Even considering the risk of diabetes, these things are totally worth it!Well, well.. It's impossible to talk about China without talking about its food *which, Wikipedia will tell you, can be traced back to 400,000 years ago... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_cuisine * I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed the food in China, whether in small restaurants or street stalls, and just in case you are wondering, nope I didn't get any stomach trouble at all.
Actually, street stalls are God-given since the food is so cheap - you can get pretty stuffed for the equivalent of S$1 - and the variety is great. Popular street food changes according to seasons. Since it was winter when I was there, the common snacks include jian bing (which is kind of like flour crepe with egg, spring onion, and wheat crackers inside), bing tang hu lu (the above photo, which is fruits on a stick, coated with sugar. The sugar melts too easily in summer so this is a winter delicacy. And man, when one bites that cold, sweet, crunchy layer of sugar, to reach the juicy mandarin oranges below...owwww...), and hong di gua (baked sweet potatoes.. They use oil drums as an oven haha..)
Another thing I cannot forget is the dumplings.. I had some dumplings stuffed with egg and chinese chives, and these hot, steaming dumplings just make you forget that outside the temperature is below freezing ;p Lots of stir-fried vegetable dishes available, and contrary to popular believe, you can find things that are not too oily / uses so much seasoning. Well, but it is true that Chinese food contains quite a lot of oil and sugar. One of my favorite drink in China is 'peanut milk', which is like soybean milk, just made from peanuts. It's sold in bottles and dang, they really didn't hold back on the sugar.. It tastes great, though.. Had a discussion with a friend on whether Chinese people will get diabetes and other diseases due to all this unhealthy food.. The thing is, most Chinese people I see are really not fat, considering the things they eat. Or maybe they just didn't eat as much as us, over-excited tourists who patronizes so many snack stalls we passed by in the name of winter survival.. Am suprised I wasn't really chubby by the time I got back..
Anyway, my moment of revelation about Chinese food came when my Beijing friend brought me to a commercial food court (Actually, the place looked like it is under Singapore management.. and the brand name is the same, I think it was Food Junction). Thing is, the place only has Chinese food and each stall specialises in a different Chinese cuisine, from different regions.. You've got Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan etc, and that's when it hits me that so far I've been lumping an amazing variety of cuisine into one banal category- "Chinese food"- which clearly doesn't do it justice. I mean, it's a bit like lumping Italian, French and Spanish cuisine into one and calling it 'Western food'.
Actually, street stalls are God-given since the food is so cheap - you can get pretty stuffed for the equivalent of S$1 - and the variety is great. Popular street food changes according to seasons. Since it was winter when I was there, the common snacks include jian bing (which is kind of like flour crepe with egg, spring onion, and wheat crackers inside), bing tang hu lu (the above photo, which is fruits on a stick, coated with sugar. The sugar melts too easily in summer so this is a winter delicacy. And man, when one bites that cold, sweet, crunchy layer of sugar, to reach the juicy mandarin oranges below...owwww...), and hong di gua (baked sweet potatoes.. They use oil drums as an oven haha..)
Another thing I cannot forget is the dumplings.. I had some dumplings stuffed with egg and chinese chives, and these hot, steaming dumplings just make you forget that outside the temperature is below freezing ;p Lots of stir-fried vegetable dishes available, and contrary to popular believe, you can find things that are not too oily / uses so much seasoning. Well, but it is true that Chinese food contains quite a lot of oil and sugar. One of my favorite drink in China is 'peanut milk', which is like soybean milk, just made from peanuts. It's sold in bottles and dang, they really didn't hold back on the sugar.. It tastes great, though.. Had a discussion with a friend on whether Chinese people will get diabetes and other diseases due to all this unhealthy food.. The thing is, most Chinese people I see are really not fat, considering the things they eat. Or maybe they just didn't eat as much as us, over-excited tourists who patronizes so many snack stalls we passed by in the name of winter survival.. Am suprised I wasn't really chubby by the time I got back..
Anyway, my moment of revelation about Chinese food came when my Beijing friend brought me to a commercial food court (Actually, the place looked like it is under Singapore management.. and the brand name is the same, I think it was Food Junction). Thing is, the place only has Chinese food and each stall specialises in a different Chinese cuisine, from different regions.. You've got Beijing, Shanghai, Henan, Sichuan etc, and that's when it hits me that so far I've been lumping an amazing variety of cuisine into one banal category- "Chinese food"- which clearly doesn't do it justice. I mean, it's a bit like lumping Italian, French and Spanish cuisine into one and calling it 'Western food'.
Talking about Western food, as much as you can, DO NOT eat Western food in China, because it's expensive and totally not worth it. I had a really lame tuna panini one night in Starbucks just because I was wondering whether Starbucks, as a famous Western brand, can serve decent Western food in China. (Answer: nope) Oh, and according to my friend, the only place to get decent coffee at a reasonable price is McDonald's. I didn't crave coffee when I was in China so I really don't know, but there you go.
But hmmm.. if you ask me if I crave some egg and chive dumplings right now....
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