Puppy Fried Rice

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: a blog about Chinese food. I came to China hungry. I was starving for excitement, deep relationships, cultural knowledge, and good food. I was nervous about the diet situation before I came, as I didn’t know what ‘rabbit food’ (as my brother would call it) I would be able to find here. Anyone who has spent a little bit of time with me can tell you that my eating habits are somewhat difficult. I chose to stop eating red meat when I was in middle school. I gave up chicken and fish soon after (as soon as mom finished her anxiety attack about a ‘lack of protein’). My reasoning for choosing vegetarianism is threefold and very simple:

1)  My body loves it. It is so much healthier…..when done correctly.

2)   The environment loves it. Meat farming is responsible for outrageous sins against our environment.

3)  The animals love it. Animals have the capacity to feel pain and fear just like we do. Plus, they’re beautiful.

Ok, I’ll get off of my soapbox. If you want to read more, here’s a link> RIP Bambimamma
Around April, I was feeling that my diet wasn’t bothersome and inconvenient enough to those around me, so I decided to go paleo (a.k.a. the caveman diet). Except without meat. Soooooo….I went kaleo. At first this was a big problem here in China because Oldman didn’t understand ‘no meat’. He heard this and interpreted it to mean ‘a little less meat’. But he soon adjusted. He buys

produce each day to cook myriad meaty and vegetarian dishes. A typical lunch at the courts includes sticky rice, stir-fried tofu and vegetables, (okra, carrots, peppers, onions, eggplant, squash, potatoes, mushrooms, Chinese cabbage etc…) a dish called fanqie chao jidan (tomatoes and eggs), cucumbers with cilantro, oil, and rice vinegar, and bitter melon. Bitter melon is crunchy and tart. It is believed to have cleansing properties, and has lots of vitamins. It tastes awful, but I tell myself it’s good for me so I eat a lot of it. I’m actually starting to like it….kind of. Many of Oldman’s dishes are stir fried, but sometimes he will make a fresh salad with Chinese cabbage, pea shoots, and mushrooms with a soy sauce

dressing. It’s SO GOOD.
Although the meals are great, the best part about China is the fruit. Underneath the courts is the wet market with a ton of produce. Just outside, local farmers set up stands on the street displaying their fresh fruits, picked that morning. There is a spread of the normal fruits one would expect (apples, oranges, grapes, pears, peaches, watermelon). But there are also new and exciting fruits with new flavors and textures ranging from sweet to sour to bitter, coupled with creamy, jelly, crunchy, and fibrous textures. My new favorite fruit is lychee. Old reliable is an apple (if only I could find some almond butter….*sigh*). Each morning and afternoon (and sometimes evening) I stop by a fruit stand for something sweet. The older woman who works my favorite stand is my new best friend. We have a game. I try to say the name for each fruit in Chinese as I browse and she laughs at me. It’s not a very fun game. My most recent new fruit experience was the dragon fruit. This is a beautiful pink and green bud-shape about the size of two fists, with curled ribbon ends. It is cut in half to reveal a pit-less orb of creamy white flesh specked with tiny black seeds. Grab a spoon and enjoy the soft, creamy mildly sweet flesh. Yummmm.  

Last week Howard, Flash, and I went to a restaurant for dinner. Howard ordered many dishes, all vegetarian. We started with mushrooms called ‘little ears’. These ‘shrooms have a floppy, plastic-like texture that squeaks against your teeth when you bite down on- it’s a similar feeling to biting down on an un-inflated balloon. They taste earthy and salty and are quite delicious dipped in soy sauce and wasabi.  We also had watercress salad with rice vinegar and oil, steamed dumplings filled with egg and tomato, seaweed and dried tofu salad, cornbread, and, of course, cucumbers with cilantro. It was delicious. I ate until I couldn’t eat another bite.

Yesterday Dani, Danimamma and I stopped at an outdoor market for dinner. We were handed baskets to fill and got to work choosing from different noodles, vegetables and proteins. At this stand the customer fills a basket with ingredients that the ladies in the open kitchen will cook. I opted for Chinese cabbage, cilantro, broccoli, quail eggs, mushrooms, and pea shoots. My eyes were bigger than my stomach, as my basket soon runneth over. Ten minutes later the return investment was a brothy, warm (SPICY!) bowl of fresh deliciousness.

My favorite and least favorite items are from street vendors next to each other downstairs from the courts. One vendor sells hard boiled eggs that are cracked and boiled in tea so that the flavorful liquid seeps into the egg white, giving it a scrumptious zest. The worst is cooling tea. If you kept up with Tour de Polka, you know how much I love tea. When I arrived in China I was SO excited to drink a great cup of tea. The first day I walked from my apartment to the courts I saw a lady downstairs who sells cups of tea….like a Chinese Starbucks. The first chance I got, I marched downstairs and bought a cup of tea. I could smell the spices wafting from her teakettles. Due to our language barrier, I just pointed to a random kettle and handed her my Yuan. With my first cup of real Chinese tea in my hand, I savored the moment I’d been waiting for as I put the cup to my lips and waited for the heavenly elixir to reach my taste buds. When it finally did, it was all I could do not to spit it all over the sidewalk. Whatever was in that cup was the most rancid, disgusting, bitterly pungent liquid ever invented. I immediately poured the remainder of the hellish slop into the nearest plant, half expecting the shrub to shrivel up and die before my eyes. Howard later told me that I’d had cooling tea- a medicinal tea used to treat colds and respiratory issues. He went on, ‘Yeah, that’s nasty stuff. Don’t drink that’.

‘Good to know. Thanks’

I live in one of the more progressive parts of China. There are still people in parts of China who eat pretty much anything they can catch including birds, dogs, cats, rabbits, turtles, etc.. This practice was necessary when the people of China were so poor, and now it has transitioned into more of a cultural practice. Here in Zhong Shan, dogs are pets (thankfully) but there are still some stomach-churning items in supermarkets. Every part of the animal is eaten

(yesterday Oldman prepared pig’s feet). Pickled chicken feet are a snack item. It’s a cultural thing……a very gross cultural thing.

Yes, many foods have surprised me here: some pleasant, others not so much. The biggest disappointment (other than my first cup of tea) is the absence of fortune cookies. I have yet to see any sign of our Americanized ‘Chinese’ fortune cookie that accompanies every Chinese meal we’ve ever had, offering wisdom, humor or knowledge. The lack of fortune cookies is depressing- like finding out Santa didn’t come to the local mall to grant your wishes, but you actually spilled your secrets to and sat on the lap of a classmate’s sweaty uncle who’s unemployed 11 months out of the year, smokes Marlboros, and tells the elves (recent college grads with degrees in philosophy) dirty jokes on his work breaks. I do miss that bland, dry, crunchy little fortune snack. But then again, I’m fortunate enough.