China - Food

It requires a bit of courage and a tough stomach to enjoy real Chinese food. Especially since the local water is not drinkable yet people use the tap water to make soup, my boss and western travel-mates avoided any liquid dish. Luckily, I had both the courage/curiousity and a tough stomach. I tried authentic to internationally-famous dishes like Bejing duck. I rarely have Bejing duck in NY so I cannot exactly claim the local one is better. But the price was definitely cheap. The whole course with appetizer (soup, fried-beancurd, duck's leg skin that was not my favorite) comes with the roasted duck. The crepe had a perfect softness and thickness. All for 6 people came under 40 dollars, with beer!

Off the famous shopping street in Bejing, local street snack shacks line up. Over 20 vendars sell same stuff but a few had something unique: scorpions, crawfish, grasshopper, warm-looking species. Even my Chinese friend gave a disgusting look and I saw no one eating it. It's supposed to be eaten deep-fried.

The weirdest thing I ate during the trip was duck's tongue. It was steamed, still with the throat bone like a deer's scull attached. I could see the bumps. I knew it wouldn't taste good. But since it was an official dinner hosted by the school we worked with and none of my Western travelmates seemed to try, I did it. I kissed the tongue and bit it. As imagined, no taste but just an uncanny texture. Maybe, musturd could have helped.

So far, it was mostly 'fancy' dinners and I was unsatisfied. I wanted authentic, local food. With local students as my guides, we stepped into a very small restaurant—just a few small tables and stools and absolutely no foreign customers. Even the Chinese students asked me if I would want to try, worrying that I might get sick. At that point, I had to fight with my dillenma: 'Try local food nobody else would try' vs. 'I don't want to kill my stomach (it's almost impossible to find a clean bathroom in case of emergency).' I said 'Yes' for just a bite. This was the last place I'd have any soup, like instestin-extravaganza stew, or a sour plum tea. The severly cold weater, however, had me drink up the tea while the intestin soup didn't entertain my palette. My stomach was tougher than I thought. I was content that I at least tried very authentic Beijing food (i.e. lots of intestines and peanut paste dipping sauce). Coutinued walking on the street, we ran into a hot-skewer stand. Skewers with meat, blood jelly, veggies, fish cakes are cooked in a spicy hot sauce. You get a steel plate covered by plastic bag (so that no need to clean the plate) and pick whatever you want. This was my favorite dish and experience. I didn't see this type of vendar anywhere else. It was a night of super local food marathon.

In Shanghai, you must try Shao-long-bao, a steamed dumpling with soup inside. I went to a famous place with my local friend's recommendation. It was good. But honestly, Joe's Shanghai in NYC does a really good job. If I must compare, real Shanghai ones are lighter. What we don't have in NY is a deep-fried soup dumpling. My Shanghainese friend took me to a famous place whose storefront is full of local people. They were so good—crispy bottom and lots of juice inside. This dumplings are huge and the dough is much thicker than Shao-long-bao. I was hungry but 5 pieces was the max.

Do Chinese people eat anything? Pretty much. Some are so dlicately cooked with very intricated flavor. Some are not flavorful, rather bland or a bit stinky with the ingredients' original smell. A suggestion: the information from websites tend to change rapidly, so it's better to make sure that place does exist. I tried to find couple restaurants that were already closed.