{"id":2309,"date":"2015-08-31T10:54:47","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T14:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/social.rollins.edu\/wpsites\/letters\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:31:44","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:31:44","slug":"you-said-this-food-is-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/2015\/08\/31\/you-said-this-food-is-what\/","title":{"rendered":"“You said this food is WHAT?!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever I’d asked my friends about their study abroad experience in Shanghai, they’d\u00a0casually mention the\u00a0kind locals, vivid nightlife, beautiful countryside, pollution and the lack of toilet paper in public restrooms<\/a>. What they would never fail to mention is the genuine joy and satisfaction that comes from eating Shanghai–and thus, Chinese–cuisine. “Well, sure. Who doesn’t adore Kung Pao Chicken and egg rolls\u00a0on a bed\u00a0fried rice?” True. But to the chagrin of many-including my own-true Chinese cuisine can’t be any more different than that of its Americanized, Panda Express\u00a0counterpart. “How?” Well, read below\u00a0about my take:<\/p>\n

1. Fresh and (generally) healthy.<\/strong> Now, there are westerners who like to complain about the high amounts of gluten and wheat in the Chinese diet, which originate from the Chinese’ love of dumplings, noodles and rice. That’s fair-we all know too much gluten can be a bad idea. But compared to American food that’s generally filled with cream, sugar, fat and steroids-natural or otherwise-I can’t find a place to protest (There are obvious exceptions to both sides’ stereotypes-I’m just stating my general opinion about average Americans). From what I’ve observed so far, cheese and butter don’t seem to be a staple here in China, unlike in the US. Sugar finds its way into desserts and some drinks but stays out of more main dishes \"\"<\/a>than not.\u00a0Spices, plants and vegetables are used as flavoring while oil and fat hang out\u00a0as supporting roles. Chinese emphasize meat-especially pork-and love vegetables, which tend to have high levels of protein and some vitamins. I don’t know much\u00a0about Chinese food regulations regarding pesticides and steroids but I can undoubtedly taste\u00a0the purity\u00a0in the meats and vegetables here. There are\u00a0people, stands and\u00a0markets\u00a0all over the city selling fresh produce and meat.\u00a0I didn’t realize just how fresh some of the meat was until\u00a0one afternoon when we were walking on the sidewalk in the college area of town and saw two people slicing the head off of a skinned cow\u00a0:-l\u00a0Can’t get much more fresh than that, in my opinion.\u00a0On that note,\u00a0many of westerners also speak out against the uncleanliness of Chinese cuisine. It’s true that food on your table\u00a0tends to be\u00a0communal, taking vitamins<\/a> is commonly suggested, we can’t drink the city water here and we always carry around hand sanitizer. But its a shame if you miss out on fresh local street food or a unique dish because you microanalyze\u00a0and must first stamp out every\u00a0possible speck of\u00a0bacteria (<–semi-exaggeration). Our bodies are made to ward off bacteria-we should let it do its job sometimes. Also, China is becoming more consious of food sanitization-evident in the way they vaccuum seal their individual cup\/spoon\/bowl sets for patrons at restaurants.\u00a0All that being said, I do still take multivitamins every morning, Mom, so don’t worry.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Great presentation.<\/strong> What I appreciate the most about Chinese food is how it looks when it arrives at my table. I wouldn’t call all of them works of art, but Shanghai chefs certainly know what it means to “eat with the eyes” as well as cook quickly. Mixing up the style, color, size and shape of the serving bowls is also common and adds more to ascthetics than you would think.\"\"<\/a> This goes for small noodle shops, large hotels and everywhere inbetween.\u00a0Even at corner marts\u00a0food presentation is apparent-the \"\"<\/a>past few days I’ve enjoyed a pretty seaweed-wrapped\u00a0rice ball for breakfast. Whenever a large group of us go out we sit at a round table that has a rotating glasstop in the middle of it, where all the food is placed and then passed by rotating the glasstop.\u00a0It adds an element of elegance and fun to the food\u00a0that can’t be denied, especially the first few times you go.\u00a0Chopsticks are one of my secret\u00a0loves <3,\u00a0so they only make meals more enjoyable\u00a0for me.\u00a0Futhermore,\u00a0a lot of\u00a0restaurants create a comfortable, traditional atmosphere as well to accompany their food.\u00a0Now, being an avid photographer I’ve had to resist\u00a0always taking\u00a0photos like a tourist (not that I can\u00a0pass as Chinese\u00a0anyways), but the few\u00a0times I couldn’t help\u00a0but take are\u00a0added for your perusal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Eastern ingredients.<\/strong> Speaking of presentation, Chinese food presentation doesn’t hide its ingredients. Like many other cultures of the world, the Chinese no qualms with cooking and enjoying most animal parts. If you’re eating a chicken foot, you’ll know it-and I did know it (see photo).\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>If you see that half of a dish\u00a0is made of\u00a0peppers its highly likely it will be spicy-but in a flavorful, non-lethal way.\u00a0Flavored sauces are pretty common but they don’t overpower the flavor of the food itself. The unequivocally best way to discover Chinese cuisine is to eat with locals and native Chinese who can\u00a0show you traditional foods,\u00a0encourage you to\u00a0experiment (and eat what you don’t end up liking), get you into amazing restaurants and help you love eating\u00a0true Chinese food\u00a0even more. Thanks to\u00a0my friends\u00a0in one week\u00a0I’ve tried very spicy foods (irregular\u00a0for me), watermelon juice, porridge, Chinese hamburger, snails, bullfrog, bamboo, milk tea, cold noodles, pork blood and chicken foot!<\/p>\n

We start classes tomorrow but I’m sure we’ll still find time to\u00a0be adventurous and enjoy each others’ company at meals.\u00a0I’m ready-chopsticks, away!<\/p>\n

New Chinese word\/phrase:<\/p>\n

\u5f88\u597d\u5403\uff01\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 hen3 hao3chi1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Very delicious!<\/p>\n

\u670d\u52a1\u5458\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0fu2wu4yuan2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 waiter\/waitress<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever I’d asked my friends about their study abroad experience in Shanghai, they’d\u00a0casually mention the\u00a0kind locals, vivid nightlife, beautiful countryside, pollution and the lack of toilet paper in public restrooms. What they would never fail to mention is the genuine joy and satisfaction that comes from eating Shanghai–and thus, Chinese–cuisine. “Well, sure. Who doesn’t adore…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[113,123,126,162,296],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shanghai","tag-china","tag-culture","tag-daily-life","tag-food","tag-shanghai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17478,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/17478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}