Eating in China

So in addition to the gu lao rou 古老肉(sweet and sour pork) and dan chao fan 蛋炒飯(egg fried rice) which quickly became one of our favorite meals, China is full of plenty of tasty food, and some plain weird food.  From sea cucumber and dog, to silkworm larvae and fish heads, we ate our fair share of interesting foods.  Most of them were surprisingly good, but we'd suggest you stay away from the larvae, bitter melon, "stinky" tofu and congealed blood.  For the less adventurous, there's certainly no shortage of meat on a stick, dumplings, good old fashioned mi fan 米飯(white rice) and plenty of other tame dishes such as John's standard mu shu rou.

As opposed to the "one dish per person" style of eating we've become accustomed to in the US, every meal we ate in China was served family style.  The group would decide on a few dished (six dishes would usually be plenty for the eight of us), and we would share the food, usually with the aid of nifty glass lazy susans. 

Another welcomed difference between eating in the States and in China is the lower cost.  Eight delicious xiao long bao 小龍包(morning dumplings) can be purchased for a mere 2元( kuai)--about  25 cents.  For the thrifty, there are delicious pancake/egg things (蛋餅) on the way to work which only cost 1元.  Lunch in the cafeteria will run you 5-6元 and a good dinner can range from 7-20元.  At these prices, it is easy to stay within the $500 food stipend and also easy to gain a few pounds while in China.

Here are some pictures to give an idea of wide range of foods we ate over the course of the summer, and some of the things which we didn't dare try...