Trashcan Smoker

A long time ago I talked about building a meat smoker in China. The project has been developing really slowly for a couple of months (mostly due to laziness, but it is also difficult to locate and acquire certain materials in China). Anyways, last week I was able to track down the last necessary piece (a very small hot plate) with the help of one of my students and TaoBao (China's version of eBay). With all the pieces in place, all that remained was a little metal cutting and hole punching. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the required tools, so yesterday Charlotte and I hit the road in search of tools.

We walked down Wulumuqi Lu past the fruit shops and flower ladies. Eventually we happened upon a bike repair man in an alley. This might sound a little sketchy for our readers outside of China, but its pretty much par for the course out here. So we asked the bike repair man if he could drill some holes in our trashcan/meat smoker and he said no problem, but his friend would have to bring a drill over. We're all just standing around in this alley waiting for the drill to arrive and the guy asks where we're from. We tell him that we're American and he starts talking about 9/11, Obama, and terrorists. It was really weird. Usually, when you tell people that you're American they just smile say "Obama" and give you the thumbs up or they just look at the other Chinese people smile and say "mei guo de" or American... Anyways, this goes on for a little while and then his friends arrives with the drill hops off and starts checking out the trashcan. He decides that it should be 50 RMB to drill 4 little holes and 1 big hole. His price estimate takes me by surprise and we deny it right off the bat. We try to bargain the guy down to 20, but he won't go any lower than 30 RMB. I don't understand why though... The job was for 5 minutes of labor. If I asked a mechanic in the US to drill the holes, he'd probably laugh and do it for free... In the end, the guy gets all angry at us and storms off with his drill and we carry the trashcan back to the apartment.

As we walk into the apartment complex, I realize that the complex's repair guys probably have the tools necessary for the job. We ask the security guards and we are led down to the underground repair man lair (basically a room where all the repair guys just sit around and chat all day). We explain the situation and sure enough, the guys pull out a couple of drills and we go to town on the trashcan. Everybody seemed to enjoy the process - I got the holes I needed and the repairmen thought the whole project was hilarious. We told them that the holes were for an art project...

All in all, it was a solid little adventure and now the smoker is ready for its first test! I'm sure you'll hear more about it in the near future!

- Jon