Food -- Gotta Have It!

Food – Gotta Have It!

We hope you ate some turkey for us on Thanksgiving! Actually, we ate at a Western hotel dinner buffet and had some turkey ourselves! Kitchens here don't have ovens, so the many foods we bake in America are not very popular here, or even possible. Meat is pretty expensive, so it’s usually cut into small pieces to make it spread further--usually chicken or pork, and all the fat is chopped up with it as well. Many non-meat products are flavored with meat, and every bit of the animal is utilized.

 We're eating a lot of peanut butter, eggs, and cheese. We get cheese from a small business that imports Western foods, however much of it is quite expensive. A box of Kraft mac and cheese is $4, and a Betty Crocker cake mix is about $5.  The local food is pretty cheap. Fruits and vegetables (some I don't recognize) cost less than at home, but its only available when in season. Butter and milk are sometimes hard to find but yogurt is a big seller.

Every week we try to find some comfort food—there are a couple of places that have burgers, and we have found a Turkish restaurant that is very good. If we’re really desperate for Western food, the chains we have here include Subway, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and KFC.  Of course, to get to any of them is a long walk or a bus ride, so we really have to want them badly! 

We aren’t too far from a fairly good grocery store, and it’s always an adventure to shop. For example, there are probably ten to fifteen different kinds of eggs—you can choose on the basis of color (blue, gray, white, brown, speckled, clean or straight from the farm),the bird it comes from (type of chicken, goose, duck, quail, pigeon etc.) or the way you would like it prepared—raw, hard-boiled, fermented, or pickled, and how you would like it packaged-- vacuum-packed, in a carton, or loose (sold individually), to take home with you or as a quick on-the-go snack. 

That process can be repeated for any number of things from oil, rice, soy sauce, yogurt to chips and snacks. Of course, don’t try to find ketchup, jam or pickles!

Oils by the gallon--not apple ju

rice of many varities

chicken head soup?

Many things are not quite what the picture on the label represents.  How helpful it would be, we think, to have English to tell us what it is!

or maybe duck is more your taste

Tofu---we think!

Of course, sometimes the translation doesn’t really help identify the item!! Or make you want to sample it! Tofu, anyone?

The Chinese don't do candy!  We had some that tasted a little like milk-flavored dry noodles-let us know if you want us to bring some home for you!  Richard has found something he recognizes, even in Chinese!  So things aren't so bad!

Goodies!

And it tastes the same!

The majority of the foot traffic opts for street food.  There are many open air markets selling foods we don’t recognize. You can get your duck cooked, or pick out your favorite for Peking duck!

We only eat foods that we see cooked in boiling oil, so we know it’s safe!

Seaweed must be a delicacy

One of our staples at home is ice cream. It is almost nonexistant here. We did find Haagen Dazs, but at 99 RMB or $16 a pint. So eat some ice cream and think of us!

 

The Chinese are catching up with us by offering more quick prepackaged foods.  We enjoy finding those that have been translated into English or are recognizable by the picture portraying what’s inside. How about American prunes, anyone? Scarlet says they’re great! Of course we can't see why anyone in China would EVER need prunes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A Trip to the Dentist

We have been told numerous times by our students that the food in China is delicious. It must be an acquired taste. Since meat is at a premium around here, I try to consume it when available. Herein is the saga resulting from a single ox tail soup bone. One day, Suzanne had a helping of what appeared to be beef stew in our faculty dining hall. It turned out to be ox tail soup, complete with bones. A hidden bone assaulted a molar and broke off the back half.  After the initial insult from the ox tail bone, Suzanne was faced with several fundamental questions.

store front dental work, anyone?

The possibilities were: 1. Ignore it  2. Go to a street dentist or 3. Try to find a real dentist. One of Suzanne’s students gave a report on the Chinese medical system. She stated that everyone knows that the medical system is not very good, so the best thing to do is to stay healthy!  That’s sometimes easier said than done! Perhaps ignoring the problem until we were back in America would be a good option, but we have many months to go before returning home. One of the American teachers gave us a referral to a dentist. We only knew that he spoke English and he had at least one American satisfied customer. We made an appointment at the Fourth Military Medical Hospital. It turns out that this is the dental training hospital for the People’s Army. High government officials come here for dental work, which most need because they lived through the Cultural Revolution and therefore have fairly bad teeth.

The first visit was to determine if the tooth could be saved. The dentist ordered x-rays. We traveled to another floor in the building for x-rays. (10RMB = $1.60). The root looked good, so  step one was to drill and insert pins into the dentin to rebuild the shape of the tooth with filling material. (No Novocain). Two hour procedure, 350 RMB = $56. Then she waited two weeks to see if the tooth survived the procedure.

 

Survival meant a crown was in order, tooth death meant root canal. It was a long two weeks. We appreciate the prayers of each of you and knowing that we are included in most prayer circles. The tooth survived, so two weeks later Suzanne met with another dentist who was a crown specialist. There was a lot of grinding and weeping and wailing but no gnashing of teeth. This time there was Novocain ! (10 RMB for the shot.) She left with a temp. crown.

We celebrated by eating a long donut-like thing that had been boiled in oil! Two more weeks and the final visit saw the permanent crown installed. The crown came with a one year guarantee on workmanship and materials. Total cost was $570. Less than the copay in the good old USA. We’ll spare you the photo of the tooth! 

We’re surviving and are well and happy.  Every day brings a new adventure!