Food is culture

When we had the first meeting we were asked by our supervisors what we are most exited about in this trip. I think half of the people in the group answered the food. And this is truly a point to be exited about when visiting china I can tell.

Street food market

The first night right after we arrived at the airport I met some people in the lobby from the group. We decided to go out and find something to eat. We found this street food market just a few blocks from the hotel in Beijing. I am not quite sure what I hoped for when we first went out, but I definitely wasn´t expecting this. The street food market sold food I have never seen before in my life, and I traveled some places. At first I was afraid I wouldn´t find something to eat, because I don´t really like hot and spicy food that much.

Smells all around

The first thing I noticed were all the different smells. Every food place had a particular smell to it. We found several places selling fish, several places selling the Beijing duck, some places with smoothies and some places with just all sorts of food on a stick.
It´s interesting how you need to concentrate on what this particular food could be based on the smell of it if you can´t read anything. So we started with some food on sticks that we identified as chicken and fish by the look and smell of it. So far so good, but too spicy for me.
Next we tried some kind of wrap with Beijing duck in it. This tasted a bit like a taco with barbeque sauce and I really enjoyed that one. We also got some smoothies that night and I have to say China has the best smoothies and especially milk tea I have ever had. They prepare everything with fresh fruits and those are really tasty.

Milk Tea

The milk tea in china needs a chapter for itself. They have milk tea places at every corner. That was really helpful in July, when we needed something cool to drink all the time. Milk tea comes in different flavors. Different places prepare it differently, but nearly all the milk tea´s I purchased had these little bubbles in them. Normally I don´t like the bubbles, but in china they taste really good. So, don´t be afraid to try new stuff! Also, in shanghai they have a milk tea place which sells the tea in channel flacons!

Go to a place where the Chinese people go

Another day on one of our food adventure trips we found a food court in the back of one of the stores. This is where we first tried the octopus on a stick. That was delicious. I also had noodles that day and they are really good and not to spicy. Everyone should try the beef noodles they are the best. Eating noodles with chopsticks can be messy at first but it´s easy to figure out when you have to practice every day.

Beijing duck dinner

From what I learned in Beijing this is a really important part of their culture. The Beijing duck is served with a burrito like wrap. You have to put two to three pieces of the crispy duck in, some sauce and cucumber. Then wrap it up. All of this is done with chopsticks! But once you know how to do it it tastes really delicious.

Family dinner

This is one of my favorite dinners. We went to a little village with the whole group. The houses in that village were made of stone mostly. The streets were really small. That´s why we had to take this bike-cart to get to the village, because no cars could drive on these streets. Once we got to the house of the family we were visiting they welcomed us inside. We walked through a small path and passed by the kitchen and some other rooms before getting into the living room. Three tables were set up with plates and chopsticks. The food the family prepared for us was really delicious. We started with some vegetables and chicken. After that they brought out beef, noodles, rice, more vegetables. The family prepared so much food it was nearly impossible for us to eat all of it. Every time the table thought we finished the food, some family member came out with another prepared dish. We had to start a “who can eat all the food” competition with the other two tables to get all of us into eating more. I have to say my table lost, which then meant we all had to go out for karaoke the last night. Not too bad!