I had heard from a recent visitor to China that the Chinese food I would encounter in China would bear no resemblance to the Chinese food I enjoyed in Salem.
I have no idea where he came to that conclusion. My experience eating in restaurants in Beijing and Shaghai is that the food is almost indistinguishable from the dinners I have eaten at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Salem -- Kwan’s.
Chinese cuisine is based on the wok. Pieces of meat and vegetables are diced into chopstick-sized pieces and are then stir fried in oil. All of that is then served with various types of small bite foods. The world of dim sum.
I cannot even say that the ingredients are fresher in China. Chinese food always demands fresh ingredients. It happens there. It happens at Kwan’s.
What is missing is the type of dishes that pass as Chinese food at the Safeway delicatessen counter or the Cantonese restaurants of my youth -- where heavily-breaded pieces of shrimp swim in a blob of diabetic-inducing syrup.
You will not find that type of stuff in Beijing. Or chop suey -- an American invention that ranks right up there with the Margarita as foodstuffs that have no connection with any ethnicity.
I have no idea where he came to that conclusion. My experience eating in restaurants in Beijing and Shaghai is that the food is almost indistinguishable from the dinners I have eaten at my favorite Chinese restaurant in Salem -- Kwan’s.
Chinese cuisine is based on the wok. Pieces of meat and vegetables are diced into chopstick-sized pieces and are then stir fried in oil. All of that is then served with various types of small bite foods. The world of dim sum.
I cannot even say that the ingredients are fresher in China. Chinese food always demands fresh ingredients. It happens there. It happens at Kwan’s.
What is missing is the type of dishes that pass as Chinese food at the Safeway delicatessen counter or the Cantonese restaurants of my youth -- where heavily-breaded pieces of shrimp swim in a blob of diabetic-inducing syrup.
Our hotels offered a very good buffet breakfast where the tourist can choose between a Chinese porridge for breakfast or western eggs and bacon. I tried both. But usually, I tried the various Chinese offerings.
Most of our lunches were in large banquet halls served family style. Plenty of rice and a large variety of stir-fried dishes -- pork, chicken, fish, beef, cuttlefish, shrimp, vegetables. All of them quite good.
Even if they were a bit bland. With only two exceptions, nothing was spicier than what you would find in Des Moines. And nothing that will put Maxim’s reputation in danger. But good.
Roy and I decided to go in search of our own culinary delights one night in Beijing. We found the restaurant we wanted (Hua Jiayiyuan). The first night, we were seated and we waited. And waited. And waited. For about a half hour waiters scurried all around us, but no one would meet our gaze. So, we left.
But we are not easily deterred when it comes to food. We returned on the next night and had a great meal. For Roy a beer with garlic and chili chicken.
For me, a glass of jasmine tea, a bowl of sea cucumber hot and sour soup, and braised donkey with garlic. This is the donkey. Served in a bread bowl.
Both meals were spiced just right with chilies. Mine was very spicy. But I suspect that goes along with the donkey dish. I am not certain I would order it again. But it was an interesting culinary experience.
And certainly better than grasshopper.
