Eating in China

Let me tell you what. I have a mantra for eating in China that has to be applied most of the time (but not in Shanghai because the food was so good there): 

“A spoonful of rice helps the mysterious food go down.” 

Guess the movie. Some of the food can be very mysterious and scary.

I’m never going to knock someone for eating at McDonalds or KFC or Subway in China. I do it fairly regularly just to get some recognizable and familiar and non-greasy food on occasion. Although I greatly prefer Subway since the grilled chicken sandwich I got at McDonalds one night did not look, feel, or really taste like grilled chicken. Even the food at KFC and McDonalds isn’t what we’re used to seeing at the same restaurants in the states. I think I’ll stick to just ice cream from those two places and meals from Subway since their stuff is the same as in the states.

Other foods…. I can’t even begin to describe some of the stuff I’ve seen. Chicken heads in airplane meals for the meat. Fried whole fish with their eyes, tails, and scales still there. Seaweed. Bamboo – which is actually quite good.  Lots of bok choy.  And they have the same thing for all three meals generally.

Shanghai was different because they served us Chinese food that we’ve heard of! Kung Pao Chicken. Mongolian Beef. Egg Drop Soup. Orange Chicken. Sweet and Sour Pork. Pork and Cabbage. Stuff like that.

So far, at all of the meals we’ve had, they serve Sprite/7Up or Coca Cola and that’s it for your drink. Unless you’re lucky then they also serve a little bit of water. And they fill up these tiny glasses to the brim! The dinner place setting also consists of a small plate, fork, chopsticks, a small bowl, and Chinese soupspoon.