Day 7: Food, Glorious Food!

Friday was devoted mostly to food. We ate barely anything for breakfast to make room for lunch and that was a very good idea. For lunch Cece's parents took us to a fancy restaurant that specialized in Shanghai food. 

Being a bit Westernized, the place had round tables (instead of traditional rectangular ones) and it served water infuse with floating fruit (at least I think it was fruit). The water tasted like a very mild lemonade:

There were two sets of chopsticks served. I wasn't sure which ones to use for what, but neither did Cece. She said that there is some rule, just like with salad forks, but it is more obscure. 

I've gotten much better at eating with chopsticks. The lima beans were still quite an adventure to eat. Ever since my last trip to REI, I always have this amazing spork hanging off of my backpack on a carabine or tucked away in my main purse: awesome spork. It was a very good backup in China but I am proud to say that I never used it. However with the lima beans, I really wished that I had it with me but this was the one time that did not bring it with me.

The food kept coming. At first, our table was served a tiny bowl of deep-fried fish which looked like orange chicken. After that aperitif, the food just kept coming and coming. I kept taking photos of the tale thinking that all the food had arrived, but just after each photo, another dish wash brought over.

We had delicious prawns. I realized from eating shrimp at home that Cece's parents prepared that I was the only one with shrimp shells left. Everyone else tate the shrimp without cleaning! I decided to try this with the prawns (partially because otherwise I would quickly run out of room on my side plate). Cece explained that all the flavor is in the shell anyways. Well, it was pretty good, but I'm still not quite convinced that this is the most enjoyable way to eat prawns. 

I mentioned earlier that the Chinese do not generally eat from individual plates. Instead everyone eats out of the serving dishes. The only individual pieces are side plates and soup bowls. I noticed that after my first night eating at Cece's house when I was still clumsy with my chopsticks, my place was always set with a full dinner plate and a knife and fork, as well as a pair of chopsticks. Eventually the cutlery disappeared and finally the dinner plate disappeared too. The culmination of my progress happened when Cece's father told me that I got good at chopsticks at the restaurant! 

Bok choy with tofu and fungus (basically a mushroom).

This is Mao Zedong's favorite dish called Hong Shao Rou. Essentially, it is pork belly and is also a specialty of the restaurant.

Underneath the flavorful pork is a layer of tofu. This tofu is very thin like fabric and is tied in big knots as seen below on the left.

My side plate.

We also had chicken. I satisfied my low spice tolerance. However, the red peppers that it was cooked in were way above my level. Cece, nevertheless, munched on the peppers as though nothing was wrong.

At the end of the meal we had watermelon as a palette cleanser.

The restaurant was ont he top floor of a big mall which we went to on the first day (the one with the cool escalators). In the basement of this mall is a food court, much like in American malls. We went grocery shopping there. The shopping carts were very cute:

The shopping carts were a set of two shelves, each of which held a shopping basket.

I nearly got shot for taking this photo of a ton of bao zi. There was screaming in the kitchen, and a spy-looking store manager came out and kept a stern eye on me for quite a while. I pretended as though I didn't notice anything and acting the role of an overexcited tourist, but I did not take any more pictures for fear of losing my Visa or something of the sort.

Later that day, after recovering from a food colma, we went to yet another market called the Qianemen Street market. It is adjacent to Tianamen Square and has existed since the Qing dynasty, Its original name is Da Shi Lan. Unlike the other markets, this one was not internalized into one building and therefore is outdoors and distributed over many buildings. 

One of the biggest silk houses is located here and is called Ruifuxiang. Founded in the 1800's, it sells beautiful Chinese silks and tailors traditional Chinese as well as modern clothing.The prices where can get quite high, even after converting to dollars (the exchange rate at the time was 6 yuan to 1 dollar).

A fusion of Western and Chinese architecture:

This market also had many shops of traditional Chinese medicine. These medications seem to indeed prove effective and are often prescribed by professional Chinese doctors! Here are some photos I snuck. Shhhh.

This is a dried deer penis. Guess what it is prescribed for!

Finally, I insisted on stopping by a pastry shop. Even though I was pretty full, I tried one pastry. It was quite good although I have no idea what was in it. I suspect it was mostly rice. I don't know why I would ever think that.

This was a day full of food and more markets. Real Chinese food turns out to be nothing like Panda Express but is also very delicious. I realize that Cece's parents spared me the spice and I'm afraid that because of me, the family had rather bland food for the entire week. I'm grateful to them because otherwise I'd probably be crying during every meal, seeing how easily Cece ate those peppers and how nonchalantly Cece piles jalapenos on top of her salad at the salad bar in college. 

One day left and then a long flight home to the land where people usually obey traffic lights, photos are barely forbidden, and where orange chicken is taken as Chinese food.

Cheers,

Nina.