But What About the Food?!

8/3/15 

Every lunch and dinner so far has been a delicious family-style meal, either in a large banquet hall of a restaurant or in a private, sectioned off room. Our guide arranges the restaurants and the dish selections for us so, in all honesty, I’m not sure if we’re eating authentic Chinese food or if he’s picking out dishes that he thinks our Westernized-palettes will be used to. Clearly, regional dishes vary widely in such a vast country, but everyone I know who has been to China says that the food is VERY different from what we consider “Chinese food” in America. I understand they eat a lot of things we don’t like bugs (which I saw a girl eating out of a little bowl with chopsticks – too cute!) and chicken feet (saw a boy sucking on one like a lollipop), dried salted fish, or whole baby chickens. But so far, the food has been relatively similar – nothing too far out of the ordinary. Which is why, if our guide claims he is taking us to authentic Chinese restaurants to try the local specialty dishes, the food doesn’t seem all that unusual to me. (NN: I think the food is authentic, but Jason is selecting ones that he thinks we are more likely to enjoy. So he goes light on the crickets, chicken feet, and sheep’s testicles.)

Mixed Pig Meat Restaurant - at least that's how it was presented to us

Their vegetables are different (but still delicious); there’s fewer chicken dishes available than what we’d normally see on a take-out menu; and some of the pork and fish dishes are cooked differently than I’ve ever had them before, but everything is still so DELICIOUS! The fish has been REALLY good. (Side note: due to all the overfishing in China, most of the fish they eat are freshwater fish or farmed fish. This comes as no surprise as fisheries are collapsing everywhere, but our guide pointed out that even marine shellfish, like lobster, has to be imported and would cost about $150 USD per pound!) I had two giant barbequed pork femurs, yes femurs, where the meat was so tender it just fell off the bone. And the flavor was so savory; I’ve never been happier to tear an animal’s limbs apart. I’m still waiting to try some duck (yum) and hopefully something that IS completely strange and foreign, but we still have some time ;)

Chinese burrito, hamburger & hot dog stand

And holy crap, there is so much food! I feel like I’m still stuffed from the previous one when it’s time to eat again. We were told that to show hospitality, the Chinese always order more food than necessary. The show of food is a show of status and gratitude, of sorts. The food is good but a little overwhelming: for 9 of us at a table, the guide ordered 14 dishes! (The Chinese could definitely rival the U.S. in food waste per capita.) I’m pleasantly surprised, though, that Nick has not had any trouble eating in China. Everyone, myself included, thought such a picky eater would be living off of nothing but white rice for two weeks, but there’s always a beef dish at every meal and tons of vegetables, which he too has relished just as much as I have (minus the pork leg). So it looks as if he might not come back to the States underweight after all! ;) 

Food Stalls