Life is What You Make it: Oh My, The Food!!!

I feel like we ate our way through China. But then isn't that the only way to experience a culture? And if that's the case, then it wasn't until the last few nights when we really experienced the culture, but I've already written about that...

My guess is we were pretty well wined and dined. I loved the chance to try so many new foods. Many of the foods were very different from American foods, in fact, I don't think I had any dairy while we were in China. We have a rule in our home, "Take one I'll-try-it-bite." I tried very much to live by that rule. There was only one food, I did not try and now that I'm back here, I surely wish I had. I'll reveal that in a moment too. Some of the highlights were fish stomach soup, tripe (I tried to insist it was morels, it looked like a morel), Chinese hamburger, gyoza, eel (the worst bite of food I had, too many bones), dried fish (second worst bite, too tough for me to chew), black duck soup, mushroom soups were delicious, shrimp was delicious, I tried frog too (I'd been wanting to try frog for a while, and it didn't disappoint. I've been given the "It tastes like chicken," but I think it tasted sweeter. The only problem, again was the bones.) We were served many whole fish dishes and one dish that was fish that was reformed into a congealed fish shape. It's hard to explain, but it was interesting...

The food we were served at the college was delicious. I heard that the chef at the college came from a very well known restaurant. I don't doubt it; it was delicious.

Even the breakfast buffet at the hotel had a lot to offer. It had a few American-type dishes, but mostly it was similar to what we were eating at other meals, a lot of veggies. Brad misses the "Coffee Guy" the most. There was one guy in the hotel that arrived at 8, always looking like he'd just tied one on, he was the only one who could make coffee. One day they tried to call him in early, it didn't work, Brad had to wait until 8 to get his coffee, oh the tragedies.

I loved the Lazy Susan style eating; we had at least four meals this way. What always amazed me was the variety of dishes and how many just kept coming... We were also indulged in two beautiful banquet style meals. The first one was after the high school visits with all the delegations. I sat across from the Korean delegation and had a little conversation with them. I'm so thankful that others speak English, though I feel so ignorant speaking only one language. I always wanted my child to be able to speak another language and yet I have, in reality, done very little to work toward this. Will I ever correct it? Any, back to the banquet... this one had 13 courses and it was all delicious, but I learned to not eat it all. That Minnesota mantra of cleaning your plate has to be abandoned in this situation or one would surely gain a 10 pounds, there was so much food!

The final night was another banquet meal. This one had about 10 courses. One of the amazing things is how attentive the servers are. As soon as my wine glass or wine carafe was empty someone was ready to refill it. My only food regret was this particular evening. We were served Sea Slug or Sea Cucumber (I've seen a sea cucumber in Cozumel, this did not look like a sea cucumber but maybe there are other varieties...) and I was not brave enough to take my I'll-try-it-bite. I tried the soup but not the actual slug. I told myself that maybe the slug was ther e merely for medicinal purposes and was not actually to be eaten, how would I know. I didn't want to look like an idiot and eat something that wasn't supposed to be eaten... (Sure, you might be thinking I could have chosen to eat it in fear of not eating and looking like an idiot, but did I mention it was a sea slug...) Next time i have the opportunity, I promise I'm tasting the sea slug and the rabbit or duck head. They looked a little disturbing at first, but I've warmed up to the idea.

Ok. My final food reveal is Street Food. This was by far the best part of the food trip. We experienced street food in Quzhou and Shanghai. Everything we tried was delicious! We had... pork on a stick, marinated chicken steak on a stick, ground lamb on a stick, squid on a stick, stinky tofu (not on a stick), gyoza, baozi (steamed buns filled with meat), and beer.

Regret Number One