Food

Lia and I ate a lot of different food during our stay. The area we were in is famous for SPICY! which, to me, could be characterized by two. The first is red pepper - you know the kind of pepper you get at a pizza parlor that you can sprinkle on your pizza. That pepper was included by the mound in nearly everything we ate. The second is this spice that we called "numbing spice." It looks somewhat like a cross between a clove and a miniature cherry bomb. It was in practically every dish as well. And you would know when you ate one because at once your entire mouth, teeth, tongue, lips, and esophagus would tingle. It was actually quite nice!

This is me after rubbing my spicy pork joint in a vat of chopped up red peppers. It was on a bet. I won/lost.

The famous style of cooking/eating is called Hot Pot, which is basically like fondue with Spicy Spicy Oil...It's pretty tasty. Plus, I like the experience of boiling up my own food. Though, I promise you, you'll feel it in the morning! Here's my parents partaking:

Generally speaking I would rate the quality of eating in this order:

1) Home Cooking

2) Roadside Hole in the Wall Restaurants

3) Super High End Restaurants

4) Really Nice Restaurants

5) Hotel Restaurants

On the plane ride home, Lia and I composed a list of the craziest and best food we ate:

CRAZIEST!

- Pig Intestines

- Pig Stomach

- Pig Joints

- Fish Tails

- Fish Heads!

- Everything in Between Fish

- Rabbit

- Chicken Feet

- Peacock

- Snake

- Eel

- FAT! Straight up!

- Baby Squid

- Giant Oysters

- Bird Eggs

- "100 Year Old" Eggs

- Pork "Parts"

- Beef "Parts"

- Rabbit "Parts"

I don't know what "Parts" means. Other than it does not include muscle, intestines or stomach because I know what those look like!

Our craziest eating experience happened on our last night. We had dinner with one of my parent's friends, Lisa, and her 3 year old daughter, Sunny. We ate at a Roadside Hole in the Wall that sold fish. So we knew it would be good. However, we did not know that you got to pick out your fish! That is, we didn't know until we had to pick it out. We chose this 3 pounder from the bucket. Then, all of the sudden, this guy with no shirt on (the waiter) reaches in, grabs the fish, it slithers and slides and slings itself free and lands on the sidewalk. The waiter chases after it as it flops toward the road. He picks it up. And slams it into the pavement. Twice! I took this picture of the poor fellow as he was about to be filleted. You may want to look away, this is a bit graphic.

BEST FOOD!

- Kung Pow Shrimp

- Kung Pow Chicken

- Peking Duck

- Sticky Ribs

- Eggs with Veggies...(like a Scrambled Omelet) probably what Egg Foo Yung is supposed to taste like.

- NOODLES!!!! so good. All kinds.

- MSG!

- Numbing spice

- Streetside Fish

- Pork with sweet red peppers

- Bowdzah! (don't know how to spell it...so good...)

- This funnel cake like stuff...oh man!

- Warm Soy Milk

- DUMPLINGS!!!!! boo-yah

- Winter Squash

- Lotus

I can say in all honesty the food in China is great! As stated, the best food that we ate was prepared at home. (Same as in America...that's my opinion). However, the restaurants had their pluses as well. The service was unbelievable. The nicest place we ate was in a place in Chengdu called Wu Yuan...translated I think as Garden of Deep Meaning. It was a tea house extraordinaire. Dishes were like pieces of art. It was remarkable. I've never seen anything like it. And the best part was it tasted as good as it looked! Take this rabbit dish for example:

One final note: Lia used chopsticks the entire time! This is rather amazing because the day before the trip was Lia's first day ever handling them. On that occasion she had to stop because of hand cramps! By the end of the trip she was a pro! Here's a photo of chopsticks set out to dry in order to be reused...hmmm....