Eating our way through China!

Food is a VERY important part of Chinese culture. They like to eat a lot and when you get into a more personal situation they really want to share food with you.   All of the people at the orphanage lunch were so happy that we all enjoyed their food so much and ate a lot.

We have eaten in a lot of different places by now.   With the group it was mostly at a big round table with a huge lazy susan in the middle.   The fu yu ren (wait staff) bring out dish after dish after dish and keep piling it on the lazy susan.   We keep it spinning and just keep taking different things off with our chop sticks.  (We are all quite good at using them now - no forks for us!)  It is always way more food than we can eat.   

It is a really good thing our kids are not picky eaters.   They really will try just about anything and like most of it.   

We ate a meal at the farmer house but were disappointed that they didn't eat with us.   But it was a nice experience to eat in a regular house.   We also had a great lunch in one of the hutong houses in Beijing.  These are the old alley houses which are now a protected historic district. We ate lunch under the vine canopy in the courtyard while listening to the caged cricket chirp.  Again, many different dishes cooked by the homeowner and probably one of the most delicious meals yet. 

The hotel breakfast buffets have many options, though the farther we get from Beijing, the less "American" options there are.   Again, it is really a big meal and they don't usually eat the sweet breads and such that we often do for breakfast.   Neela has always been a good Chinese person and has always preferred leftover dinner for her breakfasts at home!

So far we are doing pretty well with only eating Chinese food.  Neela thinks this is just great!  However,  now that we are on our own more, we have resorted to what we thought would be more familiar food a couple of times.   KFC one night - the chicken was the same, the third of a cob of corn and the two spoonfuls of mashed potatoes soaked in gravy not so good.  Pizza Hut last night was surprisingly good and Dave and I were able to order a Tequila Sunrise there as well!  

Tonight we tried to go back to the restaurant that we ate at on our 10th anniversary, but it was no longer there.  We found an interesting restaurant near our hotel to try - sort of like ordering for hot pot but they cook everything for you at your table on a little griddle.   Delicious!  We were proud of figuring out how to order the right amount of food until they brought out one more dish that we had apparently accidentally ordered.  Oops!  Ordering by pointing and using our few Chinese words we know sometimes leads to surprises.

And finally, the photo included shows our stop in Xi'an to get cotton candy.  We had just visited the classroom of 10-year old kids and were doing a little people watching in the square across the street.  A man was spinning huge balls of cotton candy and our guide, Ken (a super great guy!) offered to buy some for the kids. It was about 50 cents each.  Soon everyone wanted to try some and this old man was doing some great business.   Also, the whole town was crowding around to see the busload of tourists buying cotton candy : )

No one is going hungry on this trip!  Andrew has already said he will miss this food when we go home.  We already have plans to try and re-create it when we get home since we like to cook. 

Marnie