Adventures in CHINA
Culinary Experiences
We found the Chinese dining experience delightful. The most difficult aspect is navigating through the menu (this is where friends come in very handy!). After 3000 years of practice, the Chinese have found a way of making almost everything edible, and delicious.
We ate many new foods during our stay in China. Jellyfish, squid, sea cucumber are common foods in the coastal region of Tianjin. (I'll have to admit that sea cucumber is not high on my list of edibles, kind of like eating a super-ball.) The pork, beef, duck, and fish dishes were generally excellent.
Probably the best thing about Chinese dining is the method. Most meals involve numerous courses placed on a central "lazy susan" on your table. This way, everyone shares all dishes, you can avoid things you don't like and eat more of the things you do like. The courses start with appetizer dishes, then on to the meat, fish, and vegetable dishes, and end with rice and soup.
You eat until you are sated and then stop, no need to clean your plate - as you don't have one.
These are Jellied Haws (like crabapples?) on a Stick, you can get Squid on a Stick to accompany it!!
If after a few minutes you decide that another bite of the pork is calling your name, no problem, have at it!
One of our favorite dining experiences in China was the "hot pot". This type of restaurant specializes in a meal cooked in a pot on your table - sort of like fondue. You start off with a thin soup in your pot and by the time you have cooked various meats, shrimp, vegetables, etc., the soup has become a last course with the flavor of all the things you cooked in it.
We hear from our friends back home the horrors that they have heard regarding Chinese cuisine in China and I will have to say that we just didn't find this to be the reality - thankfully.
Yes, there are McDonald's in Tianjin - pronounced Mai Don Lau. At last count there were 12 of them, but don't count on anyone taking your order in English!