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Published: November 4th 2009
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When I first got to China, the first thing that I put in my mouth was a large sip of soy milk. After that, I thought to myself: I am going to hate china. It wasn't that it was THAT bad, but it was weird and rather unpleasant. I didn't finish it and my outlook was then abysmal as to the food situation in China. But I would soon change my mind, maybe not completely, but somewhat, and China's food has definitely grown on me.
Some of my favorites or the most interesting things are...
*mantou(馒头): This is a roll that tastes somewhat like manapua bread; fluffy, and soft. There isn't much taste, but it complements strong chinese flavors well, and is really good grilled with seasoning and placed on sticks like kabobs (串)
*chuar(串 儿):This can be found all over the streets of beijing. There is grilled chuar (my favorite) and boiled chuar. They put the food on wooden kabobs sticks then grill/boil them in seasonings, and sometimes braise them later.
*da bing(大 饼):A flaky flatbread with seasonings folded into it. (Monica loves this) It somewhat reminds me of nan.
*jian bing (煎饼):Green onions, sauce, and a crispy cracker
folded into a wrap made from batter and a fried egg. Served warm, which is nice in the cool weather. It can be found all over Beijing as a street food as well.
*rou jia mo: This is one of my favorites. Resembling a small sandwich, it is made from a meat (I've had pork and chicken) with different seasonings (depending on the vendor), mixed with lettuce or other veggies and stuffed into a small bread the size of an english muffin. The type of bread also depend on the vendor, but they are all delicious.
*family style: Eating family style in China is so common. When we eat, there is a lot of reaching over each other, spilling, and dropping food (especially since some of us haven't mastered chopsticks quite yet). But there is also more sharing, more variety, and more socializing. It's nice, and I'll miss it back home.
*The food here in China is incredibly cheap. Most of our meals on campus are about 4元 or 5元, which is equivalent to about $.60 in the U.S.. Even when we go out to eat, we end up paying no more than 20元 (less than $3.00). I will no
doubt miss that back home as well.
*numbing seeds: On our trip to inner mongolia, we ate a dish that had small curious looking seeds in it. Most of us avoided it, but a couple of boys on the other table urged us to try them. So we did, and after a couple seconds of chewing them, a sour, menthol taste squirted out, and every part of my mouth that was touched by that seed went numb. It was an odd feeling, I gained my feeling back in about five minutes, but to this day we still have no idea what those were.
*mango juice(芒果汁):When there is an exceptionally cold day here, there is just one cure-hot mango juice. yum!
*tang hu lu(糖葫芦):These are delicious candied fruits on the go. They are made by taking hawthorne berries (which taste like an apple and a strawberry morphed together), and shoving them onto a stick, then glazing them in hot candy. The result is delicious, a better version of the candied apple.
*scorpion/duck blood: I accounted my story of the scorpion in the Wangfujin post, but the duck blood was something I encountered long before that. It was one of the first
weekends that we were here, and we went to a hutong with one of our professors and had a dinner there. At this hutong, they served bowls of noodles and boiled chuar, which included a chuar stick with a rectangle of congealed duck blood stuck on it. It wasn't too bad. Tasted a little like blood, but went down quickly and smoothly.
*chicken innards: Eating is always an adventure in China. Even after we can recognize many different food characters, we still sometimes have to play a guessing game while ordering. Just recently we attempted to order some chicken, and chicken is what we got. A whole chicken, intestines, veins, lungs, and everything. It will be nice to go home and have food that I am comfortable with. But one thing about China is that every meal can be a surprise, an adventure, and a memory.
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Ellen Walton
non-member comment
Yum, Yum!
Hi, Lihau: I was wondering when your next blog would arrive - I look forward to reading them! Today is Grandma's birthday so think of her while you're doing your adventures. I'm glad there are some foods you enjoy and I'm really impressed that you actually ate the duck's blood! I don't know if I could have been that brave! Some of the foods sounded really good. Love you, Aunty Ellen