Monday 29 June 2020

Various foods from different areas

Usually people will go out and buy a list of dishes and jut pick from each of the dishes. Sometimes people will go to a 麻辣烫 (Malatang)  restaurant and pick from a set of vegetables or meat , then give the cook the vegetables and meat and tell him /her if you want it spicy or not. 20 minutes later he/she will bring out all the food in a bowl with the broth, too.
Combination of lotus root sausages noodles and various other bric a brac
small eggs , sausages , other meats and fish are in this concoction


 To be honest, it is nice to go to a village and eat out on the streets. Again, you can see all the food prepared in its raw form, you choose the food and the cook will barbeque he food up for you.

The cook always adds spices to the food when bbqing it.
Quite tasty with some local beverages

There is a Korean street in Yiwu so a few weeks ago , I headed down to one of the restaurants to try out Korean style bbq. It was a bit more expensive than the outdoor bbq but the met tasted a lot better. I guess they chose good meats.
So, usually what happens in this restaurant is the following, you orer the food and 5 minutes later the waitress will bring the food to the table and then you cook the food yourself, this is nice as you can apply as much spices as you want .
That thing hanging from the roof sucks up he heat coming from the open fire below

Sometimes, I will head to a local restaurant and partake in some local foods. At this rrestaurant the locals are always nice. They nearly always offer a cigarette before a meal (which is the custom around here)

From my memory, I think we ordered Kungpao chicken (宫保鸡丁) strips of potato (土豆丝)
green beans (四季豆) and braised pork (红烧肉)

A couple of years ago, I visited a place called Danba (Sichuan) which is a 6 hour bus drive from Chengdu. The people here (especially the ones living in the mountains) have lived here for many generations so the food is very traditional here.




The woman of the house makes some  milk mixed with nuts here.

 This year I travelled through Guizhou. At one point a guy gave me a lift from the countryside back to Kaili. In Kaili, we sampled a local restaurants food.

Kaili hot pot.
 I learned to never leave the bowl of rice on the table when eating it.
Although , dog seems to be sold everywhere around Guizhou, I decided not to give it a go.


Back in Yiwu, one can go to restaurants where one can eat both bbq and hot pot together.
Note the pigs blood . 
Actually quite tasty after it is heated up for 10 minutes


Of course it is always nice to eat at home. At one point a friend offered to cook some food. The egg tasted almost runny but had a solid texture to it.
Rice , purple cabbage , fluffy whisked eggs and nuts with green beans and spices


In Chengdu people like to eat  pickled veg. 泡菜 You can see this is the following picture.
Some kind of fluffy meat , pigs blood , 泡菜 and rice
The fluffy meat makes this meal nice.
The white balls  团员食品  are eaten by families usually returning for the spring festival
Sunflower seeds are free in most places
Those clear noodles hit the spot.


The potato hot pot with Kung pao chicken is quick and tasty,


Hot water is always a prerequisite with these meals.
Egg plant ,sliced potatoes and beef with green beans and other veg.


                                        
                               Although hot water is nice, it tastes better with a bit of flavour


The only cure for being too hot !

Fast food / small eats

      Within China, there are 8 distinctive forms of cooking.

 Chuan (Sichuan)(川菜)
 Hui (Anhui)(徽菜) ,
Lu (Shandong)(鲁菜) , 
Min (Fujian)(闽菜) ,
Su (Jiangsu, Huaiyang cuisine)(苏菜)
Yue (Hong Kong and Guangdong)(粤菜)
 Xiang (Hunan)(湘菜)
Zhe (Zhejiang)(浙菜)]

For this post , I will just throw up some pictures of food that one can pick up anywhere. (Even the thought of eating Sichuan food brings me out in the sweats.)

Anyway, here are a few foods that I have consumed over time.
This is what is known in the business as Zongzi (粽子)

Zongzi are usually bought around the time of the  Dragon boat festival (端午节). There is a story behind the food. Apparently a poet was trying to warn his king that the neighbouring country wre planning on invading his country. He did not get there in time so he threw himself in the river. People started throwing food in the river such that the fish would not eat the body.


