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).