The duck heart was tasty, but the mental thoughts were too much. When I looked inside the heart (after my first bite,) and saw the blood, I put it down. The Old Testament was calling out too much, "don't eat the blood!!"
Different cities have their own specific foods. Tianjin people do not like spices so much. People in the south like their spicy food. People in the north like noodles, people in the south enjoy rice more than noodles. (Most Chinese people consider rice as a main dish, but at restaurants it is always served at the end.)
I have never before consumed so much powdered milk. (We can get milk at the grocery store, but sometimes it's not there.) I have now cooked with it quite often.
Fruit and veggies are much cheaper at the market rather than the grocery store. They are (often) of better quality. Most of the produce comes directly from nearby farms. (BUT! In one store I have seen imported Washington state apples!!!)
Food stands are nice and yummy. Various types of Chinese foods are sold. I don't think it has really made me sick yet. Some of my favorite meals are noodles boiled on a hot fire with oil, spices, noodles (you choose), spinach, cabbage, meat, mushrooms, etc. Yummy! You get to eat it with the broth. Bao zi is a dumpling-like food. A bread pastry on the outside and pig, vegetables, or seafood in the middle. I guess it comes from Tianjin. Chinese BBQ is FUN! You put your food on sticks, put it over the long, skinny, rectangular barbeque, sprinkle spices on top, spread oil over the top, turn as it cooks, pick it up, and eat it off the stick. A nice community, friendship building experience.
Vinegar is used in almost every dish. This did affect my digestion in the first weeks I was in China.
Cheese is expensive and rarely consumed. (TILLAMOOK!!) Culturally, Chinese people have not consumed much cheese. With the introduction of the pizza, more people of the younger generations (probably beginning with mine,) are eating more dairy products, but they can still be hard to find and they are usually expensive. Their yogurt is most often in liquid form, not the semi-solid kind. (Interesting mouth experience there.)
Meat can be purchased at the market (where it is sitting out, under fans, so flies don't land on them). The meat is usually of acceptable quality, but sometimes you don't know what it is. Especially the ground meat. It could be cow, could be pig, could be donkey...some have even said it could be dog. (haha)
When you think you are purchasing beef and you ask for it to be ground, left over meat from the previous customer who wanted their mutton meat to be ground could end up in your meat package. Oh yes. I have tasted this in my chili before.
Chicken is cheaper. Ground beef is more expensive. Chicken breast is hard to find in our white market. I have gone to the grocery store for it. I can't remember how much it was and/or how much it weighed. I know that for what I brought (3 food items, including the chicken) I paid around 6USD. (Now, I would say that's a great deal!)
Spices are "key". They are used, but many people don't know how to distinguish the taste of the spices. (Maybe it's just my generation who don't know how to cook, or maybe it's because the hot spices just overtake your tongue.) They look for the overall taste of the combination of spices, not for the individual taste of each spice. The spices can make anything taste good. The duck intestines and chicken feet included.
Food is very important in Chinese culture. I will learn more, observe more, draft more, and report back to you later.
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