Advertisement
Published: August 28th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Cow Brains & Pig Liver
Definitely the worst thing I've had on this trip thus far. The funny thing about China is that most Americans know nothing about it. When I told some of my friends back home that I was choosing to spend the semester in Shanghai rather than home in Boston, they gave me this confused look, and many of them asked why I was volunatarily going into the middle of nowhere. While there are things that make it seem that China is a long way from being developed (the bathrooms are really what's holding them back from taking over the world), they have some things that are clearly first class (their McDonald's here are superb).
Wang Lao Shi (Teacher Wang, in English) is the director of the program I'm participating in here. He's this funny Chinese guy that reminds me of my dad, but I think that's just because he has a little bit of a pot belly and talks a lot (sorry Dad, but you do too). He chose to study abroad for his Master's degree and PhD in the United States. Having never been there, he did not know much about how to choose a place to study, kind of like how I picked Shanghai. However, I lucked out in that
Dog for Dinner?
Many of the restaurants here have dog on the menu. You can get it in all different kinds of things, especially in chili. Shanghai is awesome. He had theoretical solid logic in choosing where he studied abroad in the States--he figured he'd pick a central location and see everything from the center. He picked a very small town in Kansas to study abroad in to get the true "American experience". We laughed when he told us this story.
Anyways, Wang Lao Shi told us of the exact moment when he realized that the United States of America was truly a developed nation. He was on a road trip somewhere in rural Wyoming when he had to use the bathroom, so they pulled over to a public bathroom somewhere in the middle of nowhere. He was shocked to find that the bathroom had its own toilet paper! I laughed when he told us this story the first day we were here, but was not laughing so hard when I walked into a bathroom the next day to find a hole in the ground and no toilet paper.
I know my previous blog discussed how China was not very developed but last night I discovered that China is truly ahead of its time. Yesterday, there were typhoon warnings and it was very windy
Sushi
One of the better meals I've had so far. This whole plate of sushi was about 2.10 USD. all day long, so we were all pleasantly surprised to find that almost everywhere delivers. And I know you're thinking, "so what, you can get pizza deliveries all over the states", to which my reply is "yes, but did you know all of China's McDonald's deliver?!" This discovery will be detrimental, I already know it. For about $1.10 USD, you can get any order delivered from Micky D's, no matter the size. Last night, about 12 of us ordered Micky D's. It tastes exactly like American Micky D's but is only 80% of the price (a little steep for China prices, but that's the price you have to pay for great tasting food). The best part was this little Chinese man came up to the door of our residence building on this bike, holding a crate of cheeseburgers on his bike in front of him, and wearing a huge backpack filled with drinks, milkshakes, and the rest of our order. Probably the highlight of my trip so far. I can now say I've had Micky D's on three different continents (four once I've gone to South Africa). America, you're in trouble because China's McDonald's put your fast food to shame.
I Was Here
Many of the restaurants we've been to in Shanghai have places where you can either leave a sticky note or sign your name on the wall. Maybe when I come back here in a couple of years it will still be there! Speaking of food, I think part of the reason I enjoyed Micky D's so much was because of how what I've been eating here. I don't recognize any of the snacks they have here in China, and I just figured out how to order breakfast from the back streets in Chinese, so I'm getting along slowly but surely. A lot of times, I lose my appetite after I figure out what I'm eating. So far, I've had cow brains, bamboo (like panda bear quality bamboo, not like human eating bamboo), something that kind of resembled sea snake, pig liver (that was disgusting), stinky tofu (fermented tofu. They just leave it outside until it's super moldy), and a plethora of other strange things I've never seen before and wasn't courageous enough to ask. My dad told me to avoid pork over here, but that is so much easier said than done. Once a week, our Chinese teachers take us out for free lunch to their favorite restaurants. The catch is we are only allowed to speak Chinese, absolutely no English allowed. Anyways, they order for us and then watch as we eat whatever they've ordered, laughing as we suck it up and eat it (it's rude to not try it). I'm not sure which is worse--getting food poisoning or insulting them by not eating something. I think I hurt their feelings because I flat out refused to eat dog, but there is no way I'm eating golden retriever during this life time. I think I'm just going to have to start telling them I'm a vegetarian, especially because the last time I tried to order beef, it ended up being pig liver.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0205s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mamie
non-member comment
Gee, a Blog about Food in China!
Wow, it sounds like you're getting to see the real China, food and all. I bet a lot of restaurants in China deliver like your McD's delivery guy. McD's is just keeping up with competition. I can eat almost anything, but I'm not sure I could've eaten some of the stuff you tried. I'm sure the dog meat wasn't golden retriever. My dad used to raise a dog from time to time for eating. Looking forward to the next blog.