The Surprisingly Diverse Food in China

Before visiting China, when I thought of Chinese food this is what came to mind: Dim sum, dumplings, stir fries with black bean or oyster sauce, salty dehydrated fish snacks, chicken feet, BBQ pork and, of course, rice. It is so so so much more! The food has been a big part of our experience here and there are some days that we literally just walked around street markets eating.

When we first arrived in Beijing we quickly learned that our impression of "chinese food" in Canada is what is typically seen in the southern provinces. However in the north, grains such as wheat, millet, sourghum are the staples rather than rice because of the colder and drier climate. There are all types of noodles made from these grains and typically accompany meals fried or boiled.

Noodles, Pork and Gai lan

Egg, tomato, veggie, noodle soup

Pingyao Mountain Noodles

Dumplings, of course!

Noodle soup in beef broth.

There are also an incredible variety of breads: steamed buns (with and without stuffing), flat breads and small flat buns similar to pitas.

Steamed buns (Baozi).

Red bean and pork buns.

Chinese Hamburger in a pita type bread in Xi'an.

Dessert: bread rolls and red bean stuffed buns.

In Xi'an they would tear up the bread and put into soups.

The other big surprise was the amount of roasted meat. In every city from Beijing to Tagong it was common to see street vendors selling skewers of roasted lamb, which we refered to as "spiducci" (Italian lamb skewers).

Mutton skewers in Xi'an.

Mutton skewer in Beijing.

We had our first Peking Duck dish in Beijing on my birthday and it was a dining experience. You are served the meat diced, which you then dip in plum sauce, then chopped raw garlic, then sugar. It was delicious! This is at the top of my list of dishes to find when we're back in Vancouver.

Two ducks roasting over an open fire...

Happy birthday to me!

There are also a wide variety of hotpots. You're brought a steaming pot of broth that sits on a burner at your table and then you order your meat and veggies and then cook them yourself. These are also accompanied with dipping sauces. In Beijing we got a Tahini based dipping sauce whereas in Sichuan we got a garlic/cilantro/sesame oil dipping sauce. (As a side note, in Quebec, there is a meat and broth fondu type dinner that we would have at least once a year. My grandmother and aunts would buy frozen paper thin sliced raw beef and we would cook it in the boiling beef broth at the table which would also be served with dipping sauces and pickles. Can you guess what it's called? Yup, "Fondu Chinois". I had only put two and two together when describing the hotpot to my Mom!)

This meal cost us less than $20CDN with beer!

As mentioned in a previous post, the Sichuan style of hotpot was definitely the best food experience we had with all that crazy, numbing flower pepper!

Flower peppers.

In Sichuan province there was definitely the biggest contrast of flavours. In the Eastern part, like in Chengdu, the dishes were spicy filled with flower peppers and hot peppers! The meat could be chicken, pork, beef, or fish.

Spicy noodle soup.

Spicy chicken with peanuts.

Spicy tofu dish called: Mapo Doufu.

In the Western part, basically in "Cultural Tibet", the dishes were milder, the meat was typically yak (fresh or rehydrated) and there usually wasn't very much of it in the dishes. They had noodles as well but they were flat, hand torn noodles, typically served in soup.

Typical Tibetan noodle soup.

Dehydrated yak meat.

Here are some other typical Tibetan foods that we had:

-Tsampa: A roasted barley flour mixed with yak butter then formed into little cakes. This we did not like much and from what we heard from others, it sounded like it's not uncommon for foreigners to dislike it.

-Yak butter tea: Yak butter and cream mixed in hot water. Yak butter definitely has a much stronger taste than cow butter. Tom liked it enough that if it was served to him he was able to drink his cup. Me, on the other hand, I was incapable of even taking a sip! I felt terrible.

-Momo's! My favourite. Little meat or veggie dumplings.

-Yak yoghurt. This was surprisingly good considering my aversion to yak butter. It had a bit of a sour taste to it.

Yes, those are chopsticks.

When we arrived in Guilin, in Southern China, we immeditaly noticed the shift from wheat to rice. Rice was served with every meal and was basically a given, like water and a dinner roll at Swiss Chalet. The two famous dishes that we were recommended were: Guilin noodles and Rice rolls.

Guilin noodle: pickled beans, peanuts and fried pork belly.

Rice roll with pickled veggies and pork.

Breakfasts here are also very different than what we're used to. Chinese typically eat noodle soups, dumplings, hard boiled eggs or steamed buns for breakfast, not oatmeal or PBJ on toast. It was definitely easy to find Western dishes like the "American Breakfast" but it was 20-30yuan ($4-$6CDN)! I realize it doesn't sound like much but when the local breakfast food costs 5-15yuan ($1-$3CDN) your mindset quickly shifts!

Almost all our breakfasts were noodle soups and/or steamed buns.

Great egg, tomato, veggie noodle soup.

We did of course, indulge ourselves with some Western food items when we had serious cravings!

We bought original after this...

Yes, Walmart.

Starbucks, over course.

Turns out Lays in a tube turns into crumbs.

Black sesame! Tastes like peanut butter.

As for my cooking lessons, I got two! My first one was when we did our horse trek in Langmusi and stayed with a local nomad family. Our guides wife showed us how to make the local tibetan noodle soup and also make the hand pulled noodles.

