Food!!!

Today, I'm going to talk about food. :) So here is a collection of my food pictures since the beginning of the trip.

Here are little sugar animals on a stick.

Cody eating a scorpion 

My favorite type of popsicle, it has grape jelly, peanuts, toffee, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream.

The cake I bought to eat for Eric's birthday

Puff pastry in the shape of a swan

Breakfast food at the hotel

Bubble tea!!

More bubble tea!

The chocolate dinosaur I made

So, a little about Chinese food.  I think the biggest difference in Chinese food in America and here is how salty everything is here.  Chinese people love their salt....and msg.  Yum!  I usually eat at the student cafeteria during the week.  It's msg free, feels healthier, it's dirt cheap and convenient.  During the weekend I usually go out and find new restaurants to try.  So far I've tried Uyghur food, Tai food, Japanese, Korean, classy Chinese restaurants and "shack" restaurants.  I've even tried the famous Peking Duck.  I actually wasn't too impressed.  It was good, but too much duck in one meal.  

I'm also addicted to bubble tea now.  There's this bubble tea place nearby called Cocos and it's the best.  I'm also still a huge fan of eggplant in garlic sauce, or just eggplant with anything.  The roasted green beans are delicious and the noodles, "la mian" are the best.  

Chinese desserts are a little strange, since they mostly consist of red or green bean.  It takes a while to get use to, since their pastries are usually not as sweet as ours.  They have really interesting flavored oreos though (green tea and strawberry).  Also, Haw candy is delicious, but mostly sugar.

The fruit is also a little weird.  You have to wash and peel your fruit, because of all the pesticides.  Lychee, persimons (I spelled that wrong), pomelos, and asian pears are pretty common.  The apples aren't as sweet and the pears are really crispy and also less flavorful.  There's a fruit stand right next to the east gate of BNU that we always get fruit from, so I always try new fruit.

Speaking of fruit stands and such, street food in China is pretty good.  They can put anything on a stick, including noodles.  I haven't tried any heats or gross things yet, however if you saw the picture above you can see that some people have tried scorpion.  There's this place the FSP calls "the shack" that makes really cheap jiaozi (dumplings) and baozi(steam buns) and noodles and stick food.  A lot of students eat there often.  There are also stands selling fruit covered in melted sugar on a stick, and some selling this scallion pancake with egg and veggies.

In Tibet and Sichuan I'll try totally different cuisines, so I'll update you on that when I get back.  :)  I'm leaving tomorrow, so I'm super excited!  

Ok, sorry for my food rant.  I just believe that if you really want to know a culture you should discover it through their food. :)

Ok, back to studying.