China has been the most challenging country to eat in. At least for me. The food here is so different from what I’m familiar with. When I ask “What is it” I’m not just asking what kind of meat is that or what kind of vegetable is that. I’m often asking “Is that food?” And if so, is it a vegetable, meat, or fruit. Often times it’s something else entirely.
For example, a friend of mine made me a traditional Chinese dessert from tree sap that had been crystallized. Then she added boiling water and it turned into a jelly-like dessert. I would have never guess it was tree sap.
Nevertheless, Chinese food is renowned around the world. And food is a vital part of the Chinese culture. In fact, when greeting someone you don’t ask “How are you?” (unless you are very good friends and really want to know). Instead, you ask “Have you eaten?” (Ni chi le ma?)
I don’t pretend to know a lot about the food here. But, in the past two years, I’ve tried a lot of food and I’ve found a good base of food that I can consistently return to and know that it will be edible. For about two weeks, I took pictures of my food – or at least I tried to remember to take pictures of my food – so that I could give you a taste of my typical culinary adventures.
Breakfast
I hate Chinese breakfast. Maybe it’s because it never includes coffee… but most of the things they eat for breakfast are either extremely bland or are better for dinner in my mind. Every day we make oatmeal and coffee at home. Most of our kitchen equipment is for making breakfast. Our coffee grinder. Our Aeropress. Our food processor (for making peanut butter). Our soy milk maker. Martin’s yogurt maker.
Breakfast is the one meal I’m perfectly content eating the same thing every day. That’s what I do. Oatmeal with chia seeds and cinnamon. Topped with unsweetened homemade peanut butter, unsweetened homemade soy milk, and a banana. Served with an Americano that I add soy milk to.
Lunch
Martin and I usually eat lunch at schools since it’s free. I have a bit more choices than he does, since I’m at a university. Usually much lunch consists of white rice and whatever vegetable dishes I can find with the least amount of meat in them. The best bets are eggplant, leafy green vegetables, mushrooms, and tofu.
This meal is very typical. Tomato eggs are simply tomatoes sautéed with scrambled eggs. It’s always meat free, but sometimes it’s very very sweet. I love tofu noodles, which are usually served at room temperature with bland seasonings. Wood ear mushrooms make a great salad. To drink, soup. Always a clear soup. Again, this is always very bland which is meant to cleanse your palate after spicier dishes, which usually contain meat.
For the clay pots, I get more choices as to what goes in them, but that means I have to know what to say and how to say it. For this pot I asked for the tofu one. Little did I know that he would cook the whole dish in fatty slices of pork. I’ve gotten less picky about things like that and just eat around the parts of the dish that I don’t like.
Sometimes I’m not able to eat lunch when the cafeteria still has food. On these days, I like to go to the Vegan Buffet. Honestly, I have no idea what the real name of the restaurant is. Martin and I just make our own names for restaurants and dishes since it’s easier than looking up the characters.
The Vegan Buffet cooks traditional Chinese food without any animal products. For just 20RMB, I can have a huge lunch full of delicious and healthy vegan dishes. They usually have about a dozen dishes to choose from and after usually eating school cafeteria food, it tastes like heaven.
Instead of white rice, they cook it with some peanut and carrots. They usually have a few different dishes with tofu – in forms I have never seen outside of China. I love the sautéed greens. In this picture, I also had some rice noodles, which is the big glob of white on the left side of the plate. These noodles are usually made from rice powder mixed with water to form a very thin batter. This is then poured into a flat metal plate and steamed until solid. Then, it’s scraped out and it looks like a long noodle wide noodle. The texture is what keeps me coming back for more.
Dinner
My last meal of the day has the most variety. Sometimes I cook at home. Sometimes we go to a restaurant. Sometimes we eat in the school cafeteria. Sometimes we eat street food. It all depends on what we feel like doing. Let me share a few of my meals to give you an idea of what I typically eat.
At home, I try to keep it simple and so I cook with Chinese ingredients, usually. This buckwheat noodle salad had cucumbers and edamame in it too. I also roasted some eggplant and mushrooms. Salads are so rare in China. I think it’s because cold food is said to slow your digestion (hence drinking soup and not cold water with meals) and I also think it’s because uncooked vegetables are often not very clean.
