Food Blog

I was looking through my photos of this month to see what I’d been up to to see what I could write about. I found there was a lot of food so I thought I’d write you all a blog about the food of Tianjin (that I’ve tried).

番茄鸡蛋面- I only tried this for the first time a few weeks ago. This is tomato egg noodles. Tomato and egg noodles is a very popular dish that took me a while to get my head around but I'm starting to enjoy it now. We didn't intend on finding this dish, but Paul was taking me and Aspen to try a broccoli and rice dish he had tried and got mixed up on which shop it was. Paul and I are both vegetarian and this was the only meatless thing on the menu so we decided to all give it a go. We all really enjoyed it but we all found it was slightly too salty. The noodles were so thick it almost tasted like pasta which was quite exciting. This dish was 15 yuan and I’d give it a 7.7/10.

青菜拉面－Lanzhou noodles. These noodles are in a league of their own. The noodles are hand pulled, if you look into the kitchen you can see them roll it from a dough to a noodle and then it goes straight into the cooker. The noodles continue to cook as you’re eating them so it looks like you've eaten a lot less than you have. This was my boyfriend’s and my mum’s favourite dish in Tianjin. This is 10 yuan and id give it a 9.5/10 .

This is another recent discovery at the food court. The shop looks like a canteen and you can choose up to 3 sides to go with rice. It’s really good for getting cheap easy food. My favourite is the fried mushrooms. They are mixed with chilies, black pepper and shredded celery. Here I also have spinach which is quite plain but just so yummy. This is 9 yuan and 9.8/10.

豆腐炒面－This had been a firm favourite since the beginning. I don't know the Chinese name of the restaurant but we call it noodle gaff. Not only is the food good, the staff are lovely. Once I forgot to pay for my food and I went back the next day and she just laughed about it and didn't care all that much. They have a huge selection of food and they don't mind to swap out meat for tofu. I really love going here, it’s usually around 13 yuan and if give it a 9/10.

Cold noodles are a favourite amongst a lot of the scholars. It’s a very good way to get some vegetables in. There are lots of trays with different types of noodles, vegetables and tofu. You get a big bowl to choose what you want then the noodles lady adds liquids to the bowl which makes a sauce then puts it in a bag and voila, noodles in a bag. Average spend 9-7 yuan and 8/10.

I don't know the Chinese characters for this dish but the Korean is 비빔밥 and pronounced bibimbap. This is a rice bowl filled with vegetables and an egg on top. The vegetables are usually carrots, cucumber, mushrooms, bean sprouts and a mysterious vegetable that we can’t work out what it is. It comes with a packet of sauce that is quite similar to sriracha. You then mix it all up and dig in. This is a very filling meal and I have it very often. This is 15 yuan and I’d give it a 10/10.

These dishes are all so delicious and I will miss them so much when I go home, but I am going to try and recreate them. Next month is our HSK exam so I'm studying a lot at the moment to try and be ready. Thankfully the sun is out and it’s been reaching almost 40 degrees some days! With the hot weather also come thunderstorms which we have had a few of. Last week we experienced a rain shower that was so heavy rain came pouring in my windows (it literally looked like a tap). This month has been lot of fun and a lot of hard work, I hope you enjoyed my food blog of some of the things we eat here!