Lawnmower Chicken...

My students have a bevy (gaggle? flock? pod? covey?) -- that's it -- a covey -- of questions for their first native-English-speaking Professor (me). They crave lessons about U.S. culture -- things like Halloween, Christmas, American schools, American dating, U.S. government, etc. But probably the single most frequent question I get is:

Do you like Chinese Food?

If you were asked that question, how would you answer it?

My answer is always this --> "I really like the Chinese food we have in America. But the Chinese food we have in America is American Chinese food, not Chinese Chinese food.  But since I have come to China I have learned what real Chinese food is, and I LOVE it!" This answer delights them, because in addition to being intensely proud of their country, they are a nation of Foodies and are obsessed about food.  

Since many of you who read this blog have never been to China, let me explain my answer.

There are two places I like to go to eat Chinese food in America -- PF Chang's and Panda Express (sorry to all you purists out there...but I do like P.E.).  (Oh -- and I like to eat Chinese food at my son and daughter-in-law's house). But the Chinese food in the restaurants is Americanized to appeal to American palates. Some of my favorite American Chinese food dishes are Kung Pau chicken and Sesame chicken..

Last semester there was a young man who had graduated from the university at which we teach, and he had just returned from a two-year internship in America.  He addressed one of my classes about his experiences in the USA, and then opened it up for questions.  I asked him: "How did you like the Chinese food in America?"

His answer was immediate and emphatic: "It was terrible. That is not Chinese food!"

I rest my case, your honor. 

We have eaten out many, many times in China -- at least 150 meals (lunches and/or dinners) since August, and I have never seen Kung Pau chicken in China. I have never seen Sesame chicken.  I have seen sweet and sour pork, and of course there is rice.  But the rice here is different than in America.

A few blog posts ago (November 8 -- Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness), I detailed a lesson I gave where I asked my students what their stereotypes of Americans were, and then asked them what stereotypes of Chinese do Americans have. Across seventy teams who answered those questions, probably one third of them had as one of their entries that Americans thought Chinese people ate everything.  I didn't quite understand what they meant by that...but by spending a lot of time in the restaurants and food courts of China, I now understand fully.

Here is a sumptuous treat, nay -- a delicacy -- should you find yourself out and about in China some day:

Looks a little like French fries, right?  Look more closely:

Yep -- you're right. They're bugs.

The other day we were out on this amazing street in Jinan that is simply referred to as Food Street. As you can see, it is very popular with the locals. The food is plentiful and very inexpensive:

And while there we found some amazing delicacies among the food stores (actually, they are little more than food stalls -- maybe 10 or 15 feet wide, and about the same depth) on this street:

Shrimp balls on a stick.  These were deep fried and unbelievably delicious.
The cost? 24 yuan (about $3.50) to get enough to feed three of us

I thought this was fried pineapple...nope --
fried squid on a stick

Another couple options for squid: Above -- Squid on a stick...Below -- Squid in Sauce

Last month we visited southwest China, Hong Kong, Viet Nam and Cambodia. It was a remarkable, wonderful trip filled with many awesome sights.  While in southwest China (Guilin), I had duck, or at least a portion thereof:

Now, you're probably saying to yourself, "That looks a little bit like...a duck head."
Yep -- you're right.

I was disappointed the brain was not part of my duck head, and neither was the tongue...one of the women in our group was taken by a group of local Chinese folks to an exclusive restaurant in Jinan, and she was able to dine on those delicacies.  (I would not have dined on the brain, but would have tried the tongue...)  The meat on the duck's head was much like the meat at the very end of a chicken wing -- not much there, not much flavor, mostly just skin.

This past Saturday evening we went to dinner with some other foreigners (Utahns, mostly) and this was part of our meal:

Barbecue eel

At the same restaurant where the eel was served, we had ox tongue and water buffalo neck.  The latter two were actually quite good.  The eel was a little too slimy and fishy for my tastes.

On Food Street, we also saw this 4-foot tall plastic display advertising...

<-- Pig's feet.  Or, if you prefer, you can purchase them at the local grocery store, along with the same
appendage from chickens -->

I've not yet tried pigs' feet, but I think I will.


Foreigners like me who have tried them, say they're not bad. Chicken feet, however, don't have much in the way of meat on their bones (so to speak)...

                                                     





You can pick up a bag of these chicken feet on your way out of the grocery store. They're on a rack with the beef jerky, potato chips, etc. -->

If it's chicken that tickles your fancy, you can get a variety of chicken parts like in America (breast, thigh, drumsticks), but you can also get the feet, head, comb, beak, etc in the grocery stores:

There is a dining phenomenon here that we had associated primarily with chicken, but we have since discovered it extends to various other meats (like beef, bullfrog, pork, etc.). We call it Lawnmower Chicken. You can order this really yummy dish, and it will have all these delicious spices, herbs, vegetables and chunks of meat that have been diced up -- with the bones still in them! They just take a meat cleaver and chop the meat -- bones and all -- and toss it in the stew.  The Chinese seem to find this quite normal, but it is actually fairly annoying to me.  Here was a delicious meal I had (really -- it was delicious): Lawnmower Bullfrog Goulash:

If you really want a taste of food from home, it's not impossible to find. Our local grocery store has a section for imported goods (read the sign carefully...):

Where you can pick up a few American food staples:

As you can see, Chinese Chinese food really is not much like American Chinese food -- at all! But while I have highlighted some of the more...off-beat...selections, the spices, herbs and other dishes really are quite delicious, and I will miss them.

