Drying meat in the Jianxi Province.
The Chinese classic and it was perfect: Slightly charred fried green beans with garlic and chicken in a light brown sauce. Shanghai.
Head Cheese. (wondering what the character means for Head Cheese. Just learned that Chinese words are formed by combining different words into one character. Might word for Head Cheese be the combination of: brains, repulsive, congealed and waste not?)
An employee meal in Jingdezhen (where Chinese blue and white porcelain obtained its finest form 1700 years ago). Food of note: far left, an amazing shredded fried potato dish, the classic and my favorite, sautéed greens with garlic and a pancake with scallions.
Green tea.
Wide array of tofu in a fantastic, local only market in Suzhou.
Curried lamb soup with hand-pulled noodles. Incredible curried fried rice at rear. I recently discovered Arabic influenced Chinese cuisine after reading a hilarious Sunday Routine in the NYT with Gary Shteyngart. I have been eating quite a bit in NYC but was a bit surprised to find it so prevalent. Loads of curry, lamb, skewers of bbq'd meats, hot fresh bread.
Shucked nuts
Attacking a stalk of sugarcane on a local bus from Wuyan to Guanxi in the Jianxi province..
Rice stuffed lotus root in sweet sauce.
Barrel baked bread. Coal bricks in the center, fresh dough (at left) is stuck to the interior walls and bakes in less than 2 minutes. Two types: One round piece stuffed with honey, the other an oval shape with scallions. One piece cost about 8 cents.
Another incredible bread dish. This fried bread with sesame seeds was served piping hot and one had the choice of a brushing of a spicy red pepper sauce. 15 cents for the bag.
30 types of Rice Wine. Two main types, dark or clear. The dark was similar to a tasty port. Clear was like moonshine. Some were quite expensive.
One of the best dished I had in China (though my stomach would dispute this the next day). Small whole fish in an extremely spicy pepper sauce. I would open up the fish with one chop stick and pull out the whole spine in tact, meat falling away. Must of eating 10. Washed down with lots of terrible Chinese beer which color could not have been a lesser yellow.
Egg sandwich from street vendor. Incredible sandwich I had waited 14 years to have again. A crepe batter with egg, scallions, sweat bean sauce, spicy pepper sauce, cilantro and fried wonton cracker folded over itself. Larger blog post devoted solely to this breakfast miracle in coming days.
