When I originally told people I was moving to China the
first questions they asked were about the food. What’s it like? Is it anything
like Chinese food in the UK? Will you survive without your usual 5 digestives
and a cup of tea for breakfast?
After a week here I’ve learned that the food is nothing like
Chopstick House’s finest, that’s not to say that it’s bad; it’s just different.
I am struggling to cope without the biscuits though and I’m craving a fry-up…
On my first full day here Antony, one of the teachers at the
school kindly brought me breakfast. It was handed to me in 2 greasy paper bags
at my front door and I was left in my apartment to discover the delights
inside. Bag number 1 was described to me as “bread”. In reality it was some
kind of soggy, flat thing with a strange, oriental flavour. Still, I was
starving so I wolfed down at least half of it. Bag number 2 however was
probably the opposite of what I’d describe as a good breakfast: spicy noodles
wrapped in a barely cooked omelette. I had one bite and threw in the towel, I
was fresh off the plane and noodles for breakfast would have to wait. This has
proved however to be the only time I’ve had any problems with food.
We’ve been
out to restaurants a couple of times and the food’s been great. I’m almost
proficient in the use of chopsticks and I’m getting used to Chinese traditions,
for example, if you’re invited out for a meal then leave your wallet at home -
inviting someone out means that you’re going to pay for everyone. Also, if you
get any bone or gristle in your meat, or you don’t like something, you’re
encouraged to spit it directly on the floor.
My boss took me out for a meal last night with his wife and
daughter so I thought I’d take a few photos of the dishes to show everyone.
Instead of ordering one dish each, people generally order a selection and you
just take a bit of what you want and put it in your bowl with some rice
(surprise, surprise).
This was sweet potatoes with vegetables in some sort of
sugary gloop and actually tasted okay.
Eggplant with mince and chillies.
This was mince and mash. I was pretty surprised to see it
turn up if I’m honest. Maybe next time I’ll see if they’ll make me a toad in a
hole.
The dish on the left is tofu and the one on the right was
slightly jellied cold beef – both with chillies.
Most of the stuff here is spicy, but nice. My favourite
thing so far has been something that resembled sweet and sour pork, but I
didn’t manage to get a picture of that. Luckily if I ever get desperate there’s
one of these about 5 minutes walk away.
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