After unwrapping the leaf and string , on will find rice and inside the rice there should be something else such as red bean paste or egg and pig meat. Bring some water with you if you eat this.

Another seasonal  treat is 月饼 (Yuebing / moon cake)which is traditional eaten around the mid Autumn festival time of the year.



Mooncakes go well with tea. 
The inside of a moon cake can range from red bean paste to lotus seed paste.  



The proof of the (mooncake) pudding

                                           
                                             Hand grabbing pastries are my personal favourite .

ShouZhuaBing 手抓饼 is like a crepe tat is cooked in front of you. You can choose to add many sauces , sausages , eggs , lettuce. Lovely on a cold day. 


Tastes like a biscuit with a savoury filling


Like a mini pizza.
Shops like Tesco's would sell these mini pizza's
Good to eat if you are in a rush


杨梅 (YangMai - Bayberries)
They are a season fruit. Very sweet  but remember not to leave some in your bag overnight or a ton of fruit flies will make mincemeat of your bag

pig dumplings / Jioazi 
They go well with mayonaisse




Easy to cook 饺子



A staple lunch.
hot dog , rice ,tofu and some veggies.
Nice

Chicken Baozi 鸡肉包子
Nice street food from Shanghai

Not exactly sure what this is. My guess - bread with egg , meat and vegetables inside.


preparing some wine

wine being fermented 
I reckon I could get drunk on the fumes

 you tiao  - 油条
a morning snack

an egg sandwich

Dragon fruit 火龙果

Dragon fruit after getting rid of that outer layer

What I have been eating over the last couple of months...
egg plant , peppers , ginger and onion


Lotus root before chopping it up

Lotus root  afterwards (莲藕)

This is the staple food in a shop called LanZhouLaMian
兰州拉面.
It consists of potatoes, rice,beef and the remains of a pepper thrown in for good luck.
The restaurant (which is a chain restaurant having its origins in Lanzhou - Gansu province) always provides some broth with this meal. The broth is as tasty as the meal itself.


An iron plate preserving the heat of this meal. 
一个铁碗饭

Kentucky flavoured chicken featuring both toothpick chicken and chicken hearts.
Just pass me the toothpick chicken.

 noodles with cureed sausage meat -腊肠面

A milk icecream

I think that is the only milk I have tried since arriving back in China.

Nearly all these foods are individually bought.
Usually, people will go out and share food. I will post some of the shared food later.



Saturday 27 June 2020

How to stay cold(ish) in the heat

I don't know about you but for me, it is always nice to not sweat every time I put one foot in front of another.  This could be a problem in the southern part of China especially during the summer season. The only way I can avoid walking in a pile of sweat 24/7 is to go to the local waterfall. It does not really matter if it is raining at the time of the visit, the humidity is the killer. So, sitting in the waterfall is a cure to the perspiration (as well as having an umbrella to keep some of the heat of my (tomato coloured) head)

Sitting opposite the waterfall can be quite the theriputic experience
Always nice after a big rainfall

The top of the waterfall. 

Sitting under the rushing water seems to heal my wrist anyway.
I need to be careful and not accidentally drink some of that H2O anyway. 

Anyway, after visiting this area , it was time to indulge in a spot of archery. I tried this sport many years ago. I had forgotten how cool it is. But it does take some time to get into the swing of things.

This shot was taken after I realised that I am supposed to be aiming at the target , not the trees that are located about 20 metres behind the target 



Best to aim for the bigger targets as I cannot really see the smaller nes.



After getting rid of the stray arrows

  I must give the archery (射箭) another go at some stage. The area where we tried out the archery also has a golf course. An interesting combination. I wonder if a mixed archery/golf event could be attempted at the next olympics? I took a few more shots around this area.

I never realised that 盆景 Bozai's were so popular throughout China.


The following day, I got out the bicycle and cycled to a place called Kongcun (孔村)  I do not know if it was named after Confucious but I guess he could have used the scenery to help him do what he did all those years ago.
View from one side of the lake.

Spot the non green colours.
This place gets plenty of rain so things grow FAST here.



I need to go back to the waterfall.
Maybe I could grab some food first.

Even the lake has turned green

Interesting shape