Gosh! Where to even begin?
China is a very large country with many different regions, ingredients, and styles of cooking. I can really only try and begin to describe the small window I was privy to getting to experience.
First off, Chinese food is nothing like the American take out staple. I think the closest I saw to it while in China was fried rice which was not seen gracing the menus in a majority of the restaurants. Tim (as he asked us to call him well aware of the difficulty that comes with western mouths trying to pronounce Mandarin accurately) who was our host at the last hostel we stayed at informed us that fried rice is considered leftovers to locals because it is best made with day old rice. I was also surprised by the level of spice enjoyed in the areas I stayed in. I was aware Chinese food could be spicy, but I was surprised to find that even the most mild of dishes still packed a little punch with the Szechwan peppercorn or chilies acting as the preferred agent of sneaky heat.
Rice, Noodles, Dumplings? Yes Please!
Rice is definitely a staple of the Chinese diet enjoyed with a variety of vegetables and a little meat. It makes it’s way onto many lunch and dinner tables. More surprising to me was the love of noodles where I was. Noodles, noodles everywhere! Noodle soups of many flavors and seasonings can be seen eaten any time of the day – breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The many types of instant ramen that line store shelves is mind boggling! Chinese Travelers love to take this with them since it is cheap, filling, and every train station, train, bus stop, and airport terminal offers free hot water. The last city we stayed in called Lanzhou is famous all through out China for its beef noodles. I had the pleasure of trying some and they definitely live up to the hype. Right around the corner from our hostel was a restaurant, the name translated conveniently into English below the Chinese characters on their sign reads, “Yak beef noodles”. This stout shaggy haired bovine is what sets their noodles apart. My teammate Hannah was so gracious as to join me there for a late much needed lunch. You ordered at the counter and with the menu being all Chinese to me, I turned around and saw some patrons eating a plate of noodles that looked particularly appealing. I pointed to them and our server pointed to the corresponding dish on the menu. I had my order set. Hannah used google translate to ask for beef noodles and the server pointed to the dish at the top of the menu. She had her order. After paying, we walked over to the pick up counter. You were able to watch the cooks prepare your food! To my great pleasure I watched the cook take a lump of fresh dough and with some pulling, stretching, and a flourished smack on the counter, behold noodles were made! The chef then dropped them into a huge vat of boiling water to cook. When they were done, they were pulled out of the water with chopsticks. My dish was thrown into a wok with a super tasty tomato based sauce with chunks of beef, tomato, green onion, and zucchini. Hannah’s noodles were put into a blue and white ceramic bowl then beef stock, sliced green onions, chopped cilantro, and a spicy pepper paste was ladled on top. My dish was wonderful! It was nothing like Italian pasta if you are tempted to think along those lines. The sauce was a little thinner that Italian tomato sauce, and the flavor had a mild tomato taste to it with a great beef flavor to enhance it. I was so impressed too that depending on the dish ordered the noodles would be shaped accordingly: thin, thick, or wide and flat all done by hand! Hannah’s was just as good with a broth that was comforting and complex tasting: hardy beef flavor with a hint of umami, a zing from the cilantro and green onion, and sinus clearing heat from the peppers.
Dumplings I feel should be given their due attention too. Walk down any city block and you will see at least one store with stacks and stacks of bamboo steamers cooking away proudly displayed for all passing to see. Sadly I ran out of time to adventure into one of these stores. However, I did get to try another type of dumpling that has its filling wrapped with a Chinese bread like dough instead of the thinner wonton like dough. These are about the size of a tennis ball, white, soft, and fluffy. I tried two, one filled with wilted dark greens and small diced pieces of tofu and the other with a spicy ground pork filling. Yum!
Fruit and Veggie Paradise
China loves their fruit and veggies. Stands upon stands exist solely devoted to selling fruit to the populous. Everything I am familiar with i.e. apples, bananas, grapes, peaches to exotic finds such as mangosteen, durian, and Chinese dates. The Chinese dates were my personal favorite. Each date was the approximately the size of a walnut with green and brown camouflaged skin. They are crunchy like an apple but have a delicious brown sugary taste to them. I would get a half pound of them and just walk around sightseeing while crunching and munching away. Every morning from 7am till 9am a street market would set up selling all sorts of delicious things straight out of bicycle and scooter driven carts and hastily propped up tents. The vegetables were so impressive! Huge cauliflowers, deep orange colored carrots, cabbages, green onion, mushrooms of all kinds, eggplant, string beans the length of your arm, I could go on and on.
Muslim Market
In the city of Xion there was a part of the city labeled as Muslim District where the majority of Chinese Muslims reside. There a great market of winding streets littered with all sorts of shops exists. Tourists from different areas of China as well as all of us foreigners were lured to this bright neon light maze with temptations of exotic foods and good deals on bobbles and gifts. Middle East meets China here. Moon cakes are sold next to Middle Eastern inspired breads. Fresh juices from pomegranate and coconut can be enjoyed while you buy traditional Chinese black tea to take home to friends and family. Watch them roast and crack walnuts in-front of you and sample dried dates and apricots or even Turkish delights. Want some meat on a stick? Take your pick: whole grilled squid, deep fried whole crab, chicken hearts, duck, chicken feet, you name it they’ve got it! Electric scooters frequently run down the streets dodging people. The first day I wandered around, I was on high alert not to get run over; the streets were not that wide. By my third visit, it became part of the ambiance. It no longer took a great amount of thought, a simple step to the left or right as prompted by the horn beeps. I loved the sights, sounds, smells, and overall controlled chaos that makes up daily life in this sector.
