, will also be hosting a party for Halloween along with his wife. Originally from Vancouver, Henderson echoed McManus' thoughts that Halloween meals were an opportunity to get creative.

Henderson will be serving "blood" wine and pizza with "blood" sauce to his 30-odd guests, two-thirds of whom will be Chinese.

"You can shape the meat like a leg, or something weird," said Henderson. "People like these sorts of things. They think it's something fun."

Zhao Xinyu, a 32-year-old foodie who attended one such Halloween party last year, said that it was a novel experience for Chinese people to partake in "spooky" food that often resembled severed human parts.

"Some of it was very bloody-looking, like bloody fingers or eyeballs," said Zhao. "I don't mind it. Scary-looking food makes the festival feel more spooky."

McManus admitted that some guests in previous years, both Chinese and foreigners, found the gruesome looking food difficult to stomach.

"If it looks very bloody, some people will just be grossed at it even though they know it isn't real," said McManus. "Sometimes, your mind cannot accept what it looks like. Even if you know it is a hot dog, it looks like a finger, so you can't eat it."

A spread of Halloween-themed food made by expat school teacher Pamela McManus. Photo: Li Hao/GT



Feast without the trick-or-treat

While some expats are making macabre looking dishes to celebrate Halloween, the food most frequently associated with Halloween is candy.

Overseas, one of the customary rituals of Halloween is trick-or-treating, whereby children, dressed in costumes, go house to house asking for candy or money.

While those living in expat-heavy areas like Shunyi district are able to carry on this tradition, many families have been forced to abandon it, given that Halloween has not traditionally been celebrated by Chinese people.

"You can't do it in Beijing because it's not part of the culture," said Henderson. "You get people saying, 'What are you doing? Why are you trying to get into my house?' Parents won't let children go to strangers' houses. It's dangerous."

McManus said that it was only when they moved to Shunyi district that they noticed people trick-or-treating.

"Before we moved to this compound three years ago, we lived in Park Avenue, an apartment building in Chaoyang district. We didn't have anyone coming to trick-or-treat," she said. "But in this compound, it's easier to tell. Houses are separated, so if the house has decorations, I would let [my son] go, even if I didn't know the owner."

Pamela McManus turns an orange into a jack-o'-lantern. Photo: Li Hao/GT



Chinese Halloween

Henderson said that in Beijing, Halloween was about dressing up in costume and having a good time.

"For [Chinese people], it's not a cultural thing, but [an occasion to celebrate]," he said, adding that he and his friends would be attending a Halloween party in 798 Art Zone after their scary feast.

Paul Garcia, a 25-year-old journalist originally from the Philippines, found a novel way to integrate the multicultural element of celebrating Halloween in Beijing.

Rather than abiding by tradition, he will be hosting an international-themed Halloween banquet at his home.

"Halloween parties here are big and they are crazy. I'm also surprised how people really prepare for this, how people are really willing to spend for the party," he said.

Garcia has invited around 20 friends from the US, the UK and Australia to prepare spooky-looking food that is inspired by dishes from their home countries.

"We tasked ourselves to prepare something at home and to surprise each other, so we'll see how we view Halloween from our own respective countries," he said. "It's a challenge for us in terms of preparation, because a lot of us do not cook!"

Scary recipes for Halloween

Spooky mouth

Ingredients: Apples, peanut butter, white marshmallows

Slice an apple into equal portions. Separate the slices into groups of two, then spread peanut butter between the grouped slices, as you would with a sandwich.

Cut white marshmallows into "teeth" shapes and stick them to the peanut butter, so they look like fangs.

Witches' fingers

Ingredients: Frankfurters, almonds, ketchup

Use a knife to cut three little lines on a frankfurter, to represent the joints on a person's finger. Place it into boiling water and cook until it floats.

Drain the water out and put the hot dog onto the plate. Push a slice of almond into the end of the frankfurter for the "fingernail." Add ketchup for "blood."

Jack-o'-lanterns

Ingredients: Oranges, chocolate ice cream, cinnamon sticks

Cut off tops of oranges. Gently hollow out pulp, leaving a thick shell. Hollow out pulp off tops also.

Cut jack-o'-lantern faces into each orange.

Pack chocolate ice cream into shells, making sure to avoid letting ice cream

come out of holes.

Cut a hole into the orange top. Set tops back on, over ice cream, and insert cinnamon stick "stem" through the hole. Place in freezer for at least three hours, or until serving time.

 

Source: Pamela McManus and www.public-domain-sources.com



 



Posted in: Metro Beijing

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