NEXT.....

So... where was I, oh yeah, next part of the sequenced day...

Food - [important topic]

There isn't enough server space and memory in all of the computers in the U.S. to contain what could be said about food here... but, what I can tell you is this: there are not solid portions of any one particular thing, ever. The Chinese like to chop everything into super-small chunks, then blend it all together. It is this way with everything - fried rice [of course], soups, meats, "side dishes" - which are exactly like the main dish, only next to it and chopped-up as well (which, in turn, forced me to ask the question: then which one is the 'main' dish?? and how does one tell... answer: well, either one can be main dish and either one can be side dish - just depends on what you like to eat and how much of it - the thing you eat the most of becomes the main dish.) Hmmmmm.... Another thing is that "Chinese" food in the U.S. isn't really Chinese food - it is the Americanized version of Chinese food [like Taco Bell is the Americanized version of Mexican food]. Obviously if you went to Mexico and tried to tell the natives there how Taco Bell is good "Mexican" food - you'd get laughed out of their country - same is true here. Which is interesting because you can't really find the 'typical' Sweet-and-Sour Chicken or Kung-Pow Chicken, even the fried rice is different and I have yet to see egg rolls in any real mass quantity anywhere. Interesting thing about rice here - when you say "fried rice" they will ask you which kind? To my surprise there are 12 to 15 different types of fried rice.... I was always under the impression that there was the white kind and the fried kind, and that the fried kind had some egg and a few vegetables and soy in it or something like that - and was brown. Here fried rice comes with so many different 'additive' options that it would make your head spin, examples: shrimp, egg, ham, beef, various seafood's, plain fried, pork, vegetables I can't even begin to pronounce, etc. There are more options for different variant forms of fried rice on menus here than there are drink options.

WHICH brings me to my next sub-topic of food.... most people here, and I'm assuming other places outside the U.S., like to drink their beverages at room temperature. Being a native U.S.'er I come from the land of 64 oz. big gulps, packed to the brim with ice. Here: a 3 oz. portion [which is a large shot glass back in the States] and half of a single ice cube is the standard. Interestingly enough, several places offer drinks right out of the can - GOD bless Coca-Cola, Sprite and Evian for conquering this market. AND for obvious westerners, aka: laowai (pronounced: LAUW WHY = foreigners) they keep these drinks in a super-cold refrigerator. Which makes washing down the various un-identified objects on my daily plate much much easier. I have developed a new found liking to hot teas... they are surprisingly good here. At breakfast on the fifth floor of our building after the first day of repeated refills of my shot glass I finally decided to expedite this process by obtaining 5 of these little guys and lining them up at the top of my breakfast plate. In shear stunning amazement - the wait staff all stared and pointed as I downed glass after glass in the first round - only to return for refills of all five glasses. I'm sure I was the talk of the kitchen for days to come.

Something else about food here - like the central theme in the first and this post - is the differences. Sure they have pork, but Asian pork. And, sure they have sausage, but it is Asian sausage. Etc. Most of the stuff is pretty good, but still there are "differences" in the taste of the meat and other food. You can distinguish when you are eating beef from Australia from eating beef from the Main Land. One thing they do have here is impressive bacon - I've never had bacon this good, anywhere. Not much fat on it and HUGE slices of it - which goes against the main food ideology here, chopped little chunks [which makes me suspect that it, or the idea of it, was imported from somewhere]. Nevertheless, I don't care who was responsible for it - they did an outstanding job with the bacon.

Street Food -

As in the U.S. and other places, in big cities, there are people that always try to sell you food directly off the streets. In the U.S. these people are called: street vendors, aka: hotdog stand guy, etc. Here, I have no idea what these people are called... and WOW there are a lot of them. Everyone makes something a little different too. After a few day spat with some serious stomach ails and eating in 5 star establishments, I avoided these people like the Black Plague or the equivalent. After I "adjusted" slightly... (still a little lingering biological conditioning going on inside) Jen and I finally made our way down to enjoy some of this Authentic Chinese Cuisine. And let me be the first to tell you - yes, it is unbelievably good food. Because of my first go around with high-end restaurant food that didn't sit well - I stayed mostly to the deep-fried 400+ degree oil foods [germ killer processes at work there]. Really good dumplings and little pork and beef deep-fried rolls?? Anyway, they were tasty. Then a night or two later, Jen and I ventured down and picked some things from the meat cart: I had lamb on a stick, seasoned, and Jen prefers the calamari / squid... both were excellent in taste and preparation. A day or two after that, I found DIRECT PROOF that the myths are true... upon becoming more adventurous and less sick, I wanted to start sampling a greater variety of meats from said vendors, since the lamb experience was sooooo impressive. Which is when the vendor began to explain to Jen that there was: beef, pork, fish, shell-fish, vegetables, chicken, various fowl (different bird species) and then he said it..... Jen did a double take and all this was going on in Mandarin, she turns to me and points at the last grouping of meats on this large cart and says: "That stuff is the DOG". Right then and there I could feel my insides starting to turn [I had not eaten any of this stuff, nor will I ever], but just the thought of it made me feel ill. I talked to a guy from Holland that didn't know he was eating dog on a stick and he actually said it tasted pretty good - although he avoids it at all cost, since he is a pet lover.

I'll post some pictures of the vendors up on the site when we get back to Shanghai so you know what I'm talking about.

Enough about food for now... more to follow sometime again, I'm sure of it.