China Food

Posts about China, 6 of 7.

Food.

What can be said about the food?

It really can be an adventure.  We experienced both ends of the scale, from the modern Chinese to the country fair.  In general the food is not bad, it sometimes lacks a robust flavor itself and relies on the sauces that are served with it.  An example is shrimp.  Most of the time, they are live, right from the tank, but are just boiled and served to the table.  Thus the shrimp themselves have very little taste and it's the types of sauces served.  Sometimes the shrimp are sautéed in a light oil and you get the flavor when you either eat the whole shrimp, shell and all or eat the heads.  (As I am a westerner who has very little experience with full shrimp, I am probably missing a lot. :-)

So a couple of things that are the same at most restaurants, and they are; tanks of fish and/or seafood and plates of semi-prepared dishes wrapped in saran wrap.  Also the meals are served shared or family style, meaning the dish is placed in the center of the table and everyone serves themselves from it.  (Unless you are the honored guess in which people will serve you, even though you may not want the chicken feet. :-)  This does allow one to sample many different dishes and can be rather fun.  This is much different than the western method of giving one a complete meal on their plate.

So first the seafood.



Now the semi-prepared food.  Most of the time this is vegetables and/or other meats.



The finished product.  My daughter loved taking pictures of dishes and food, most of these pictures are hers.



Lastly some of the more exotic things we ate or could have eaten.



And these can sometimes come from street vendors.  This first one was pulling clumps of dough from the ball in front and making noodles which she boiled in the pot where she was standing.  There are two tables which she is blocking from view.  This all took place in a narrow 5 foot alley.  (There where two western girls eating at one of the tables.)