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China, the Food Post
Okay, here's the first China post. Which is...food!
It seems like you have to run into one dodgy buffet in China with french fries. This trip, it was on the river cruise between Guilin and Yangshuo.
This was the 2007 edition of the Chinese french fry pic. Wearing the exact same fleece was an accidental bonus. (It's my very favourite fleece for travelling. There's rather a lot of pics of me in it this time 'round.)
One of our meals in Beijing was in a family home in a Hu Tong neighbourhood. This pic is of the best dish of the meal, this awesome sweet and sour vegetable ball that the owner's ancestor supposedly cooked for one of the Qing emperor's.
Ros wasn't always keen on the historical parts of the trip, but some stuff fascinated her. Like watching the cooks in the restaurant at the Terracotta Warriors museum make noodles.
More noodle making.
This was an amazing dish, sweet potato's sauteed with an egg coating at the interestingly name McFound restaurant in Guilin.
One of the places we stayed was a guest house in a farm village outside Xi'an. It was run by this lovely grandmotherly woman who was intent on making sure we were thoroughly stuffed after every meal. This was our dinner, which was lots of lovely stir fried dishes that you put into these crepe-y/pancake things. At the end of the meal there was still a ton of food left, so our hostess came out of the kitchen, loaded up the last pancake with all the remaining food, handed it to the Sweetie, and watched until he'd eaten it all. I was just grateful it wasn't me.
One of the difficulties of the trip was getting Ros to eat. Anything. Well, anything besides rice, that is. So we actually caved and hit a McDonald's three times during the trip. We didn't actually visit this McD's, in the resort town of Yangshuo, but I loved the contrast of those lovely typically Chinese mountains framing the Golden Arches.
One place we did go to McDonald's was in Chengdu, which is in Sichuan province, known for its massively spicey food. So of course the default McNugget sauce for a Happy Meal in Sichuan is this.
In Yangshuo we stayed at this lovely resort just outside of town. Ros was hanging out with the staff in the restaurant/bar, and had them wrapped around her finger very quickly. We had a lovely dinner at the resort, and at the end, the waitress made this flower fruit salad for her, gratis. It was as delicious as it was gorgeous.
In Guilin we stayed in a really lovely apartment, and there was a lady our guide referred to as "our nanny" who delivered our breakfasts in the morning. This bread was fluffy and eggy and the best thing ever.
This was a dish from a restaurant at our last stop, Shanghai. It was fried fish cakes, and the presentation was good as the taste.
This is candy, as opposed to food, but it was very cool. It came from a street market in Chengdu. You pay 5 yuan to spin this dial, and then the bloke who runs the stall makes you a carmelized sugar candy on a stick in the shape you spun. It's hard to tell, but Ros spun a peach.
It seems like you have to run into one dodgy buffet in China with french fries. This trip, it was on the river cruise between Guilin and Yangshuo.
This was the 2007 edition of the Chinese french fry pic. Wearing the exact same fleece was an accidental bonus. (It's my very favourite fleece for travelling. There's rather a lot of pics of me in it this time 'round.)
One of our meals in Beijing was in a family home in a Hu Tong neighbourhood. This pic is of the best dish of the meal, this awesome sweet and sour vegetable ball that the owner's ancestor supposedly cooked for one of the Qing emperor's.
Ros wasn't always keen on the historical parts of the trip, but some stuff fascinated her. Like watching the cooks in the restaurant at the Terracotta Warriors museum make noodles.
More noodle making.
This was an amazing dish, sweet potato's sauteed with an egg coating at the interestingly name McFound restaurant in Guilin.
One of the places we stayed was a guest house in a farm village outside Xi'an. It was run by this lovely grandmotherly woman who was intent on making sure we were thoroughly stuffed after every meal. This was our dinner, which was lots of lovely stir fried dishes that you put into these crepe-y/pancake things. At the end of the meal there was still a ton of food left, so our hostess came out of the kitchen, loaded up the last pancake with all the remaining food, handed it to the Sweetie, and watched until he'd eaten it all. I was just grateful it wasn't me.
