I LOVE FOOD.
I think it is a great way for people to come together and meet--whether it is hanging out with your girlfriends over cocktails or your whole family coming together over a turkey on Thanksgiving. I think it is a great way to spend time together laughing and preparing food (even if I am awful at it). I think food can be beautiful, fun, and exciting. But mostly, I think food is one of the best ways to get to know a culture.
Living in China, I have been exposed to a variety of different types of food from nice and safe things like handmade noodles and street food filled with meat on sticks, bread, niangao (ricey heaven), and veggies (bleck!) to the not so safe like cicadas (yes, I really ate those... don't believe me? Look at this!!) and stinky, nasty durian. I have found that different regions of China eat very different foods from one another (just like in the US, I suppose). Seafood galore up north in cities like Qingdao and Dalian is nowhere to be found in Hangzhou and Cangqian. You might try to be brave and eat scorpions and a Chinese person might look at you like you have gone insane. It's all so different and I just love it!!
When I travel, I try to be a bit more daring with my culinary choices (except when it comes to cooked vegetables... Sorry, Adam). Would I eat a bug if I were in my little town of Tonawanda, New York? Eh... Probably not... But when in Rome, do at the Romans do, you know? Do I usually drink a lot of beer? Well, no... but when I was in Qingdao, I was going to get a beer in a bag! Would I usually eat donkey, or pig foot, or as many cooked vegetables as I have? Certainly not! But because I am in China and because I want to have the best and most well rounded experience possible, I am going to eat where the locals frequent and order exactly as they do.
Food is very culture specific and the perfect way to get to know and assimilate during your time in a foreign country.
This past week, the campus I live at hosted what I like to call a Food Fair. One of the streets on the campus in Cangqian was suddenly filled with red tents and lights. There have been a few different types of things like this outside of the cafeteria (like student involvement fairs) but nothing of this size. The first day, I saw it as just an obstacle standing between me and my classroom but as I walked back to my apartment after class, I decided to go exploring and found that this was not an obstacle that I should feel bitterness towards but a beautiful gathering of culinary delights!!
Now you might be asking yourself, What kinds of yummy surprises were waiting for you at this Food Fair? And I will tell you: everything.
Most of the food offered at the fair were from different regions of China, especially Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet. You could get different types of meat on sticks (just like street food--yay!!), stinky tofu (no me gusta), fruit, different Chinese spring roll/burrito concoctions, and shaved ice. But there were some things that were beautifully familiar from countries such as England, France, and the good old US of A. There was cotton candy, crepes, and even doughnuts. YES. DOUGHNUTS. They were even called Bapple Doughnuts (Get it? Big Apple Doughnuts? Bapple? Well... I got a kick out of it...).
Being the lover of food that I am, I ended up going to this Food Fair twice while it was up and running.
The first was with two of my students, Lyn and John, DH and (my) Adam. This was all our first time at this fair so were wandered from booth to booth eating almost everything. Yes, I got the doughnuts. My students got octopus ball thingys from Japan. And Adam got rabbit. Yes, rabbit.
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| Just don't think of Easter... Poor Peter Cottontail... |
Now I think I had rabbit once before but it was in a ravioli so I didn't really think of it. I watched as Adam walked up to the booth (complete with a sign with adorable bunny rabbits on it) and ordered a whole rabbit leg. Now when you eat ravioli with exotic or different meat inside, you don't really think about it because all you are seeing is the pasta. But this?! This was clearly the leg of a rabbit (the foot was probably chopped off to make a good luck charm for some kid to buy at the roller rink). Yes, I took this photo of Adam chomping down on his rabbit leg and I am pretty sure I had the classic look of horror on my face. So what does he do? He just smiles and offers me a bite, knowing full well that no matter what it is (except veggies), I'll probably cave and try it. And I did. And it really was delicious.
Day two of my Food Fair Frenzy was on Wednesday... the crummiest day of my week due to the fact that I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to catch the bus that takes me about two hours over to the Xiasha campus on the other side of the city, teach two classes (one with only ten students), turn right back around at 11:30 for the two hour bus ride that takes me back to the Cangqian campus and by that time it is well after lunch time and I have to wait until dinner time to eat for the first time. So needless to say, I went to town when I visited the Food Fair.
There is a student on campus who I was in touch with before coming over to China, thanks to my friend, Olivia--her name is Shamrock. Her English is really fantastic and she enjoys meeting with me once a week to just hang out and talk so she can continue to practice her English. This week she wanted to meet for dinner and we both agreed that we were sick and tired of the cafeteria food and headed back over to the tents and culinary delights of the Food Fair.
It's nice to go to these types of things with someone who knows what they are talking about. Shamrock knew what were good things to try and what were the things to avoid at all costs. She knew where most of the foods came from and she was able to explain what they were (which is a BIG help in China because you never really know what exactly it is that you are eating). She attempted to get me to try stinky tofu (and she failed miserably at that). In the end, we went with some niangao (totally Korean style), the octopus balls again, and some meat on a stick (I can never say no).
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| So much food. So much hunger. |
I have to say, I love the food of China (Yes, there are times where it does not agree with me...). Sometimes you get spicy, sometimes its sweet. Sometimes it is exactly what you thought you ordered and sometimes it is something completely different but then it becomes your favorite dish that you order all the time. The food, in and of itself, is such an adventure--sometimes it is an epic fail and sometimes it is an epic win!!
Hi, my name is Amanda and I have a problem. A wonderful problem... I love the food in China. Now I just need to figure out how these Chinese girls eat all this food and can still stay so skinny...
Until Next Time,
Amanda
Amanda
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