Eating Chinese

Everyone eats. East, west, young and old, most every person on the planet eats. And while this common denominator is very comforting to the international wanderer, it is also a source of never ending learning and puzzlement.
So here's a short version of what I've learned about the art of eating in China.
They do eat, often, much and sociably. Rice is, of course always an option, but if you don't like it, noodles of all types are also served everywhere. Generally, you begin deciding what to eat by picking one of these basic starches. If you choose noodles, you get the fun if picking what type: fresh, flat ones the size and shape of a ruler, flat postage stamp sized ones, clear sweet potato starch noodles, fried long, skinny noodles, ramen type noodles, ... you get the idea. There are more noodles here than the Italians have ever dreamed of! Besides the basic starches, there are also a bevy of stuffed dumplings, soups with little, medium, or small dumplings, baskets of steamed dumplings, etc.
Then it's on to the Vegetables. There are quite a few, the familiar onions, peppers, tomatoes, a turnip-like white radish thing, eggplant (good here!), lots of unnamed cabbages and greens, lotus root, bamboo, yard-long beans, celery, even carrots, squash, and beets, and lots and lots of mushrooms and fungus, even at the cheap places. There is also the protiens to think through. Generally, it's in little bits, but there are lots of little bits. Beef, pork, and chicken are common, as are fish, tofu, and eggs, and somtimes lamb, and of course, any organ meat your stomach desires :) Then you get to think about how you want all that cooked. At the top of the food chain are a handful of steakhouses and nice resturants, where you can get virtually anything, likely even steak. Next, oddly, are the fast food places, Pizza hut, KFC, McDonalds, and G&F, a local look alike, all just like at home.
Next, and where my budget generally reaches, are sit-down Chinese places, where you order a few dishes and then all eat them. The largerthe group, the better this option is. If you get about a dozen people and 13-14 dishes, it as good as a potluck dinner. The trick is to pace your self, since dishes keep comming throughout the meal, new ones stacked on top of emptied plates, and each seems yummier than the last. They aren't that expensive either. An all you can eat dinner with at large group can run from 12-18 Kwai.

A word here about chinese table manners- King Louie the 16th, or whoever invented table manners, wasn't king of China. consequently, they don't observe many of the niceties of the west. There are no serving dishes, you just use your own chopsitcks to grab a bit of whatever and put it, as your fancy dictates, on your little plate or atop your bowl of rice. The same goes for soups, you just take your little spoon and get some. Helpings are small, maybe a few bites worth, and frequent, hence large tables are round and equipped with generous lazy susans. There are however, a couple of rules- never touch the food, and don't eat anything that hits the table top. Spitting bones and seeds out on the table however, is perfectly acceptable. Drinking and eating are not so firmly linked as in the west. Tea may be served, but not much is drunk and the glasses are tiny- they say you have more room for the food that way. Often, a thin soup broth fills in for the drink, and in the winter, it's wonderful how nicely a big bowl of hot soup will warm you up.

That brings us to the little resturants. These are everywhere, at some you order, generally from a couple of dozen varients of a few themes, and the cafeterias, where you simply point out what you want. I like the sit-down places better, as the cafieteria food is often cold. Generally, you can get a solid meal at one of these for 6-10 kwai (1 kwai=1yuan= ~$0.15 ) Some dishes you can find most places are fried noodles, a hearty beef/ noodle/veggie soup (my cold weather favorite) fried rice (one place has a version with so much ham, eggs, and vegtables that it makes me think of Jambalyia everytime I eat it), various vegetables, meatball or fishball or dumpling soups, and more noodles.

At all the Chinese places, the seasoning follows a few rules: Soy sauce and dark soy vinegar are always on the table, and hot peppers are often cooked whole with foods- don't eat the peppers! If you want more heat, you can always get some of the oily, hot red pepper puree. Garlic, green onions, and Ginger are everywhere, and there is always lots of oil- often too much- and plenty of salt. Sugar is around, but only occasionally do you find really sweet foods. They are more of a treat than a reguar part of the diet. Other spices show up from time to time, but those are the main ones.
Most people like fruit, and little wonder. Bananas, all types of citrus, starfruit, asian pears, apples(often from Washington), grapes, kiwi, even pomegranite, and even dragonfruit are readily avialable, both in the stores and at corner fruit stands.
Breads and dairy are the things a westerner misses most. Bread isn't too bad- there are several very western style bakeries around. You can only buy sandwhich bread a half-loaf at a time, and it's all very white, but there are plenty of baked treats to be found.
Dairy is harder. You can find fresh yougurt and radiated milk, and occasionally even some cream cheese and processed cheese like stuff (real cheese apparently isn't very appealign to the Asian palate) but there's that little issue of melamine. All of the brands I've been able to locate are on the recall list. But I like milk! So I've been very cautiously indulging in a little bit now and then, and making do with almond and soymilk whenever possible.
Speaking of milk, beverages are a whole catagory here. In the winter, many people almost exclusivly drink hot beverages, and I've learned to follow suit- it helps you stay warm. Coffee, other than instant, is quite rare. Even that isn't drunk much. Tea is much more common. I'll have to save the preperation of the drink for another post, but the short description is that the local tea is very green, flovorful and non-bitter. Hot water is an even more common drink. Beer, wine, and rice wine are all common- too common- it's often hard to politely avoid drinking a large amount, especially for a man. I tried a sip of the rice wine. I'm told that the local speciality was comparativly mellow, but it still nearly sent tears to my eyes.
You can also get soy milk, and a really delicious chi-like milk tea. The soy milk, however, is always served in a bowl with a spoon. Why?


This has become a long post! It's suppertime here, and I am hungry! Noodles, here I come.