One of the difficulties of the trip was getting Ros to eat. Anything. Well, anything besides rice, that is. So we actually caved and hit a McDonald's three times during the trip. We didn't actually visit this McD's, in the resort town of Yangshuo, but I loved the contrast of those lovely typically Chinese mountains framing the Golden Arches.
One place we did go to McDonald's was in Chengdu, which is in Sichuan province, known for its massively spicey food. So of course the default McNugget sauce for a Happy Meal in Sichuan is this.
In Yangshuo we stayed at this lovely resort just outside of town. Ros was hanging out with the staff in the restaurant/bar, and had them wrapped around her finger very quickly. We had a lovely dinner at the resort, and at the end, the waitress made this flower fruit salad for her, gratis. It was as delicious as it was gorgeous.
In Guilin we stayed in a really lovely apartment, and there was a lady our guide referred to as "our nanny" who delivered our breakfasts in the morning. This bread was fluffy and eggy and the best thing ever.
This was a dish from a restaurant at our last stop, Shanghai. It was fried fish cakes, and the presentation was good as the taste.
This is candy, as opposed to food, but it was very cool. It came from a street market in Chengdu. You pay 5 yuan to spin this dial, and then the bloke who runs the stall makes you a carmelized sugar candy on a stick in the shape you spun. It's hard to tell, but Ros spun a peach.
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Are the fries there to make Westerners feel at home or the locals feel exotic?
The spun sugar concoction looks amazing.
I like the idea of a nanny delivering breakfast...
I think Ros is a little bit young to be stunned by too much history and she will remember things like watching the cooks, and making friends with the staff. She'll probably remember things like the terracotta warriors, too, and will put them into context when she's older and thinks 'oh yes, I saw those'.
We got home last night so I am back to normal internet and really looking forward to your posts and pics!
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This time, I think the fries were there to make the locals feel exotic. (We were the only Westerners on the boat.) Last time they were at a buffet lunch at a jade factory patronized mostly by Western tourists and I'm sure they were there to cater to barbarian palate.
We got a kick out of the things Ros was impressed by. There will be a future post on the topic...
Hooray for normal internet. Looking forward to seeing you here more!
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It's only 10:00am and you already have me hungry for Chinese food. *g*
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Great pictures - so glad you enjoyed yourselves. Ros is so grown up!
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It's fun choosing pictures that give a real sense of the trip. And Ros is looking very grown up these days. She's totally 6 going on 16.
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I loved the food in China, and it completely ruined North American Chinese food for me - the "sweet and sour chicken balls" stuff you get here is *nothing* like the real thing. I especially liked the spicy Sichuan food. One of the best meals we had was one night when we got delayed by bad roads and ended up billeting with a farm family. They shared their spiced eggplant and beans with us - just delicious.
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The food was great, but there was Just. So. Much.
My favourite meals in China were the more home-cooked ones: in the farm guest house, in a very rough restaurant in Ros' hometown, and in the Hu Tong neighbourhood of Beijing. But at least the one good thing about living in Toronto is that the Chinese food we can get here is not the chicken balls with day glo orange sauce variety. There's lots of good, authentic Chinese food, of lots of different cuisines. Cantonese, Sichuan, Shanhainese, Hakka, it's all here. Now if we could only get Ros to try more...
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I've definitely got loads of clothes I've had for years. If I love something, I keep it until it's practically in tatters.
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I'd love the opportunity to try authentic Chinese food.
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Real Chinese food is awesome.
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Food looks delicious! That fruit salad, awwww! (Craving an apple now!) And I'm totally with Ros - I LOVE when the cooks are in the room, I could just watch them forever!
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The fruit salad was amazing. I totally have to learn how to do that. And I have to say, the cooks with the noodles were fascinating to watch.
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I'm not a fun dinner or lunch companion when there's an open kitchen. There's a certain Italian restaurant with a pizza oven right in the middle of it and my sisters refuse to go there with me ever again. They say it's embarrasing, for them and for the guy who throws the pizza dough around. Pfffft....I know he likes it, the show-off! *g*
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