Even though finding salads isn’t easy, I try to eat plenty of raw vegetables at home. This raw veggie soup is amazing in the hot summers of Shenzhen. Also pictured is a tortilla filled with pre-cooked tofu, cucumbers, olives, and lettuce. This is very rare. I had to go to a special store to buy the tortillas and olives. So, I was pretty excited about this meal. Tsingtao is a cheap pilsner that is also perfect for a hot summer evening.
Sometimes I go out of my way to make comfort food. This vegan mac and cheese really hit the spot that night. Plus, I hadn’t had my Endless Summer Salad for a long, long, long time. So I splurged on an avocado and a lemon and it made me feel very happy.
I have a hard time remembering to take pictures of the street food that we eat. However, just outside the campus gate is “Food Street” as we have dubbed it. It is filled with restaurants but also filled with street vendors. We have our favorites. I particularly like the woman who makes fried noodles. Martin likes the roujiamo, which is bread with stewed pork inside. The deep fried tofu is also good. There is also this savory crepe-like burrito filled with veggies and something crunchy (maybe deep fried tofu skin, but I’m not sure). Pictured above is a fry-bread with an egg cracked on it and some tofu slabs along with a spicy sauce and lettuce. I also really like the baozi stands. These are the steamed buns filled with things. I like the veggie ones; sometimes they have a curry sauce in them. Martin likes the sweet ones. Baozi stands also have tea eggs. These are hard boiled eggs steeped in black tea for extra flavor.
You can also buy sushi on the street, but I haven’t figured out how to order it yet. I’m quite picky about my sushi and I don’t want it covered sweet mayonnaise (common) or topped with dried shredded meat floss (also common). Once I get some of those words down, I may try it. But for now, I’ll stick with this sushi I found at a Korean restaurant. I love that it’s served with kimchi and has flavors different from Chinese food.
Surprisingly, there are very few Vietnamese restaurants in town. But, we randomly found Muine and were quickly reminded how deliciously tangy and spicy Vietnamese food is. Ah, fish sauce really does make a big difference.
One of our expat friends opened a vegan restaurant recently. It’s a little far from our house, but we have made it there a few times. Her vegan crepe with her vegan nutella sauce is to die for. Also, her chocolate cake is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. Seriously. Plus she has fresh juices and vegan pizzas. I’d guess she is the only place in town selling vegan pizzas.
Sometimes our friends invite us over for a dinner party. Then we really have delicious food. In China, dishes are served family style, always. Even in a restaurant. Everyone gets a small bowl and you just put a few bits of one of the dishes in your bowl. After you eat that, you take a few bits of something else. It slows down the eating process so you can enjoy everyone’s company more.
Most Chinese people get take out / delivery ALL THE TIME. Delivery drivers are everywhere! However, I’m not most Chinese people so I rarely get take out and I never get delivery. I don’t like all the extra plastic trash it causes. However, sometimes we do get take out and in this picture we went to a noodle place who has hand-pulled noodles. We love that the noodles are wide. The texture is amazing and the sauce is spicy and sour. I also got some tea eggs since there was no protein in this dish.
Near our apartment is another vegan restaurant (we are very very very lucky to have two delicious vegan restaurants in our neighborhood). Pine nuts! I never see pine nuts on anything! The circle things in the middle are mushroom stems that are scored and then seared. The tahini dressing on this is amazing too.
Hot pot is a common meal in China, especially when you are going out with friends. It consists of a hot pot of boiling broth (spicy or not spicy) and a plethora of raw ingredients. You mix together a little sauce in a bowl for dipping; it usually consists of soy sauce, black rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and spicy peppers. Then you and your friends put ingredients into the boiling broth until they are cooked. You take them out, dip them in your sauce before eating.
I generally don’t enjoy hot pot. It’s tedious work cooking your food like this, but as I said before tedious eating means longer meals and more socializing. I also find that my food is either undercooked or overcooked. And it’s always scalding hot. That being said, it can be fun and it is an interesting traditional way to socialize in China.
Snacks
My snacks often consist of fruit. Fresh fruit is plentiful in Shenzhen. Mangos, pineapple, dragon fruit, watermelon…right now the seasonal fruit is lychee, mangosteens, cherries, Chinese bayberries, and mangos. This mango smoothie is topped with flavored glutinous rice balls. I also really like the one with tapioca pearls in it.
Even though we’ve been in China now for over two years, I still struggle with the food. I always have more questions I want to ask than I am able to say. And I know that even if I ask for something to be made without an ingredient, there is no guarantee they will actually listen to me. So, I’ve learned to be less picky, to eat around the things I’d rather not eat, and to celebrate the food I do enjoy.