Food!!

I've had a request to move away from undergarments and put a few more posts about food. I don't think that I have anything more to add about underwear ( I did neglect to add a portion to the original story though- you can ask me about it, but I won't put it on here), but there is always lots to say about food.

Today in class we learnt how to ask about specialty foods for the areas ( in case we travel) and so it seems appropriate to post about food now. Two weekends ago, we went to a suburb of Shanghai called QiBao (pronounced chee-baow). We were accompanied by some locals who knew the area well. The name of the town means Seven Treasures- and so we tried to see as many of these treasures as possible while dodging probably the entire population of Shanghai who were also out for a Sunday stroll and snack. We were treated to some specialities for lunch. One of the specialties is fish head soup. I did not take a photo of it, but it was very tasty (seasoned with white pepper for just a little punch). We also ate jelly fish (my first time), stinky tofu - which I liked, but it did not like me (gave me quite the indigestion), squash, beef coated with chopped nuts, vegetables and other dishes that I now forget. Here are photos of the jelly fish (yummy) and marinated tofu.



Although lunch was extremely delicious, I don't think that this was the highlight for the food of the day. The main alley in the old part of town is just jammed with small stores. Some sell the shoes that I bought and other tourist stuff, but the main attraction for the visitors is the food. There were legions of stalls with everything from shave ice, corn on the cob, ice cream soup, to the more exotic. There were containers of meat on skewers that could be grilled for a few minutes. There were sweets that were made (like a spun sugar confection called dragon's beard- which I bought), and sweet bread with bean paste onthe inside and caramelized sugar on the outside- also yummy.

The jaw dropping features of the day were the chicken feet, complete with tendons wrapped around the foot, duck heads all nicely lined up in a pan (I'm told that the are also a specialty of the area), and some pig snouts. I've included the pan of very large langostine in the photos below, because they are colorful, not because they are strange to our palate.




Hope you enjoy. The photos don't convey the delicious odors of the cooking food and the multitude of people lining up for the treats. I've asked how to eat duck head, and was told that you don't really eat it, but that you might sort of suck on it. I'm not sure that it is for me, as much as I like duck, but if I ever find myself at a banquet and social etiquette decrees that I need to eat what is put in front of me, I will know what to do with the head of a duck.



I'm working on a post of foods that I eat at the house, now that we have a fridge and freezer, pots and pans. Should have that in the next few days.