Every time I travel I’m always excited to try out the local food, and China was no exception. I may not be too experimental ( no crocodile tears or chicken spit for me please, I’ll stick to the usual) but neither am I too fussy. It’s easy for me to adjust to food in Southeast Asia because northeastern food is very similar in style of cooking, if not ingredients.
China on the other hand is a completely different world of food. The Chinese have the “Four Great Culinary Traditions” and all of them are interesting. I could try the Beijing, Luoyang and Kunming style food. What is similar in all types of food is thought that is put into plating it. They will always have a soup, rice/bun, steamed vegetables, fried stuffed wonton, meat and green tea on the side.
If you’re a vegetarian, choices aren’t as bad as they are made to look. You can always have wontons stuffed with yam, steamed vegetables, stir fried tofu and a lot of mushrooms. A travel tip- try and look for restaurants which have barbecue. Most restaurants offer a barbecue buffet where people can choose the meats/vegetables/mushroom.
The Chinese don’t have the concept of sweets. No dessert. Ever. It’s the only place where I found the sodas were not easily available, and not too sweet. Almost everyone carries a flask filled with green tea leaves and they fill it with warm water every chance they get. Kiosks sell green tea in bottles- I checked the ingredients- simply green tea, no added sugar, preservatives, nothing at all. Even flavoured iced tea sold at these kiosks is not too sweet. This combined with the fact that the Chinese walk a lot, ensures that everyone is healthy, I did not see infirm people. I met some very old people and all of them were as active as anyone else.
Since 1989 china has been under the consolidated rule of the communist party. China does not have an army. The Chinese army is officially under the communist party. So technically it operates as the military wing of the party. In other words there is no separation of powers per say. The communist rule and the ideology consistently propagated by it over the years has had a significant impact on the social psyche of the people. Excesses in any form are frowned upon. Extravagant weddings or displays of wealth are almost unknown. Even small aspects like the use of sugar and butter in food is unknown to the Chinese. Most aerated beverages are not very sweet. Most people drink tea produced in China which is very expensive but people are encouraged to buy it. In the time I was in China I didn’t see coffee sold anywhere with the possible exception of chains such as Starbucks. Their ideas of frugality permeate their eating habits to the extent that the average Chinese person would not be eating a meal similar to any other culture. The average Chinese meal is steamed rice with boiled bokchoy and very little meat cooked in broth. Conjee is a very popular dish. It’s boiled rice with some vegetables.
I found Chinese food to be less flavoured than other southeast Asian food. It maybe the fact that China has a colder climate. A lot of herbs and spices common to other cuisine such as lemongrass, galangal etc are not part of Chinese cuisine. It was by far the most interesting and different cuisine I’ve tried.
TheRoamingLily 