It was bound to happen sometime

It was bound to happen sometime, I just expected it to at the beginning of my trip to China instead of at the end.  Allow me to introduce you to the food that made me sick.

We start off with a cute little plate of bamboo and...pigeon.  Yes, one of the sky rats.  Which by the way, I have yet to see in China.  There are no visible pigeons, squirrels, chipmunks, crows, seagulls, bunnies, etc.  There are sparrows.  Everything else was turned into food if it ever existed here.

Bamboo on the left, Pigeon on the right

Why yes, that is the pigeon's head.

(Okay, so Wikipedia says that squirrels are just in the Americas, Africa, Eurasia. I'm sure I would be eating squirrel if they were in China.)

Next up was fish, and is why I think I am sick today.

"I dare you to eat me" says this fish.

Fish bodies, no head

I couldn't eat the fish bodies.  I took a couple tiny bites of the tail then abandoned it.  Not my style of food at all, plus it was gross.

Everyone thinks they're such sweet little things....

Before I start you must listen to this song: The March of the Sinister Ducks.  Go ahead, click the link, I'll wait for you to finish.

You listened to the song?  Good.  This is a tale about ducks, specifically the Pekin duck I ate for lunch Sunday.  If you listen to the tale about Pekin Ducks from Wikipedia the tale is much sadder, it's one about baby ducklings raised in captivity, then forced to eat food four times a day to get plump.  My tale is one of a tourist who visited a restaurant known for its peking duck dish.

The Setting

The tourist must get a picture with the duck statue out front.  The duck statue looks so happy, probably because it's the mascot and not the main dish.

The Main Character

When your duck is ready to be served, the duck will be brought to you whole then carved.  If the cooking process didn't take more than the length of a meal the restaurant would probably let you select your own duck from a selection of living ones.

The...Antagonist?

The carved skin and meat are then brought to your table along with a plate of steamed pancakes, sweet bean dip, and spring onions.

The pancakes, the duck skin, the spring onions, the sweet bean dip, and some fruit (the meat hadn't arrived yet).

You put it all together...

Lay pancake flat on plate, dip meat into sweet bean dip and place on pancake, add onion.

...then fold it up and eat up.  Take that you silly duck!

Since nothing is left for waste, the restaurant supplied the bones and whatever meat remained for me to take home.

The Conclusion

Too bad my hotel room doesn't have a kitchen.

I am panda, hear me...bleat?*

No, I didn't get to see any panda bears while I was China but I did get to eat like one.  While at the Sichuan Opera this past weekend I had a plate of tender bamboo.

Bamboo and a Sauce to dip them in

The bamboo came halved so it was easier to strip the think outer layer from the tender inside.

The layers of bamboo - tear off the black layers

According to the San Diego Zoo, panda bears will spend an average of 12 hours a day eating bamboo (1).  Because the plant is so low in nutrients the bears need to eat 84 pounds a day (1).  That's a lot!

Yum!

Bamboo was only an appetizer though, the main dishes were much more interesting.  At the Sichuanese Opera house the main style of food is Sichuan Cuisine.  One of the eight styles of Chinese Cuisine, Sichuan is known for bold, spicy food (2).  This style of cooking originates from Sichuan Province in southwest China, the area my coworker J is from.  He says that he grew up eating spicy food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

For the main dish we had pig intestines (yes, pig intestines), corn, and beef with peppers you stuff into bread.

From left to Right: Beef with Green Peppers and Bread, Pig Intestines, Corn

Being not a fan of overly spicy food I ate around the red peppers to get to the pig intestines.  They were  pretty good, something I could eat again though I would never want to make it myself.  The corn wasn't spicy and I devoured it.  The beef with green peppers was also good, but I made the mistake of loading my bread with too many peppers and needed a lot of tea to cool my mouth.  The bread was a dense bread, coated with oil and lightly fried with garlic.  Even just bread and meat is delicious.

*Panda bears make a sound similar to that of a goat bleating (1). You can listen to them bleat on the San Diego Zoo's website.

More Strange Food

On the way back to the hotel on Tuesday, J and I came across a farmer's market of sorts.  At the market there were all sorts of new foods that a foreigner such as myself could try.