I'm going to need more practice: I was so slow!

My second was at our hostel in Guilin where they hosted a dumpling night. We learned different dumpling forming techniques.

Tom's dumpling technique.

The food experience of China has been exceptional! There is still so much more than just the above and, I'm embarrassed to admit, I've taken over a hundred photos of food. When we are back in Vancouver, I will be making a trip to Chinatown and the Richmond night markets in search of some of my fav's!

 

Rice Fields of Guilin

Before actually visiting China, I had this grand image in my mind of a country full of mist shrouded, jagged limestone pinnacles poking up amongst terraced rice fields with quaint villages scattered throughout the countryside. Turns out that this is actually a pretty big country, and there is a lot more to China than just a few rice paddies - so far, we have been to dry and dusty Shanxi and Gansu province, explored the verdant grasslands of Sichuan, and trekked through the amazing high-altitude Tibetan plateau below some of the worlds tallest mountains. I kept wondering, where ARE all these iconic mountains that seem to be in every Chinese painting I have ever seen? Well they certainly aren't in western China.

On the advice of my Mom and every other person who we have talked to, we next headed to Guangxi province and the city of Guilin. This would be our only stop in south eastern-ish China, but sounded like it would finally be the place where we could find the iconic rice fields, pointy cone hats and a backdrop of stunning misty mountains.

Guilin is relatively close to Hong Kong, so we decided to first fly from Chengdu to HK, and then walk through the border back into mainland China where we would catch a high-speed train the rest of the way to Guilin. Although it might seem a bit roundabout, this route had the advantage of reseting and extending our tourist visa since Hong Kong is considered an international destination. With HK's return to China from British colonial rule, the country adopted what they call the "one country, two systems" arrangement. For all intensive purposes HK still operates as its own country, but yet is still part of China - weird. In order to go to Hong Kong, we had to exit through China customs, and then enter through HK customs. To enter back into China we then had to again go through Chinese imigration at the HK-Mainland China border and get a new entry permit - woohoo, we can stay in China for another 60 days!

Best part about the trip was travelling on one of China's high-speed bullet trains - this is definately the fastest train I have ever been on, and one of the few things in China that actually seems to function efficiently. Fast. Quiet. Non-smoking. Friendly staff. Amazing. Definately a far cry from the rattling, smoke-filled, overcrowed, mini-buses in Sichuan.

I like trains!

Over 300 km/h?!

Guilin used to be the primo tourist destination in this area, and a bit of a show-piece of China. Travelling around the city, however, I got the feeling that it was past its prime. Its now a city of over 5 million, full of faded hotels, and has fully embraced the domestic tourism market with associated astronomical prices. Of all the places we have visited in China, this was probably the most overpriced city. Every park, cave, and lake has a huge entrance fee with all of these sites now fully China-fied with electric billboards, artificial coloured mood lighting, and unnecessary kitschy side attractions. There are two nice pagodas, though.

The next day we rented bikes and headed 35km north to a small town in the countryside called Jiāngtóuzhōu. The first part of the trip was a pretty harrowing ordeal, trying to get out of the city - note that in China, it is totally acceptable to a) park your tractor in the bike lane, b) drive the city bus down the bike lane to avoid traffic on the main street, c) drive your car the opposite direction down the bike lane because you made a wrong turn and d) stop and stand in the middle of the bike lane to have a conversation with the gravel delivery truck which just dropped its load of gravel.... in the bike lane.

Once out of the city we got a chance to explore some tiny farming villages, and talk with some of the locals working in the rice fields.

Ploughing the fields with a water tractor?

Flooded rice field.

Lotus root plantation.

Water buffalo just hanging out.

In order to find a place a bit quieter, we next travelled about 2 hours south of Guilin to a small town called Xingping. The guidebook described this place as what Guilin was like 15 years ago - sounded like what we were looking for. The tiny town is right on the Li river and its claim to fame is that the view from the harbour is actually on the back of the Chinese 20 yuan note. Although busy during the day, with the boatloads (literally) of Chinese tour groups disembarking to snap a picture of the iconic sight, once all the buses have left for the day its actually quite a nice place to stay.

The one thing that has taken a bit of time to get used to is the heat - it is really, really hot. The average daytime high is around 34C with close to 100% humidity and most of the time I feel like a walking sweat factory. After being here for a few days, I finally understand the evolutionary purpose of eyebrows!

I have never seen Marie sweat so much!

During our time here we hiked up into some of the surrounding mountains to visit a remote fishing village, and take in the view of the city.

We also took a great day long bike ride to Yangshuo and back through some country roads on a questionable set of rental bicycles. I was a bit worried at first since the ride was about 80km round trip, I only had one set of brakes (the rear didn't work) and Marie's freewheel sounded like it was about to explode every time she stopped peddling. We figured that if anything happened we could probably hitch hike to the nearest town.

Heading through a tunnel with no shoulder or ventilation.

After a quick stop in Yangshuo where we devoured an entire watermelon (great way to re-hydrate), we successfully made it back to Xingping safe and sound (but a little saddle sore, and very sweaty).

Now off to our next destination: Borneo.

Zaijian China!

Click here for more photos of Guilin.

Click here for more photos of Xinping.