Food

Other than friends, family, and a hot bath, the thing I am missing the most is American food. I have mentioned this in some of my personal emails already, but today, it will be the topic of my post.

I will admit that my eating habits have never been particularly good (it’s a good thing I was blessed with a fast metabolism or I would be fat). In the States, pizza, chocolate, and wine were regular parts of my diet. I knew that my food choices would be different here in China and I was right.

Before I came, I heard that people tended to eat out more than they cooked at home and that it was less expensive to do so. This is only partly true. People do dine in restaurants frequently but it is more because they don’t know how to cook than for economic reasons. This has presented a few challenges for me. I cannot read menus to order foods and generally prefer to eat at home anyway (where I don't get stared at). Because people aren't really interested in cooking, supermarkets have very few “ingredients” and mostly carry snack-like items. Ramen noodles and frozen dumplings are readily available and have become staples in my diet. I have a hard time trusting the meats I can buy in the markets because they are either, quite literally, chopped up parts, or they come in blocks of processed who-knows-what. Fruits and vegetables are generally not sold in supermarkets. Rather, there is an outdoor farmer’s market and small produce shops that sell them. Some veggies are still hard to find, however, such as iceberg lettuce (I think the climate is too harsh for it). Another challenge in food preparation is that I only have a stove. I am saving up for toaster-oven because, although I have not seen any, I am told I can find one.

Refrigerators are not considered a necessary household appliance and many people do not own one. This means that there are few items sold in supermarkets that require refrigeration including one of my favorites, dairy products. Milk is sold off the shelf in juice boxes (needless to say, it does not taste the same) and butter and cheese are not available in Tai’an. I am told that in the city, I can find some honest-to-goodness Land o’ Lakes cheddar but that I will pay 30 RMB for it. When translated into dollars, this does not sound too bad (a little more than $4) but in terms of cost of living it is nearly a third of my weekly food budget. The Chinese do make wine but it is not very good and I will pay 50 RMB or more for a decent bottle. Again I am told I can buy an imported wine in the city but it will cost me 230 RMB. To put this into perspective, I paid 250 RMB for my cell phone. The only thing I have found in Tai’an that is imported (and tastes like the real thing) is Dove chocolate and although it is not cheap, I splurge on a few.

As far as restaurants go, I talked about that a little already when I first got here. The included video features the same restaurant we ate at when I first arrived (we have been there several times since it is right next to the school). I have eaten several places, however, and have found a few general rules. Place settings always consist of chopsticks, a bowl and spoon, a tea cup and saucer, and a glass. A variety of dishes are ordered and placed on the table to share. It is unheard of for a dish to be considered one person’s. When a large party is present, there do not seem to be any rules about how the lazy-susan is spun—you just eat from the dishes that are in front of you until the table is spun and you are presented with new dishes or if there is something you want, move the table yourself. I do see a lot of value in this kind of communal eating. Besides tea, beer is the most common beverage and it, too, is shared since the bottles are large and the glasses are small.

The dishes that are served are usually tasty but generally simple in their ingredients. One of my favorites, sweet and sour pork (different from what you have tasted in the States), is, unfortunately, one of the more difficult dishes to make and requires ingredients I have not found in the supermarket (like flour). The only thing I have rejected eating on the basis of ingredients was a dish of what looked like white semi-translucent jello slices. I was told it was pigskin that was boiled down. That ranked too high on my “eww” scale to warrant a taste. I think the strangest thing I have eaten so far was a meat that was served on a dish with the cooked heads of the animal. The heads were suspiciously close to the size of a small dog’s so I asked what the animal was. I was told but had never heard of the animal before and was told it was like a horse. The meat didn’t taste too bad but I only had a little bit because I had a hard time getting over the mental block that I was eating horseflesh.