china food
In honor of the fact that this time last year, P and I were in China, I thought in would be appropriate to finally do the China Food post.
I have never eaten so well in my whole life. I miss China food every day I’m not eating it. Here is our adventure in China Food as in chronological order.
After our arrival, the only thing open around 11pm are little restaurants like this. Hmm.. ok. My friend S promptly tells us not to eat anything that touches the table and not to reuse our chopsticks if they fall on the table. Hmm.. ok. He orders something, then literally 2 minutes later our table is full of food. Delicious, delicious food. Little kebabs of beef and chicken hearts coated with the most wonderful spices, and a cucumber salad with chilies that we ate almost every time we went into a restaurant.
Beautiful kefir-y drinks lining a windowsill — didn’t taste it, but the bottles sure were purty.
These were roasted chesnuts. Deliciously sweet.
Not sure if this counts, but, tea cups for our tea ceremony thing at a Bell Tower I’m forgetting the name of..
Our first hot pot — sooo good! But it wasn’t the hot pot according to my friend. I think it has something to do with the fact that there were tomatos in it and it wasn’t divided (more on that later).
Fire grilled yams. They were cooked directly on the fire and you could smell their sweetness like 100 feet away. This, however, was possibly the beginning of my ‘hanger’ — you see, it’s very difficult to pack a lunch in China. There are no granola bars or trail mix in China. So, for the longest, most touristy day of our trip, we were ill prepared. Then, I got in touch with another side of myself: my hangry side.
It’s important to discover new things about ourselves — some say that’s the point of travelling. I guess so, but from that day on, we tried to pack more stuff. Like on the day we went to the great wall — such an awesome day. I thought it would be ‘meh’ but it was amazing.
Enter salty hard-boiled eggs. Bought from street vendors, enjoyed almost every day. They prevented many hangry moments.
On our way back to the city, the tour bus stopped at a restaurant. We didn’t go in, but we did find the source of a sweet smell wafting through the air. It was like a sugary, nutty, brittle. The guy gave us a piece. It was tasty but so sweet it wasn’t worth buying a big bag (enough to feed like 12 people). Pretty to watch them make it.
Pingyao — the greatest fried chicken of my life.
Xi’an — the muslim quarter. Finally — some sugar!!! I was on an unintentional detox while we were there. It was pretty cool to be internet-less, sugar-less, coffee-less (save a few exceptions) for 3 weeks, but boy, was i happy to eat these tasty snacks.
Dim Sum in Shanghai with P’s sister’s friend — a real pro at ordering. I will probably never have such tasty dim sum ever again. Little crispy leek pancakes (lower left corner).. I miss you.
We went to this awesome arts and crafts market called Tianzifang. It was full of shops and restaurants. We walked around, ate some thai food and then had the best popsicles of my life!! One chocolate and one called ‘salted water’ — it was light, ever so slightly salty and absolutely refreshing.
Little apple pie tartlettes in the food court of some building when we went to visit the tallest building in Shanghai. I was lucky enough to snap a picture before the guy told me not to photograph the food… (?)
Now this, this is the real hotpot. Steamy, spicy, a truly theatrical experience. We had to wear aprons, the waitress kept talking to us, giving us free noodles, it was strange and sweet and amazing. My mouth was totally numb at the end. Here you see the division between the spicy broth and the regular broth.
Hand-pulled noodles by some young guy who really knew how to put on a show. He came within one inch of hitting my friend’s face when he whipped the noodles in our direction. He was like an artist.
This delicious dipping sauce. I think there must be chili oil, garlic, Szechuan peppers and I don’t know what else but I love it and I want it back in my life.
Delicious fish, we had beef, mushrooms, eggs, and lots of greens things in the soup too. Sooo goood.
These guys: so hard to pickup with chopsticks, but so tasty.
Mmm.. steamy.
So after the hot pot food coma, we went to bed. And the next day (or a few days later, don’t remember) we left for our flight which had a stopover in Tokyo. We had enough time to get out of the airport at Narita (about 1 hour from Tokyo) and sleep in the city and wake up to visit the fish market.
So many fishes and bustling buggies.
The best sushi breakfast of my life — we were eating this at 7am so that we could leave to catch our flight at 11am or something. It was a tiny little place, maybe space for 10 people. The chef was absolutely lovely. The whole experience was spectacular. Yum yum yum.
Ok! That’s it — makes me a little nostalgic… and… hungry.
:D
