h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A friend who's about to come to China expressed some concern about how Certain People would cope with food and in responding, I find I have a journal entry.

There's plenty of western style food in the cities - the usual burger, pizza and chicken places. The only caveat is that you're much more likely to get food poisoning from western style food than from the local kind.
Both of us have had slightly dodgy tummies recently. We're blaming the Japanese lunch a few days ago. There were some very strange fermented bean things - and a lot of raw fish.

We eat very well here and eating out is so cheap that staying in to cook is something one often defers.
Last night we went to a French-Vietnamese cafe and had shrimp salad rolls, a papaya salad and a chicken curry with rice + two beers and a stonking great G&T. It was light and delicious and came to much less than the price of a G&T in Lyon a few weeks ago.

A visit to the night food market at DongHuaMen/Wangfujing in Beijing is very worthwhile. The atmosphere is brilliant and there's all sorts of exotica on display. Just be careful as it can be very slippery underfoot. Also, be aware of pickpockets.
A bit of browsing around the 'nets will show some very interesting photos of things us westerners don't normally class as edible.

When dining out, one thing to beware of, if eating any kind of local meat based dish, is the bones. Everything is cooked on the bone because it gives better flavour and the odd surprise in ones mouth can have unfortunate consequences for ones dentition. It's acceptable to just put any bone splinters, or bits you don't want, directly onto the table.

I suppose the UK could be said to have a drinking culture. Over here, it's very much an eating culture. If you go to the right places - generally outside of hotels and places where there are a lot of westerners - portions will be huge and cheap.
Choose somewhere which is already busy as that's an indication it serves good food.
The best idea is to go in a group of four or more and order one main dish per person, plus an extra and some side dishes plus rice or noodles. Apart from your individual rice bowl, everything goes in the middle of the table and you help yourselves to whatever you fancy.
Obviously, chopsticks are de rigeur - but they'll find you a fork if you're struggling. On her recent trip out here, my mother, who's in her eighties, coped well with chopsticks, once she stopped concentrating on using them.

Ordering food is generally not a problem; one just points to the pictures and smiles. There's often an accompanying description which will give one a good idea of what's in the dish and is useful if, like me, you're not that interested in eating chickens' feet or pigs' intestines.

There are certain foods which tend to be found in the more expensive local restaurants - the Chinese haute cuisine, if you like; they tend to be an acquired taste for western palates.
We once attended a banquet style dinner where one of the courses was sea cucumber. It was disgusting; very little flavour and an unpleasant glutinous texture. It would have been rude not to have made an attempt and I managed to consume about half the portion by telling myself, with every mouthful, that it was overcooked mushroom.

If you anticipate being invited to one of these more formal dinners it's worth reading up on Chinese etiquette before you go. I inadvertently caused some minor offence by failing to realise that, as the most senior lady present, I was expected to have first go at the fish head which had been wheeled round to me.

Thanks, for the insight.

Thanks VERY much for the insight! I shall point my traveling companion in this direction

One thing I forgot to mention is that, to the Chinese, the balance of a meal is important.
One should have sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter flavours.

I wouldn't worry too much about this - they think we're daft barbarians anyway

Sounds quite similar to Japanese cuisine - which I would trust far more than Chinese in terms of dodgy tummies. We felt very healthy in Japan but I'm told 'everyone gets tummy upsets in China'.

When we had a traditional meal in Japan, we thought we'd be viewed oddly for eating only the elements we liked of each dish. As you say, the different parts are supposed to complement each other.

Bad luck with the fish head!

This is my fifth visit to China and up until now I'd managed to avoid any digestive unpleasantness - even after eating at roadside stalls and some very dodgy looking places.

What started as a slightly iffy tummy has now become full blown EAS - which is strange since Mr T's fine and we've been eating pretty much the same food.

Am now spending a second day cooped up in the apartment

Poor old you. Chinese tea is probably very welcome then as a tummy settler.

Hi my friend,

So you did go... I thought I had misread your posting.

So sorry about the wonky tummy. I suppose that china tea is really the best cure. You are having a great time. today there was a programme on TV and they were saying that Japanese cooking is the healthiest in the world and that the Japanese live longer than any othernation. quite a thought that.

I look forward to the next instalment when your have recovered. Well done your Mum coping with chop sticks.

Go well, Much affection

Christiane.
AR80

Hope that you have recovered, T

I guess I'll bring my titanium I can eat, even if not with accurateness, with chop sticks. But I know I'm a daft barbarian so I hope I'll be excused.



*note to self - pack loperamid and ORT tablets*

Fascinating stuff Teuchter,

My son had a Chinese couple staying with him when he was in a student house. They insisted on cooking for him every night, until he had to find a way of telling them that he just could not be there every evening as he had to work. Apart from that the quantity of food they served up was enormous. He found certain 'signs of appreciation' a bit hard to take too, if you get my drift

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Websailor

There is a theoretical link between loperamide and toxic megacolon in infectious diarrhoea.

>>There is a theoretical link between loperamide and toxic megacolon in infectious diarrhoea.<<

Life's full of excitements

I found some time ago that loperamide is not a friend of mine

What's loperamide in?

Immodium - I think it's also available generically.

Thanks, I've just been putting together our first aid pack, and I've got immodium as well as Boots diarrhea relief tablets.

My dose of EAS turned out to be a bug, rather than food poisoning. J now has the bug and has had to go off to a day of Very Important And Crucial Meetings, feeling like death-warmed-up.
He really should be in bed, resting.

Interesting that he is much more ill with it than I was. Hmm.

Hmm! I shall say nothing. Hope he is better soon, you too.

Websailor