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From Abroad

I had been warned that the food would be very different here from the Westernized Chinese food I’d come to know at home, but I was unprepared for how good it would be…I had seriously worried that I’d be eating pig knuckles and goose necks, as several of my ESL students had made big points of describing to me how the parts of the animal that Americans consider to be the best (chicken breasts) are considered to be some of the lesser delicacies available (chicken necks and wings).

I am only nominally a carnivore back home, usually eating only seafood and dairy products…before I came over I decided that I would throw my regular dietary restrictions somewhat to the wind in order to fully experience the culinary opportunities of study abroad…that’s always a hard choice to make, what issues you will and will not be willing to give on…

When I went to Japan as a high-school exchange student, I was a vegetarian and made a similar decision then to relax my dietary restrictions (mainly because I was having real trouble finding dishes that did not include seafood in some way), which turned out to be a very good choice…it can be very upsetting to your host family if you refuse to eat the food that is prepared for you…after the first week, my family searched out an English teacher to translate for us and questioned me on why I was eating so little at meals…it was then that I realized how individual preferences can seriously affect cultural understanding and hinder immersion experiences, and decided to be more flexible in the future…

But. Anyway.

Here is an image of my first breakfast in China, which was so very delicious! I love noodles and dumplings (all savory and spicy foods), and prefer not to eat really sweet dishes for breakfast which is exactly the opposite of most of my friends…a giant plate of pancakes with fruit and syrup is more of a special occasion thing for me and not something to consume on a regular basis…so, the Chinese breakfast trends are excellent for me…dumplings, congee, warm soymilk, pickled vegetables, boiled and friend grain-thingers…all those make me very happy.

Here’s a typical lunch from the Suda cafeteria…note the entire small fish…

Eating out is very different, too. As dishes are communally shared (generally on a small table or by means of a large lazy susan placed in the center of a huge table), people tend to go out in groups to eat. If you want to eat out alone, it seems like you have to visit a smaller place or a stand that sells quicker foods. It’s very different from the Western trend of individual orders that usually contain side dishes or the like. I honestly don’t know how a single person eats out here at a nice restaurant; I suspect that doesn’t happen unless it’s a foreign-style establishment or a quick stand.

When you sit down to eat, there is a selection of rather small dishes in front of you…soup bowl, plate, chopsticks (sometimes with a chopstick rest), Asian-style spoon, juice glass and tea cup…sometimes a rice bowl, although I’ve seen many people use their plates instead of bowls for their rice…food is plucked from the communal dishes (usually about as many are ordered as there are people present), and transferred …there are no really individual refills or drink orders…people tend to buy things by the bottles or jugs, which are simply placed on the table to be shared…if you do order a small beverage, it is generally brought out to you in it’s container…here are some pics of dining out experiences we’ve had in recent days…

I think some of the things I was most surprised by were fish cheeks and heads (very tender meat), and the large variety of dumplings and boiled, hard puddings…occasionally I have been shocked by unexpected ingredients in new places, like the matcha (powdered green tea) bubble tea I had the other day that included (in addition to the expected and sweet tapioca pearls) chewy black beans. That was surprising enough to make me cough out my first mouthful, staring resentfully at the poor tea matron all the while.

Speaking of stands…there is also the option of eating out at night markets or street stalls…

More to come on this topic in future days…now I have to finish my homework, get some of those delicious dumplings and get to class!

再见! (Bye!)