We all know that Panda Express isn't exactly "authentic" but if you do love Panda, you have got to go to the Sichuan province in China and eat yourself sick. So good! Sometimes a little interesting, but mostly really delicious.
We usually ate breakfast at the school each morning. It consists of a think rice porridge with peas, a meat-filled dumpling and a boiled egg. This is all really interesting with chopsticks. At each meal, one of the girls would sigh and ask if they could help me hold my chopsticks better. My skills were so widely known that the cook started coming out of the kitchen to hand me a spoon at each meal. Thanks for the confidence boost! Jake caught on though.
Never got a picture of breakfast, I always felt like I was being rude when it came to taking pictures of the food so I unfortunately, didn't take too many. I kept thinking, "If I saw some lady stop and take pictures of the food at Walmart or in a cafeteria, what would I think of her?" This generally caused me to stop. Now I regret it but trust me, in the moment the pressure was huge because everywhere we went people pulled out cellphones to take pictures and video of us. The produce and meat aisles at the grocery store were fascinating though!
If you go to a restaurant you could eat the above-mentioned breakfast or beef noodles, another local breakfast favorite. They really don't do sweet or dairy.
At the school, each person has their own bowl, you take it to the meal and put a huge scoop of rice in it from a wooden bucket before you sit. Then the cook places several different dishes on the table. There are no serving utensils. Simply reach across everyone and use your chopsticks to grab what you want. Passing is not necessary. "Excuse me" isn't either. If you think your neighbor needs to try something, just use your chopsticks to put it in their bowl. Loud eating means, "Hey, this is good!" Silent eating means the opposite and is bad manners. If there is a bone in your meat (there will be) gnaw off what you want and leave the bone on the table. There are rarely drinks with the meal, simply pour soup into your bowl and then drink from the bowl. Burping and spitting are encouraged. Cheers! A little strange to a Westerner but actually a bit liberating! After the meal, take your bowl in the kitchen and rinse it in the sink. Now let it dry and wait for dinner. (You probably won't get the same bowl back at dinner and soap isn't necessarily used in the rinsing process).
Lunch and dinner at the school were really good. Usually very spicy! This part of China is known for their great flavors and spiciness! Each meal usually consisted of bean curd, something like kung pao chicken, stir fried organs with vegetables, hashbrowns, cooked greens and soup, that occasionally had chicken feet in it. We ate out a few times and had stuff like this.
Our favorite meal was cooked by "Ana," who works as a counselor with the program. She brought this to Yvette because it is supposed to be good for nursing mothers. :-)
This hung in the hallway for a couple weeks after I took this picture and we finally got to taste it right before we left. Recipe! Take smoked pigs leg and soak in hot water. Use sharp knife to scrape hair and blackened portions then cut off desired amount. Return rest to hallway and hang by a hook in the fat. Put hunks of meat in boiling water with lotus slices. Cook until tender and serve. Really good!
Slice portions of fat from smoked pig leg and use to stirfry cauliflower and greens.
Pairs well with another favorite from this region, scrambled eggs with tomato.
Although I never took pictures in the grocery store meat aisle, I did get this jewel. This is just how you store meat at home.
The store was awesome though. Every part of the animal we would never imagine eating outside of a hotdog bun on display. Smoked pig faces, grilled duck heads, it was fabulous! On the street, you could buy chickens from street vendors. They tie their chickens' legs together and toss them in bags or hang them from the handle bars and go to town to sell. It was very common to see an old lady carrying a live chicken in plastic grocery bag. Its little head would stick out the top and bravely say goodbye to the world as it headed home for dinner.
Jake and I saw a gentleman carrying four limp chickens by the feet and stopped behind him to wait for the crosswalk light. Jake asked what was wrong and I explained the dead chickens were for dinner. I was a little wrong and he panicked when the man let the chickens' heads rest on the ground as we stopped (I guess four chickens are really heavy) and they began to blink. He shrieked "Their eyes are moving, they're not dead!" Think of the seen from Return of the King, when the crazy steward on Gondor was going to burn his son alive (thinking he was dead) and the hobbit ran screaming "He's not dead!" That's kinda what it was like. I'm sure there are many Chinese people who have it on tape.
In summary, I like Chinese food. Rude in American equals respectful and courteous in China. (Sweet!) Chopsticks are hard. Watch out for the soup. Be glad you are not a chicken in China.