There was duck.

Duck Feet, Duck Legs, Duck Wings, Duck Bills

There was pig.

Pig ears; whole chicken too

And then there was chicken. Chicken still in the egg that was fried in the shell and sold three chicks for 2 RMB (approx. 0.32 USD).

Note the 'done' chicks on the left side of the pan and the still cooking  chicks on the right

I didn't try any of the available foods, would you have?

On Desserts

Kopp's Cookies N' Cream

The boyfriend and I are on new diets where we eat little to no dairy.  This makes me sad for two reasons.  One, I like cheese.  Two, I love custard.  Here in Wisconsin there seems to be a never-ending supply of places where one can eat custard.  I had never had custard growing up on the other side of the St. Croix/Mississippi River but was quickly initiated once I started college.  Sure there is Culver's but it's Culver's - come on.

Custard stands like Kopp's, Leon's, and Oscar's are delicious and feature typical flavors plus flavors of the day.  The nice thing about my custard haunts, as my boyfriend so kindly phrased it, is that sometimes their flavors suck  And when the flavor of the day is something you don't like then you don't go there!

Ice cream stores (like Cold Stone) don't seem to have a flavor of the day.  I could get Germanchökolätekäke every day of the week if I so desired.


Flavors of the day however, build anticipation.  Like the very anticipation I've feel all week waiting for this cookies 'n cream custard from Kopps.  Yum!

Happy Hour

This time last year I was frantically finishing yp my master's thesis, working 32 hours a week, and finishing up the last trimester of my combined bachelor's and master's degree.  Basically it sucked.  What kept me going was the conveniently timed Starbucks' Happy Hour - a period from 3 to 5 PM where frappuccinos were half-priced.  Starbucks kept me going.

Since their second annual Happy Hour ended yesterday I figured I'd give them a shout out.  Thanks Starbucks!

Bribery

I respond well to it.


These cookies were baked by my research advisor's wife and yes, they're as delicious as they look. Because I was at work when the advisor brought them to campus I didn't get them till late in the evening but from the sounds of it there was a large bag of cookies for everyone in my lab. That's a lot of cookies to make!

Lunch

Occasionally, actually very frequently during the school year, I make really bad lunches for myself. Week-old bread, tuna of indeterminate age, shrived up apples, etc. These lunches are barely edible at best and I try to get through it by eating them very very quickly.

But I love food. I think food is delicious. And these lunches make me very sad.

I don't make lunches like this on purpose, most of the time it's because I haven't been to the grocery store in a few weeks and there is a limit to what the Walgreens down the block will carry. As I've said before, I try to eat healthy but sometimes school gets in the way and there simply isn't enough time to take care of myself.

In order to make these lunches more bearable I turn to the internet for consolation. Specifically, TasteSpotting and foodgawker. On these websites I can look at page after page of tasty dishes, most with recipes, and pretend that I'm eating something better. Something fresh and home-made, with a main dish AND dessert.

Usually when I do this I end up bookmarking a lot of recipes for me to come back to and make for dinner. Sometimes the pictures live up to what I think they'll taste like, sometimes they don't. Either way it's a good chance for me to expand my food horizons and to pretend that I'm eating like a queen.

Keeping up Appearences

One thing that I'm afraid of for continuing my studies is looking like the stereotypical grad student. You know, the person who becomes so caught up in their research that they forget to do things like sleep, eat properly, and exercise. In short, I don't want to look like the guy in the picture below.



To take steps against that I've set up a daily schedule for myself that's valid on my "school days" where I wake up at a set time, have breakfast, read journal articles, class/lunch/work in the lab, then dinner. So far it's working and I'm hoping I'll be able to maintain the schedule. I've been trying to keep healthy food in my apartment, limit the amount of sugar I have, and limit what I do eat. Because boy do I love food. Especially pastas and bread. Yummy. I also tend to east past when I'm full (oops).

I think that watching what I eat, getting enough sleep, and exercising (did I mention that I have a "boot camp" class twice a week?), will help me to stay in prime condition for school. It should also keep me sane, right? That's the plan at least!