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Now for a real thread! I got back recently from Atlas Obscura’s 2-week China culinary trip. It was my first trip with AO, and it was a doozy—starting in Qingdao and going all the way down to Guangzhou!
First stop, Qingdao, where we strolled the seafood markets and picked out sea snails, tiny flounders, and beltfish to eat.
...and then there was this guy.
Then, onto the Tsingtao beer museum, where a hologram of an old-timey German brewer splashed beer all over us (volume on only if you want to hear me shriek)
Then, we did a trek up misty Laoshan, which did help us work up an appetite for...
The mega mantou we had at a local farmhouse (along with chicken soup, daikon spears, dumplings, and corn cakes)
The farm house was so pretty!
There wasn’t a lot of extracurricular eating possible (several spectaculsr meals a day, you know) but I did cram a tanghulu in my face once or twice (that’s sugar coated hawthorn!)
Then, it was on to Qufu, where we visited Confucius’ grave along with 300 very excited elementary school kids
That night we stayed in a Confucius-themed hotel (YEAH) and had traditional dishes from his family cuisine like this amazing carved pear with goji and ginkgo
In Yamgzhou, we encountered the amazing self-revolving lazy Susan at a restaurant on Yangzhou University campus itself that specializes in Huaiyang cuisine
Here we also had Chrysanthemum tofu, where tofu is transformed into a pretty flower with more than a hundred cuts!
Then on to Zhenjiang, where we had THE black vinegar and also these huge honking soup dumplings you have to drink with a straw
I could have stayed in my room in Yamgzhou forever, though, which was next to a lotus pond and surrounded with pine trees
Next stop...a chateau in the Loire Valley? No. This is a roadside rest stop. I bought some pomelo and a fiber-supplemented Coke here.)
Actual next stop, lovely canal town of Wuzhen
Wuzhen has a big indigo dyeing workshop...
And a soy sauce workshop.
Some treats of Wuzhen: Louis Vuitton buns, mulberry leaves with egg, and a perfect pumpkin dumpling
My god, it’s full of stars...(actually egg custard)
Then, on to Shanghai, where I had a New York slice (just kidding, this Joe’s wasn’t open yet)
Just LOOK at this bobo lee yuxu cake. Shades of “meat fruit” but it was filled with preserved fruit and cream.
The same day featured spicy crickets and spicy rabbit heads, from a Yunnan and a Sichuan restaurant respectively. Crickets below!
Side note: I yelled laughing when I went into a mall and saw this WeWork-ish place where you co-work AND enjoy “fine cuisine from around the world”
The last dinner in Shanghai featured these bunny rice dumplings!
I had to go to the Peace Hotel Bar, of course (average musician age,according to their website, is 82)
What’s that there...? We must be in Guangzhou!
In Guangzhou we had lots of 2 things: soup (fruit, pigeon, turtle) and DIM SUM (just let your mind go wild.) On the right, HK style egg tarts and above, Portuguese-style!)
WAIT back up we also went to Suzhou. As the saying goes, above there’s heaven, and on earth there’s Hangzhou and Suzhou. Here’s the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Squirrel Fish, at the same restaurant where the Qianlong Emperor tried it and gave it its name (according to lore)
Back to Guangzhou! We had dim sum in this frankly palatial restaurant
Then, we bought fistfuls of candy from this gentleman, after we heard him tooting from afar
Roasted sweet potatoes...and how to pay for them, by scanning a QR code on your phone (which was still not a thing when I lived in China several years back!)
On our last day, we took it pretty easy, visiting an enormous seaside monument to Mazu, an ocean goddess
Just kidding, we immediately ate some more. But this time we cooked for ourselves at a culinary school! Have I finally figured out how to make decent fried rice??!?
I feel super lucky to have gone on this adventure, and I’ll definite write some stories about it. But let me tell you, I came away from it with new friends, amazing memories, and many, many snacks.
Leaving you all with the trip motto: To the people, food is heaven!
And this little kittie who watched us go by in Shanghai.
