EA Fave #1- FOOD!

I CRAVE East Asian food.... for the most part! The normal stuff is DELICIOUS and I can't get enough... but there is plenty that is for sure not so normal!

The GOOD stuff.....

DISHES!

I lovelovelove East Asian "dishes".... typically you eat "family style". You order several dishes for the whole group and everyone has their own little bowl of rice. As the dishes come out, you just start grabbing stuff right off of the plates with your chopsticks and put it in your bowl of rice and dig in. mmmmmm. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

We must have been hungry for pork that night. Pork is always a safe bet when ordering meat. It is cut up into little thin pieces and is typically served with veggies. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was chicken..... which is rarely a safe option to order. Often if you order chicken.... its likely you're going to get a whole lot more of the chicken than you wanted... like the vertebrae, feet, neck, fat and bones. No thanks for me!

This meal from the 1st summer we were there has most of my favorite dishes! The fried potato balls (far left), sizzling skillet beef (in the cow shaped skillet), fried kidney beans (3rd dish over from the right on the bottom) and my VERY favorite..... Gong Bao Chicken (far right).

If you score a really good meal.... this is all that remains! Delicious!

Be forewarned my friends..... not all dishes are "safe"..... When you go out to eat with your friends, they will have different taste than you and they WILL want to order food for you. Come prepared!

This meal was ordered by our teacher 2 years ago, and although there were some tasty things, there were somethings that I'd like to not add to my palate. I'm pretty sure she ordered some strange "reptile/amphibian" animal dish... frogs, turtles maybe? and some weird roots. Surprisingly enough, when the fish is cooked and served like this (the bright orange dish in the middle) it is really tasty!

Quite possibly one of the most .... not so delicious..... meals I've ever seen...... let me explain; that dark dish in the middle.... it's straight fat. Zero meat. All fat. The shrimp looking things on the right.... just crunchy shrimp skins. And moving counter clock-wise from there.... the 1,000 year old egg. Oh my is it as bad as it sounds. The "legend" is that they burry an egg in the ground for 1,000 years and it ferments.... well they might as well! They actually inject it with some sort of chemical or something and it quickly ferments- the egg whites turn into a translucent purpleish, blackish color. blech. Following that dish- flavorless tofu. That was an interesting meal. Adam took one for the team and tried everything so that our friends wouldn't feel bad. He will eat anything, but watching him get that egg down still makes me a little queasy! Disclaimer: this was the day of indecisiveness in the rain in the ancient city.

The one dish you can't leave this part of the world without.....

DUCK! mmmm. good.

This is my FAVORITE dish, Gong Bao Ji Ding (basically kung pao chicken) at my favorite restaurant, "The Palm Tree Place" (I bet you can't guess why we called it that) in our village this summer......

.... and when we went back last week, I was so excited that the lady who owns the place remembered me!

Every time I walked in this summer she'd say, "Gong Bao Ji Ding" and every other time we went we'd ask if she had cauliflower. She'd say no.... until finally one day, when she saw us walking towards her, she got up, ran back to her little storage room and came running out with 2 heads of cauliflower yelling "Cauliflower! Cauliflower!" in East Asian. We were so honored that she bought it for us.

Snack Street!

Snack street is an East Asian "food court" if you will.... Sans the Chick-flia, Sbarro, & Panda Express. It's much more fun than that!

There are lots of fun things / ways to eat there. For instance.....

You can all sit around one of these little grill things and let the girl cook for you for about $1 a person...

Or you can get Shao Kao... basically anything you can imagine "Shish Kabobs"... but MUCH more delicious!

You just pick up the sticks you want, put them on a little tray, and they cook it on the grill right there for you in less than 5 minutes... for next to nothing!

Adam enjoying some chicken feet on a stick. He says it tastes like a chicken lollipop made of fat. sounds delicious.... ish.

Snack Street Smoothies!

You can get these AMAZING, fresh fruit smoothies. They take the fruit you want, dump it in a blender with ice, and add about a cup of sugar! It amazing... and clearly so good for you too :)

It wouldn't be a trip to snack street without a smoothie- hence why J & I were holding them while it was about 30 degrees outside. Totally worth the numb hands!

Street Food....

You can get almost anything on the street to eat for less than $1. At night, Shao Kao stands line the streets, while during the day, lots of vendors bring out these carts and sell things.....

Like pig parts! Tails, ears, snouts, feet.... so appetizing!

And then there's stuff like this.... corn on the cob & sweet potatoes.

You can also get pineapple on a stick from someone like this- amazingly delicious. Especially on a hot day!

Some of my other faves-

Vbico's Fondue!

Catherine & I had some great conversations with girls over this stuff! Too bad they closed Vbicos and turned it into an internet bar :( I'm still in mourning.

Anything made in a bakery-

They have AMAZING baked goods... and of course like everything else, for next to nothing!

Ethnic Dishes-

There are many minorities of people in this nation, and many have their own restaurants with different types of food. The dish that Catherine and I got here with these 2 friends was really good! I don't know that I could say the same thing for their porridge tho!

And LAST but not least (well I'd say the least, but others beg to differ).....

Hot Pot.

I'm just really not a fan!

You dump a ton of stuff in boiling water, let it cook, then fish it back out. My problem with it is that it is either insanely spicy or bland as all get out. Adam swears up and down that I just haven't had the "right" hot-pot, but I'm not holding my breath.

So that's that..... my informative guide to one of my favorite things about East Asia.... the food!

I hope you enjoy!

Joyfully Craving,