...: Eating our way through China !

29 July 2007

Eating our way through China !

One of our favorite things to do is cook and eat, and then cook and eat

some more... over the past few years our "tastes" have changed.... we used to go out to the most expensive "IN" places to eat, nouvelle cuisine, pretty, plated, and oh so cool. Now... we head to the places we find the locals. We eat on the streets, at the malls, in "dives" we come upon. We are rarely disappointed. We do encounter some language problems but nothing that some body language, some extra time, and a few smiles can't overcome. Below are some pictures of foods we ate, the places we ate them, the people who made them, and the people who ate them. Hope you enjoy... we sure did : - )

Our meal of chicken bones and kidneys... (above) No it is not what we expected ! Jeff also had some problems getting something to drink here... everyone else had glasses filled to the brim, even I had a refreshing cold drink. They kept telling jk that what he ordered they did not have... sooooo finally he settled on what he thought was a fruit smoothie... well he did enjoy his sherbet, it was the best he could do. It was also at this meal (and don't get me wrong.. I can hold my own with chopsticks) but after the bones and sherbet I thought I would be nice and share some of my meal with jk... only to throw the food at him when I tried to pass it to him with my chopsticks... poor jk :-o

...a quick, on the street, bite to eat... chicken (we think) with plenty of hot chili... yum !

The fungus section of the market... and below a couple of crates o' frogs and snakes. The frogs were for "take home and cook" not take out, the snakes were being prepped for home use, a bloody site. We DID NOT, however, see any strange (to Western palettes) mammals @ the market : - )

A young woman at her family cart, she makes a sweet rice flour and savory spread treat... it is steamed and eaten like a lollipop... see jeff demonstrate proper ingestion technique...

Below, jk eats a snack on a stick...sugar coated grapes... and then for a few treats we would not even think of trying... roasted scorpions and sliced starfish.

Up next are a few shots: octopus, beef, and tofu ready to grill; a self contained vacuum packed Peeking duck (seen all over town); several shots of people cooking food to sell on the street; and one of me in Xi'an at a sit down restaurant eating sprouts...we also had the best dumplings in China at that restaurant that night.

Here we have hj with the hotpot meal, sort of like fondue, only all the raw ingredients are placed into boiling H2O along with some seasonings.. it makes a broth that you can use with the meal. We really enjoyed this meal of beef, fungus, greens, and several spicy sauces : - )