China Ethnographic Expedition II. Part VII. Dalian, Chinese cuisineMapNovember 30, 2015 DalianMapThe Russian city of Dalniy was founded here over one hundred years ago. Today it’s called Dalian and looks more like New York. ![]() There are lots of gabled houses in Dalian. ![]() A romantic and trendy city. ![]() Trendy and romantic. ![]() “Broads and fish” mural. ![]() Cute trams run here. ![]() Our hostel. ![]() Our room. Since it’s our last night we’re going all out — separate rooms for boys and girls. ![]() The city is delightful. ![]() To be fair, the Chinese don’t ascribe much value to ancient beauty. ![]() Instead of handing what’s left of this old neighbourhood over to artists, they plan to simply raze it to the ground. ![]() You can already see what’s soon-to-be-built on the horizon. ![]() It’s cold out. ![]() And awfully windy. ![]() Taxi. ![]() There’s a red nub on top of all of the traffic light poles. ![]() The city looks like a mixture of Australia, the US and Brezhnev-era neighbourhoods. From time to time you can catch glimpses of Europe. ![]() Other parts look like the motherland. ![]() Sailors’ tavern Chinese cuisineHey guys! ![]() Ethnography isn’t ethnography unless there’s food involved. This is what a real Chinese cook looks like. He’s just cooked up some great grub for six laowai. ![]() And this is what the wellspring of Chinese cuisine looks like. This is a restaurant fridge. Veggie crisper drawers are stacked vertically; the meat compartments, which resemble treasure chests, are at the bottom (they also double as freezers). ![]() An endless supply of finger lickin’ good dishes are brought out of this fridge, which resembles the Russian children’s book character Moydodyr (or Eat-till-you-dropper). What’s more is, their inventiveness never fails to amaze. For instance, you point to some white beans, not much you can rustle up using those, right? But then they’ll serve them to you hot, breaded and fried. ![]() Everything goes well with everything else, to everyone’s delight. Our tables did not remain empty for long. ![]() There are also cheaper and more cheerful establishments. Where, for instance, you just pile as much as you can into your bowl for a given number of yuan. Boiled eggs are literally sold on every street corner. ![]() Or you can eat pikelets, eggs, and these yummy ready-made sticks. ![]() Or can feast on a pre-prepared noodle bowl. Noodles are the most popular dish in all of Asia, from China to Japan, including both Koreas, North and South. If there aren’t have any decent noodles on hand, everyone tucks into crappy instant noodles. That’s why there are titanium water boilers absolutely everywhere — at train stations and one in each train carriage. They’re there so you can pour water over your noodles, not for brewing tea. ![]() In China, 99% of all food sold in the street and in restaurants is delicious. Just like in India. Although in China they add in MSG, which makes the food even tastier. The ill-informed believe that MSG is bad for you. I would go so far as to come up with a slogan for MSG: “MSG packs serious umami”. ![]() |
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november 2015
ChinaEthnoExp II. Part VII
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