Pete & Rach's Big Trip: Chinese Food

Steamed pork dumplings

"If the animal's back faces the sky, it's good to eat." (Chinese saying once told to me by a Malaysian-Chinese friend.)

Starting out in Beijing, much of the food was quite accessible to the Westerner - mainly 'Chinese as we know it' and most of the menus had decent English translations. We enjoyed satay beef, seaweed (but cold and floppy, not crispy), incredible dry spicy ribs and broccoli with garlic. It immediately struck us how fresh and light the food tasted compared to British-Chinese food. Vegetables were crunchy, everything was flavoursome and nothing was drenched in the classic Chinese takeaway gloop. The more 'interesting' menu items included frozen pig's skin in jelly, pickled fatty intestine, sea cucumber with tofu and blood tofu (yukkk!!). We also discovered that the Chinese have a taste for fried insects on sticks...silk worm chrysallis, locusts, scorpions, seahorses and even tarantulas!

The incredible ribs...

The equally incredible pig's skin in jelly...

Bugs!

Pingyao provided us with the most entertaining Chinglish. Try "pimple boil", "rub the surface of fish", "skinned", "characteristics of hunan ass", "pingyao burning", "fry bowl of broth bald", "cold surface wire"and "eat ant". Insightful, I'm sure you'll agree. One night in a real local's restaurant (donkey meat and bull's penis on the menu - yum) the man with the filthiest hands/ fingernails in the world proceeded to chop up our Kung Po Chicken. A little alarming, but after some deliberation we decided to go for it and it was delicious, with no (apparent, as yet) ill effects. A chicken with coriander dish was one of the revelations of the trip (very finely chopped chicken mixed 50-50 with heaps of fresh coriander and I'd guess at least soy sauce and sugar) and definitely one to try when we get home. Ginger sugar (crunchy pieces a bit like rock/honeycomb) was a local speciality.

Entertaining Pingyao menu

Pingyao 'Cat Ear' noodles
with meat sauce

Just about to enjoy the taste
sensation of Chicken & Coriander!

Xian treated us to the most garlicky pizza (or most garlicky dish of any kind I imagine) that has probably ever been made with a full clove of raw garlic chopped onto each slice and instead of tomato sauce just some pureed basil. That beat the cold out of me I can tell you!

Chengdu is home to the 'numb and spicy' hotpot, thanks to the Sichuanese flower pepper that literally does numb your tongue. On our first night, we asked for what our Chinese neighbours were eating, which turned out to be a punishingly hot chicken dish and a frog hotpot! The frog meat was surprisingly soft and delicious and all was going well until we fished out some teeny tiny frog feet and half a head! They use the whole animal here, chopped up and thrown in (and probably whilst it's still alive).

Waiter, there's a foot
in my hotpot...

Colourful chicken dish

Restaurant in Fenghuang. Note the geese on
the left and the bamboo rats on the right.
There was also a snake in a cage.

By the time we got to Wulingyuan and Fenghuang, we were very much in deeper China and of course what we had seen so far food wise 'was nothing'! The restaurants by now were resembling something more like working farms. All over China we have seen live fish and frogs alongside the vegetable selection laid out in front of the restaurants, but there they even have caged chickens, geese, rabbits, snakes and bamboo rats - all alive and waiting to be ordered! The food is certainly fresh! Other than the 'live meat' there are selections of dried cured meat, including flattened pig heads (one, shockingly, with a Japanese bandana on it) and we have also seen a dried rat on proud display. One of the restaurants had a picture menu that showed - not the finished dishes - but the animals in their natural habitats. I can't imagine looking at a caged rabbit, or a picture of a rabbit frolicking on the grass and saying "Mmmm, that rabbit looks delicious, cook it for me now!" It is such a different mentality here. The Chinese would probably find the idea of eating meat that had been dead for a week, like we do, quite disgusting. Our favourite dish was a chicken hotpot (I even 'ate' the feet!). The worst was a restaurant that we had to leave because there was NOTHING we could even begin to think about eating from such a tantalising selection as: beef entrails hotpot...fish head hotpot...spicy chicken gristle...marinated jellyfish with cucumber...pig's ears...pig's blood & heart in chilli sauce. We continue to puzzle over what they do with the juicy sirloin steaks, chicken drumsticks and pork chops. Somewhere there must be cats and dogs dining very well indeed.

Enjoying a 'whole chicken' stew in
Wulingyuan - it was tasty!

Dried rat!! Why?!?

Pigs' heads at restaurants in Fenghuang

Beer Duck - my favourite!

Dog on the menu

Yangshuo in the south of China was in the heart of dog-eating country. 'Yellow dogs' are particularly prized as being warming and good for the virility. Even though we were expecting to see dog meat, it was still shocking for our British eyes to see 'man's best friend' laid out on the picture menu for the first time, de-furred, roasted, ears pricked up and paws tucked underneath, garnished with flowers... On the upside, one of my favourite dishes in all of China was local to Yangshuo - Beer Fish (also Beer Duck). Stunning. We also loved the green beans with minced pork and I discovered a love for Snickers shakes!

From fascinating to delicious to regularly horrifying, China was a culinary rollercoaster. So many delicious textures and flavours, contrasting with the barbecued rabbit and duck heads, smelly beancurd and plates of grubs & bees. Our biggest food regret was forgetting to eat Peking Duck in Peking...ooops. We were puzzled by the fact that nowhere in China did we come across a single spring roll, crispy seaweed or aromatic duck with pancakes (distinct from Peking Duck). Are they even genuine Chinese dishes?!? From our experiences, I can't help but think that China must be one of the most interesting and extreme countries in the world for food, but I can't wait to see what the rest of our trip has in store for us.