Today we have been in China for 6 months! It's unbelievable! Whilst we have adjusted quite well (I think) to most things Chinese, the one thing we still can't get used to is the food (and the toilets).
Chinese "cuisine" is extremely strange. The Chinese will eat absolutely ANYTHING, whether it has nutritional value or not. I've eaten some really weird things since I've been here - lotus flower root, tree lichen, jujubes (which are quite nice), dried fish sweets, seaweed crisps, green tea cheese cake, moon cakes and Chinese bread - to name a few. I can't say that I would rush out to eat Chinese food in a hurry any time soon. On the bright side, I've become quite handy with a pair of chopsticks :-)
Here are some pics of the delicious delicacies which we can pick up at our local Carrefour.
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| I'm not sure what this is... is that tongue or stomach of something? |
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| Anyone for multi-coloured corn? Yum! |
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| Bitter melon on the left and funny garlic-root-thing on the right |
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| The Green Tea Cheese cake on the left, and a turkey-ham sandwich (supposedly) on the right. Both from Starbucks |
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| The salad bar at Carrefour... Top left: some kind of root thing; pickled jellyfish; chilied lotus flower root. In the bottom strip we have all things pickled - from veggies to jellyfish. |
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| I think these are pigs ears.. |
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| That is a grapefruit |
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| The grapefruit in my hat |
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| Anyone for a piece of grapefruit? It's as big as a banana. |
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| Pig trotters - I think |
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| Fresh chickens on the left, and duck on the right. And yes, those are BLACK chickens! |
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| The seafood section. Live fish, frogs, turtles and crabs! |
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| Frogs, eels, clam things and live prawns. |
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| Moon cake |
Due to the dire food situation, we have to cook most of our meals at home. Which has lead to me becoming somewhat of a budding cook. Historically speaking, I've been known to burn water, so the fact that I'm actually cooking now, is a HUGE feat.
BUT, bearing in mind the limited supply of "normal" food at our local supermarket, it makes cooking a variety of dishes very difficult. We also do not have an oven (in fact most people in China do not have ovens... weird). We only have two stove plates and a microwave. But I'm trying to make my best out of a bad situation....
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| We can buy beef at Carrefour... we're not sure of the cut, but it seems edible.... Here's some "steak" dishes - with broccoli, green beans, mashed potato, potato salad or potato bake (which I made in the microwave) |
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| Salad and shepherds pie, with asparagus (which is scarce) and a fresh salad (we've only seen lettuce in the supermarket about 3 times) and a glass of Pims and lemonade :-) |
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| Liesl made a coke "roast" in a pot on the stove. It was delicious! |
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| Liesl's second "roast" which was also divine! |
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| Steak, with cauliflower and cheese sauce and stuffed red peppers. Go me! Seen as we have only seen cheese in the stores about 5 times, this is quite a treat! |
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| Steak with corn, veggies and creamed spinach. This is the one and only time we have ever found spinach. |
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| Salmon and asparagus pasta with cashew nuts. Liesl doesn't eat seafood... so I only eat my fish dishes on her days off. "Salmon Saturday". LOL |
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| Steak, veggies, mashed potato and a jalepeno popper stuffer with "bacon" (fried ham) and cheese. |
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| This was the feat we had the first time we discovered The Metro (which is a German supermarket that sells imported products). It was also the first time we found cheese and olives in China. We pigged out! |
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| My attempt at cottage pie - seen as we can't buy mince, I had to chop the meat up into really teeny pieces. |
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| Bolognese... sort of. |
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| Salmon and prawn won tons |
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| My attempt at Chinese cooking... pork dumplings and veg; fried noodles and veg; pork dumplings in a beef broth. |
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| My attempt at a microwave chocolate cake. Seen as you can't buy cocoa anywhere, I had to use Swiss Miss hot chocolate power instead. |
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| This is what we use instead of bacon... because we can't buy bacon |
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| Salmon with green beans and asparagus |
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| Beef stew and savory pancakes |
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| Salmon, veg and fried calamari |
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| Liesl made this - crumbed chicken, mash and veg. Nom!! |
We have also found a couple of restaurants that serve food which is ok to eat (besides MacD and KFC).
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| Liesl and her pork fried rice dish |
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| This came with Liesl's rice... still not quite sure what it is. It's warm, it's beige and it has the consistency of creme caramel. |
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| Fried pork dumplings. Wuhan is famous for its dumplings.. apparently... |
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| Sushi! |
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| Chicken sushi in crab eggs |
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| Salmon and mango california rolls. This restaurant serves "Western-style" sushi - according to its menu. |
We are also heading into real Winter at the moment. It's getting colder by the day. Our temperatures usually range between 2 - 7 degrees. I now go out in 3 layers of clothes - which includes 2 puffy windbreakers.
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| Us in our new ear muffs. |
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| Liesl bought me these nifty gloves. Aren't they cute! |
It's also Christmas time, and Wuhan is fully decked out in holiday cheer.
I'll post some pics of Christmas in Wuhan in my next post.
xxx