Hot Pot!?
Hot Pot! I personally think of it as a community soup. It’s similar to the concept of fondue. Just instead of dipping bread into cheese or marshmallows into chocolate, you are adding veggies, meat, and noodles to boiling soup to cook. We came to be good friends with our hostel host Tim in Langzou while we stayed there. We wanted to thank him by inviting him out to eat to hot pot. Somewhere along the way communication wires were crossed and Tim thought we wanted him to make us hot pot. We just went with it and bought all the ingredients and he prepared an elaborate feast for us and his family. Two different soups boiled away on our tables in electric pots. One a tomato broth and the other chicken broth. First step, we each were given a small bowl which we were told to mix our seasonings in to our tastes. In my bowl I mixed chopped cilantro, chopped green onion, a sweet dark complex vinegar, and a spicy pepper mix Tim’s wife made earlier that day. Into our soup pots we added green pea tendrils, chicken, mushrooms of three varieties, lotus root, sweet potato chunks, potato slices, crab balls, cumber slices, bamboo roots slices, cauliflower and broccoli florets, and carrot rounds. Wait with watering mouths for food to cook. Pluck out desired foods from the broth with your chopsticks, drop into your bowl, ladle in a little of the broth, eat, and repeat till you can’t eat anymore. I love the communal nature of this meal. You talk to each other and catch up on your day as you wait for the food to cook. You interact with each other in order to reach ingredients or begin trade negotiations with cooked chicken for mushrooms. You can’t help but laugh as you rib one another into eating more or seeing how spicy they can stand it. It’s not a time to eat and rush to the next thing on your to do list. It’s a time to slow down and enjoy the people that God has placed in your life. There is room in this space to open up and share yourself with another, to listen and be heard in turn. This space allowed us a chance to as Tim about his faith and what he knew of Jesus. I can’t say he came to any sort of eye opening revelation that night, but I trust we planted some seeds for God to grow.
Golden Fried Rice
Tim, our Super Host, took the time to teach us how to make fried rice four ways. I had wanted to take a cooking class while I was in China. God the good father that He is made my unspoken desire a reality. I want to share the first recipe he taught us. When I took a bite of this golden fried rice, I recognized the wonderful flavor that I had experienced many time before but never quite captured on my own. Prepare for the secrets to be revealed!
Ingredients:
2-4 cups cooked day old rice left uncovered to let excess moisture evaporate (this yields the best texture)
3-6 eggs
1-2 green onions, sliced thin
1 Tablespoon granulated/powdered chicken bouillon(very popular ingredient in Chinese cooking. If you can’t find it in a lose powdered form you can simply crush up a bouillon cube and dissolve it in a little water or leave it out. Substitute 1 1/2 teaspoon of a nice sea salt instead. The taste will be a little different but still good)
Oil for coating pan
Soy sauce for serving
Directions :
-Crack your eggs into a large bowl and scramble them up with the chicken bouillon. Set a side approximately half of the eggs in a separate container.
-Add the cooked rice to the large bowl of eggs and stir together until the eggs coat all of the rice. You may need to add a little extra scrambled egg to achieve this depending on the amount of your rice.
-Heat up a wok pan or a high sided sauté pan with about 3 Tablespoons worth of oil to high. When the pan is nice and hot (the oil will move fluidly around the pan like water but should not start smoking. If your oil begins to smoke, your pan is too hot, and you need to remove it from the heat and let it cool down some.) pour the remaining scrambled egg into the pan and turn the heat off. Using a high heat rubber spatula or wooden spoon, move the eggs inside the pan breaking them up and allowing all of it to cook fully. Remove the eggs from the pan a little before they are fully cooked. They will be a little soft but not runny. (the carry over heat will continue to cook them the rest of the way).
-Wipe down your pan with a dry paper towel or dry dish towel. Add a generous amount of oil to the pan (our host used approximately a 1/4 cup of oil in his). Remember this is a high protein dish and it will want to stick to the pan badly if you are not careful. If you are using a seasoned or non-stick pan you can get away with a little less oil, but let’s be honest it’s not called fried rice for nothing.) Put your pan high heat til nice and hot but not smoking. Add the rice to the pan and turn the heat down to medium high/ medium. Cook the rice stirring constantly until the rice has turned a nice golden color. About 3 minutes into cooking the rice, add the sliced green onion reserving some of the dark green part for garnishing with. (This would also be a good time to add any frozen peas/ carrots after first thawing them in a colander under warm water and drained. Too much excess water added to the pan will result in the rice turning very clumpy/ sticky. )
-Stir in the set aside cooked egg.
-For a fun traditional serving style, find a medium bowl and put your fried rice into it. Gently press down the rice into an even layer. Imagine you are packing down some sand to build a sand castle. Turn the rice out onto an appropriate sized platter by setting the platter right side facing the rice on top of the bowl. Then while maintaining a good grip on each flip so that the bowl is upside down. Tap to release the rice from the bowl and lift the bowl off. Behold! A beautiful mound of rice! Garnish with set aside green onion and serve with soy sauce.
