Travelling in China- my perception of their food.

Before I start writing about my food experiences in China I must admit that I am not a foodie…. I eat only to survive! So food was not at all a priority during my travel. I had already heard some not-so-great things about Chinese food (most of which turned out to be false, luckily!) before I started to travel. Therefore I was quite apprehensive about trying out new dishes. The one advantage for me was that I am a non-vegetarian which made eating much simpler. More over I am not fussy about what I eat.

I started my travel 4 days earlier than the rest of my group, spending my time in Hangzhou first. The family I stayed with would serve me bread and milk for breakfast. I usually ate lunch and dinner from the cafeteria at Zhejiang University, mostly comprising of white rice and some vegetable side dish. This is where I learnt how to use the chop sticks (which came of great use in our subsequent travel) and also started to enjoy eating with them. Using the chop sticks, I think, is somewhat addictive. Once you get the hang of it you don’t want to stop using them! Another thing new to me was that people finished dinner by about 6.00 pm in the evening which is a rather early time for dinner in India. So I had to stock up some snacks with me so I could have it in the night when I’d feel hungry.

I joined the rest of my traveling group in Beijing and from then on food was never an issue. I would just tag along with the others where ever they went to eat and eat just to fill my stomach. Most of the youth hostels we stayed in served food that catered to foreigners. For breakfast we usually had toast or some continental food. For lunch and dinner we’d settle for some fried rice or noodles. I enjoyed eating braised eggplant and tofu, the most common among the side dishes we had. I also ate a lot of chicken and beef as a part of my non-vegetarian menu. The one thing that I ate which I had not tried before was duck meat, and I quite liked it.

Other than the three meals in a day, we also gorged on a lot of ice creams to beat the heat. We always stocked ourselves with drinking water and bottled fruit juices available inexpensively in the super markets. Snacks like peanuts, chips, biscuits etc and chocolates were something we always carried with us. I also feasted on a lot of baked corn which was commonly available everywhere.

I being a caffeine addict, Coffee was the one thing I missed during my travel. The tea they serve in china is very different from the tea in India. Though I am not very fond of tea, I have now acquired a taste for Chinese tea. I realized that in China, they serve tea in restaurants as they would serve water in India. I mean that it’s that common!

In Shanghai, we discovered a Mc. Donald restaurant very close to the youth hostel we were staying in and so most of the time we ate our dinner there. It was quite a welcome change to eat burgers with French fries and other American food initially. But we ate so much of it that we were quite sick of the kind of food by the time we left Shanghai.

In the symposium, my staple diet was egg-fried rice with lot of fruits and juices. I also enjoyed ice cream for dessert and never missed having that!

All in all, Chinese food was never a hassle for me. I also realized that the Indian Chinese food was very different from the China Chinese food! The one thing I am really glad about is having learnt how to use the chop sticks. I even picked up a set of chop sticks for myself so I could use them at home, in Bangalore. Now when I eat in Chinese restaurants in Bangalore, I can’t help but compare it to the food we ate in China.