Observations in China
Food
I'm going to start this blog post by introducing some of my favorite foods I ate this summer.
冰粉 （Ice-jelly / Bingfen): This is a cold, sweet dish more popular in Southern China. It consists of a sweet, syrupy base with jelly bits floating around, and some restaurants also add raisins, peanuts, sesame, hawthorn berry bits (the red cubes in the photo) that add texture with the jelly. What I like about it is that it's not the sickly-type sweet. It's not really given the strict distinction as a "dessert" either, and can be eaten whenever.
丝娃娃 (Siwawa): This is a popular dish in the Guiyang province. At first before searching it up I thought it would be a melon-related dish, due to the similarities with 丝瓜 (Sponge gourd, a vegetable in the cucumber family). But nope; how you eat it is you get a round, thin 面皮 (soft, cooked Mandarin dough) around palm-sized, and you add in cut vegetables and meats (none are raw) you want to eat. You roll up the dough and then pour a savory, slightly sour soup over it. You could also dip the roll in the soup. It's really good and way exceeded my expectations. I think the soup brings everything together.
You're usually given a selection of vegetables and meats, such as bean sprouts, seaweed, julienned cucumber, pressed tofu, etc.
北京烤鸭（Peking duck): A classic, but for a good reason. It's also a wrapped food, and the staples are roasted duck, sliced cucumber, scallion, and sweet bean or hoisin sauce. You wrap it in a thin, Mandarin pancake. The items are dipped into the sauce then wrapped, or some people use a spoon to evenly distribute the sauce onto the pancake first.
I saw varieties where people do a "sweet" version with hawthorn berry, Hami melon, and a sweet sauce.
Duck skin is often dipped into white sugar, and it's very crisp and tasty (only downside is that it's not healthy...).
In the photo ignore the pancakes put next to the duck..
驴肉火烧 (Donkey burger): Now I feel like the English translation diminishes how good this food is... but it's whatever. I thought the meat would taste weird maybe, but it's not very fatty nor does it reek of a strong smell.
China fast food is so so so good.
I'm sorry to Italians but there's not only pineapple pizza... but also durian pizza??? It's sweet to the right levels and way exceeded my expectations. In the variety I ate I think durian paste was incorporated into the dough somehow (it wasn't durian fruit directly onto cheese, which is what I expected).
There's also "black" and "purple" chicken nuggets as a side dish.. the first is called 黑金鸡块 in Chinese and the name of the latter I completely forgot, but I remember the name has something to do with 桃花 (sakura flower). I guess that's what supposedly gives it the purple-pink color. I ate the latter one and it's pretty good. Of course.. the color might be put on through food-coloring.
The "purple" nuggets are top right; the other purple food is a sweet dessert made from yam. And lastly the classic burger + Cola + fries is still very popular :)
A combo from Dicos
The next two aren't foods "native" to China, but I found it delicious and will hence share it below :)
Baguette + cold smoked salmon + Swiss cheese: If you layer baguette slices with cold smoked salmon and then cheese, it's really good.
Egg tarts + yogurt/whipped cream: Scoop some yogurt or whipped cream into the center of the tart. Again it's really good.
Fashion
This section is mostly about fashion and dress differences I noticed between China and in the U.S.. It's mostly relevant to girls (well, I'm a girl...).
Girls/young women in China seem to style themselves more femininely than those in the U.S.. I'm not saying that girls/women in the U.S. are not stylish or feminine (of course this cannot be generalized), but in China, for instance, long skirts and dresses seem to be more popular than in the U.S.. On the other hand, crop tops are not as popular.
Some girls in China like dressing as a student: Now I might be biased with this one, but some girls in China seem to like clothes that dress themselves as a student..? And not just teenagers, but some young women (20-30) seem to follow this trend too. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of it.
There's a lot more options and variety, in clothing style, hair-clips, etc. In several stores I went to there were huge walls of claw-clips, and in different colors, styles, etc. You don't seem to see that much in the U.S..
Lifestyle
A lot of pet-owners do not use leashes. Many dogs I saw just roamed around public arenas, but were clearly well-groomed and had owners.
Toilet paper is often outside the stall, in the general area where you wash your hands. You get toilet paper first before entering the stalls. I never seen this in the U.S.. A lot of people also bring toilet paper themselves in case the stall/restroom does not provide it, which is sometimes the case.
Sun-protection is taken very seriously. The weather is often 30 degree Celsius above, and you still see people wearing jackets and long pants. People also use face-masks and hats that protect you from the UV radiation, and there's always a lot of umbrellas out.
Fashion >> Comfort: And I swear a lot of people follow this. I see so many women and girls wearing heavy make-up and in long dresses in tourist sites where it's 30 degrees (Celsius) plus outside. It's quite commendable.
There's a lot of announcements in public facilities. For instance, often before you go on an escalator, a loudspeaker may remind you to mind your step and take care of the elderly and children traveling with you. Similarly, on trains and subways, the next station and final destination are announced. In tourist-heavy spots, loudspeakers tell you where to go.
A lot of apartment buildings are new, and empty. And this is a phenomenon not just in one city.
A lot of people smoke, including people in their 20-30s. It's way more popular than vapes, though this is probably also the general case in the U.S..
A small dog I saw outside a noodle restaurant.
Wow, if you're still here, thanks for reading! :)
Comments