But now I understand why my students thought Americans think Chinese eat everything. They do (practically).

Mountains, Dr. Seuss and the People of China

In earlier posts, I have spoken about my students, and the great love I have for them. But they are but a tiny subset of a much larger group of people -- 1.4 billion, to be (approximately) exact.

Thanks to our generous Winter holiday, which runs from Christmas to February 24, Bonita and I have been traveling this wonderful country seeing new sights and people. I had to make a quick trip to the USA, but while I was there, Bonita went to Shanghai and Sanya on Hainan Island, which is in the South China Sea. From there, she went to Hong Kong, where I joined her and was there just long enough to lose my nice camera and telephoto lens -- I left it in a taxi.  As we filed police reports and tried to get it back, I was reminded of the Brooks and Dunn song Lost and Found, about trying to find a diamond ring in a border town -- "...they just look at you like you've lost your mind..." (and you ain't gonna find it!)!   And it was not found. I was able to purchase a new and upgraded camera and telephoto lens...so no need to worry about me!

Detour about lost cameras aside,...

From Hong Kong we went to Guilin, famous for mountains that reportedly inspired Dr. Seuss in his unique depiction of mountains:

 

The mountains are best seen from boat, so we traveled down the Lijiang River for about 50 miles (you can see the Lijiang River in Dr. Seuss's portrayal above).  It was a hazy, misty morning, so the mountains looked a little...other-worldly.  One difficulty with the weather was the blahness of our pictures.

China has fifty-six different ethnicities within her borders.  The largest ethnicity is Han, which represents nearly 92% of all Chinese. The remaining 8-ish percent is spread across the other fifty-five ethnicities. Most of the students we teach are Han Chinese, although there are a few other ethnicities thrown in.

This trip has taken us to southwest China, in areas where the Han are in the minority. Some of the minority groups we encountered were Zhuang, Bai and Naxi. While they looked a bit different from the Han Chinese, we found the same warm, kind, enthusiastic people. Without exception, we were treated very well, and warmly welcomed by people who were quick to smile and laugh and make us feel comfortable as foreigners in their midst.

From Guilin, we headed to Lijiang in far western China, near the Tibetan border.  It was probably the prettiest city we've visited in China. Lijiang is a small city by Chinese standards -- 1.4 million.  It is at 7,700 feet in elevation, and the blue skies and fresh air were a welcome change from Guilin (and frankly, from most of our experience in China), which had smog, opaque skies and heavy mists during our entire visit.

I grew up in Colorado Springs, which has a beautiful setting, with Pikes Peak overlooking it:

Pikes Peak -- Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA -- 14,114 feet

Instead of Pikes Peak, Lijiang is overlooked by the famous Jade Dragon Snow Mountain:

Jade Dragon Snow Mountain -- Lijiang, China -- 18,360 feet

(By comparing the two peaks, you can probably see a lot of resemblance between them.  And by the way -- did you check out Snow Mountain's height --> 18,360!)

As I have toured China, more and more I discover that my favorite subjects for my camera (old and new!) are the people.  Below are a few of those I have captured on this and other trips.

Little boy wearing a traditional Naxi
headress (Baisha village)

Little girl in Lijiang old town market

Little girl -- a budding water color artist -- in the Baisha village

Little girl in Old Town Dali

And recently, older folks have drawn the attention of my camera lens:

Old woman with child on her back in Baisha village

Two old women in Baisha village wearing Mao caps.

Two elderly men at the Confucius Temple in Qufu.  (DQ on the left!)

And of course, there are the students -- still -- that have themselves wrapped tightly around our hearts...

Polly (Gao Qi Feng) and Professor Quillen at Christmas (Chinese students
love apps that decorate their pictures with doodles, stickers, etc.)

Laura (Liu Zhao Tong ) and Professor Quillen at Christmas.

Tracy (Zhou Xuefei), freshman Business English student

The student above -- Tracy -- and I had a tender moment during her final oral exam of the semester in December.  One of the questions I asked all my students during their final exam was, "What thing did we do this semester that helped you improve your English the most?"  When I asked Tracy this question, she looked down and got very quiet. Then she looked up and with tears in her eyes, said, "You remember my name.  When you see me in the hallways, you say, 'Hello, Tracy.' When you come into class and see me, you say, 'Hello Tracy.'  And when you call on me in class, you call me by my name.  You are the only one of my professors that knows my name." Then she added, "And when you talk to me, you show your respect for me by looking me in the eyes." 

Sometimes it's the simplest things.  I have always felt people's names are important to them, and so I tried very hard to learn all 290 of my students' names -- a tough task for this old brain -- especially since I only meet with them once each week.  While it was difficult, it was nice to receive feedback that it meant something to this beautiful young woman.  (Remember, these kids grew up with the same teacher for first through sixth grades, then the same teacher during their middle school years, and finally one teacher for all their high school years. To be thrust into a university with 37,000 students and to become more or less anonymous must be a difficult transition for some of these young people.)

So whether Han or Naxi, Mongol, Uyghur or Bai, Zhuang or Dong, or any of the remaining 49 Chinese ethnicities, we continue to fall hopelessly in love with the people of China.