All about food...

All about Food   Yep- it's different year.  I miss American coffee.  I miss our version of "Chinese" food. I REALLY miss good 'ole Diet Coke (the Chinese version is the Splenda sweetened kind. It just isn't the same.)   And, I really wish that I could read the menu!!    Fortunately, at the fast food establishments, they have picture menus.  So far, we've visited McDonalds and KFC.  There is a surprising number of KFC restaurants in Beijing and Chongqing .  I really don't remember the last time that I even thought about KFC, let alone ate at KFC. In China , well… it's one of very few options that Dan and I are comfortable navigating without a translator.  And, for lunch and dinner in Chongqing , we are on our own!!  Perhaps we will venture out to Pizza Hut tonight.   Our hotel has a breakfast buffet that visit every morning.  Our daily breakfast consists of fried rice, sauteed noodles, watermelon, undercooked bacon, and an omelet.  I usually have a bowl of congee as well (a rice based hot cereal.. it tastes like cream of wheat).  I admit.  It's a strange collection of food... but it's familiar to us. So, we load up!   Let's see what else??  OH- on our first day in Beijing , we ate a traditional Chinese lunch.  It was very good!  Except for the fish…. which was served with head and tail still intact.  In all fairness, I didn't try the fish. It might have been very good.   I just couldn't get past those beady little eyes staring at me.   Much to Dan's pleasant surprise, the beer is often 'free' here!  No joke!  At our dinner buffet (and our Chinese lunch), the beer was included with your meal.  The soda was extra, but the beer was free!   And finally… there is Wal-Mart.  Yes.  Wal- Mart in China will be included in my post about food.  We went to Wal-Mart in search of more diapers, baby formula, etc.  On our way to check out, we went through the 'meat' department.  It was, well, … different.  Allow me to paint a picture for you.  Imagine the freezer section of your local grocery store.  Not the part with the tall doors, but the part with the big coffin cases. Now, fill the case with crushed ice and put unwrapped, raw meat on top.  There you have it, folks.  The meat department in China .  It is literally piles of raw meat, separated by cut, laying on top of crushed ice.  Whole chickens in one section, wings in another, etc.  Nothing prewrapped.  Nothing wrapped at all actually.  They buy their meat like we buy our produce.  Grab a clear bag from the roll… pick out your meat, and put it in the bag.  Ick!  The seafood department is very similar except all of the seafood is still swimming.  Fish. Turtles. Frogs.  Grab a net. Catch your 'dinner'.  Put it in a bag.  Lori M. Baylor