Eat up China

 As promised, a post about the Chinese food, before we forget all about it (though I'm sure we won't, it was just too good)...Here are some highly recommended items on the menu that you should definitely try when you get the chance... 
 

Vegetable salad with Lotus

 1. Side dishes: Vegetable salad: you point at all the vegetables you want, but beware: these are never just fresh vegetables, they are always prepared in some way: pickled, cooked, fried,… and topped with a great sauce (usually with peanuts) and lots of spices. It's eaten cold. The best: the pickled Lotus (the big flat round things with the holes in them (where the seeds used to be, but they are eaten as well)).

 Sour slices of beef with herbs

If you're a meat lover, you'll prefer this one. Especially if you like your meat lean (which is not the way the Chinese like it), try out the cold, thin slices of beef that are marinated in a sour sauce and topped with fresh herbs. It makes for a great starter or as a side dish to share between the lot of you.

2. Main dishes: You never go wrong with some sweet and sour pork and fried rice, but also try out the dumplings at each new place you go to. They are pan-fried in Pingyao, sweet in Chengdu, come dry in Xi’an (where we had 

Sweet and sour pork, thin slices of spicy potatoes, dumplings with vinegar

the best dumplings, made by ourselves at a dumpling party) or in a soup in Beijing. They are somewhat related to Baozi, steemed dough filled with meat, fish, mushrooms, sweet fillings etc. They are very nice as a breakfast and best picked up at a street stall. One of my personal favorites is the thinly sliced potato that is marinated a little sour and always very spicy. It comes either hot or cold, sometimes with noodles and sometimes with other vegetables. The potato is not cooked through but al dente, which is hard to find in other Chinese dishes. Very tasty! Also a great dish, here I have to pair up with Sheldon Cooper, is Gongbao chicken, a Sichuan dish where chopped up cucumber, peanuts, chicken and tons of chilies are fried and then put into a hot and sweet sauce. Have some rice with it to cool down your mouth. 

Giant Xi'an noodle

If Jens and I would have to compromise on the one thing we both loved the most it would be the huge variety of noodles. Beef noodles are the main dish for breakfast and lunch, they mostly come as a soup. If you go to one of the million tiny restaurants at the streets that don’t even have menus but only serve that one dish, it will be beef noodles. 

The noodles appear in front of your eyes out of a big lump of dough made of only water and flour that is swung around in the air by the chef and, mysteriously formed into very thin noodles, a bit like spaghettis. Another great form is the flat and long noodle from Xi’an: You only get one noodle into your bowl (don’t worry to stay hungry, it is 8 m long!) that is filled with some chili-oil, some spices and herbs and topped with a bit of cinnamon – great taste! Well, we could go on about the noodles for a long long time, but we guess you got the point…

 

One of the million different mooncakes we tried

3. Sweets and Treats. Ladies, this one might come as a tough one for you: there is no chocolate in China. Sure, there is, but it is imported. Yet, even those sweet teeth who want to stick with the traditional Chinese food while on a trip there must not fear, there are lots of local treats around. A very popular dessert is sweet potatoes that come in a thick, sweet sauce. The sauce is a great topping on a sweet rice pudding, that might have sweet beans. Mooncakes are a favorite, especially in Pingyao. They are filled with seeds and a very sweet lotus paste or a jelly-like fruit paste or come in a million more varieties. 

Rice pastry with caramel and nuts

Fried banana - what did you think?!

Also good are fried fruits, e.g. banana, rice pastries, pumpkin tartlets filled with nuts, bites from smashed peanuts with butter and brown sugar, ginger bites (either sweet or spicy), sweet dumplings,… the list goes on and on. If you prefere a savory snack, you can get everything from all sorts of nuts and seeds to pickled bamboo or chickenfeet, crabbchips and crackers. If you are up for a beer with a couple of friends I highly recommend to order spicy peanuts as a snack: you’ll get about 500 gr of nuts soaked in chillie-oil and topped with garlic, pepper and fresh chilli – goes great with the beer! 

Choose veggies, meat or seafood with rice, noodles or fried bread

4. Street food: it’s prepared freshly, right before your eyes – so you can be sure what’s in it. You choose from the big variety that’s laid out in front of you and they will cook it, bbq it, steam it – you name it, they do it. Shop around a little bit, though, since the food is very cheap which is sometimes mirrored in the quality, especially when you hunt for meat and seafood. The best way to go is to follow the locals and buy where they buy. 

Very popular: BBQ - meat, seafood and tons of tofu

5. Local specialties. We recommend you try it them 'cause it's fun, it might be tasty and you definitely learn a little more about the local culture. You might even learn that to eat organs and seafood doesn’t kill you, like you always thought it would. Never try to eat up anything you don’t like, though. The food is quite inexpensive, so you can try out everything but most not feel bad to not eat it up. Food that comes in big quantaties is shared anyways, so what you don’t like someone else might love. 

Luoyang's Water Banquet - share it all

That actually is gonna be our last tip about Chinese food: do it like the locals – eat in groups (the more the merrier) you share your food with; slurp, burp, spit and make whatever other loud noice you’re capable of to show that you really like the food; leave your table as dirty as possible and have at least a couple of bones, tissues and other junk lying around under your table to show your appreciation of the place. Sounds strange but becomes a habit quicker than you’d imagine...