All about food

When it comes to food in China, the world’s your oyster. People, including myself, can very easily make judgements on what they think food in China may be like based on their local takeaway, however it couldn’t be further from the reality. We all love a Chinese takeaway but traditional Chinese food blows that out the water. When I first got here I didn’t know much Chinese so struggled to ask what things were, however I slowly found that it really didn’t matter, if you have an open mind and the confidence to point at what you want you’ll be just fine. It’s all about trial and error.

Now my Chinese has improved I find it a lot easier and I am not only able to enjoy what I’m eating but know what it actually is. Although sometimes it best not to know! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I have a favourite noodle bar and it is still a very high contender but I’ve branched out a little more. Venturing to the food street just off campus worked to my advantage and I’ve found some real culinary gems. At home I love making sweet potato and there happens to be a stand that cooks them in a giant clay roaster oven and they are amazing. They’re my current obsession! Neighbouring that is a stall selling all types of roasted nuts, they are cheap and a great snack.

Traditionally in China a ‘Lazy Susan’ is often used in restaurants. I’m sure everyone will know what this is, but if not, it’s a slab of glass on that table that spins so no one has to stretch over anyone else or pass things around the table. Personally I would find it very useful in my house on Christmas day. Whilst we were in Jinan last month we went to a very nice Chinese restaurant and ordered loads of food, trying a lot of new things (good and bad) and used the Lazy Susan.

Another food China is famous for is a ‘Jianbing’ which means fried flatbread. These are wraps made from a thin crepe, egg, crispy puffed strips of dough, coriander, spring onions, a layer of hoisin sauce and chilli sauce. You can get any additional filling but I like mine plain.  They’re made to order, are very good and cheap.

On the 25th of this month we travelled to Beijing to attend the St Andrews Ball, which was a very good night! At the ball all the scholars were very happy to have been served not only a five-course meal but also breakfast at 2am. The food was exceptional, from salmon, to haggis, neeps n tatties. We were served an alcoholic sorbet to cleanse the palette (so fancy), before a beef main course, finished with a chocolate mousse cake. It was all very nice. Of course, the toast and (almost) full Scottish breakfast went down very well too.

Although all the food China has to offer is really great, no matter where you are sometimes want a McDonalds and I was very pleasantly surprise to find out that here, chicken nuggets are actually classed as a side, so two meals it is for me. The wonderful thing about that is, is it still cheaper to get that here than it is to get one meal at home. This isn’t a regular thing though as our stipend doesn’t really cover McDonalds for every meal.

Some of us have been trying to cooking a bit here and last week Eilidh (another scholar) made some vegetable soup which was amazing. Caitlin (another scholar) and I tried to recreate this and got a bit over excited with the stock and salt, but the first times always bad… right? We’ll keep practising; we do have another 7 months after all.

I’m still missing food from home, like toast and marmalade with a cup of tea or a veggie supreme pizza but my best advice about food in China is to just get out there and try things. I definitely need to keep following my own advice as there is so much I haven’t tried and experienced yet but no matter where you go in the world if you don’t try you’ll never know if you like it. China is one of the best places to do that.