Food (No Really, That’s It)

11/11/11 (Singles day in Kunming)

Oh the food; the food has been excellent. Well, not the cafeteria food, but you know. I believe it is a universal truth that cafeteria food is horrid.  Real Chinese food is very different from American Chinese food. Except for those duck pancakes. Those are pretty much the same.  Half the time I have no idea what I’m eating, but that’s also because twenty-five percent of the time the food does not exist in the states. For instance, I was served something last night that translates as “arrowhead.” And there is always so much of it. At restaurants (where the NGO officials have ordered for us) the food just will not stop coming. And of course it’s delicious, so you just keep Lazy Susaning it around.  What tends to stop me is the spice. Apparently Kunming is “obsessed with spice.” One of the few Chinese words I know is “la” (with an angry accent,) meaning, “spice.” My lips are constantly swollen, but at least it’s training for India!
            I have to say, one of my favorite things has been the street food. I stumble out of bed in the morning, and buy a sugared ball of rice, with a non-sugared churro-type-thing on the inside. That’s if I don’t want the cafeteria’s option of spicy noodles or spicy noodles. I’m slowly getting used to it. I’ve decided to try every type of street food there is. In New York I would never eat street meat, so I don’t know what’s possessed me to do it here. My favorite so far, has been boa zi or steamed round dumplings. Apparently you can haggle over everything here, even street food. This I found out when trying to get two dumplings instead of four, and ended up getting four dumplings for two Yuan.

            That’s another thing about the food, it’s all so cheap! I can get nine dumplings for five Yuan (under $1.) There is no way I can use up all of my food per diem.  I’ll just have to abuse it on coke zeroes (they don’t have diet coke here) and bubble tea. China is just plain making me cheap. A meal at the American restaurant costs about $10! Now at home that might be cheap, but here it’s $1 or no deal.

            We’ve also been taken to several vegetarian restaurants (for the Buddhist monks,) and those meals are quite interesting. All the tofu is shaped to look like meat. An entire plate will come out shaped like a fish, head and all. I’m not a fan of tofu, but the vegetables have been the best of my life.  Oh, and sweet sticky rice that comes in a pineapple, beautiful! Of course we get a bowl of white rice with every meal, but this is different.

            We asked our Chinese teacher why the Chinese don’t get fat eating so much fried food. Apparently, they use a different, less-fattening type of oil that’s illegal in the US because it needs to be cooked over an open flame. I’m not so sure about this… With the traditional food of Kunming being a fried pancake with egg, spices, and potatoes, freshman fifteen here I come!

            Okay, I know I promised this would just be about food, but I should probably talk about the experimental minority school they brought us to as well. I’m not sure how it became a minority school. I know they didn’t just separate the minority students out, because some majority students also attend the school. Perhaps it’s because instead of uniforms, many of the minority children were in their traditional clothing. As for why it’s experimental, Yunnan prides itself more than anything on its minorities, and this school seemed the right place to start. Chinese schools have often been criticized for there lack of creativity, and this experimental school is a step towards rectifying that. The class we sat in on was truly captivating. The teacher was so enthusiastic, and all the little children in their homemade bird hats were completely with her. There were birds flying across the white-board, and I could see how magical it was for the students learning to read.

            They pulled out all the stops for our visit. Their best English students greeted us and sang to us in English. We were all given beautifully decorated cards with messages like, “I wish you healthy, happy day. Welcome to our school! Do you like my school? Hi! My name is Song Xin Yu. I come from Jing Xing School. Four class five grade. My favorite food is fish, green beans and egg…” It was shamelessly adorable. Then they put all of us Americans on a stage in front of the entire school, and made us follow them as they danced several traditional minority dances. It was hilarious and humiliating. I think it’s beautiful that they all had to learn everyone’s traditional dances. I wish we could be teaching there!

Love,

Katherine