Life's a Stitch

Most meals, other than breakfast, were not included in our tour, but the two most memorable lunches were. 

The first was in a family’s courtyard house in a Hutong in Beijing’s old town. A Hutong is a maze of attached one level houses and courtyards, built hundreds of years ago. We squeezed into a living room/dining room wallpapered with family photos and were treated to a typical homecooked meal served family style. It started, oddly enough, with a bowl of Bugles (chips) and a kind of sweet pretzel, followed by chicken in garlic shoots, stir fried celery, chicken in onions, homemade pork and carrot dumplings, potatoes in soy sauce, pakora like veggie balls, and carrots and garlic, all delicious.

Afterwards the mother of the house taught us to make dumplings and the father sang. 

We always turned our noses up at organized tours, but this was done really well, and this experience was one we wouldn’t have found on our own. The sad end to the story is that the area is under consideration to become a Unesco World Heritage Site. If it doesn’t achieve that status it will be torn down to make way for modern towers. The residents lose either way. When areas become heritage sites  the people often can’t afford to bring their homes up to the standards required and are forced to leave.

The other memorable lunch was a hotpot experience in Chongqing  (pronounced Chong Ching).

Before:

After:

If you plan to visit China, it’s worth noting that beer, often very light beer, is the drink you’ll be served at meals, or you can have full sugared Coke or tea. No wine was available by the glass, except on the ship ($9), and a bottle was expensive. We bought several bottles of wine at convenience or grocery stores. Australian or Chilean wine, typically low priced in North America, cost about $20CDN. Great Wall Chinese wine came in a few different grades. The $10 one was ok, but light, with the exception of one bad bottle, which we determined was probably poorly stored.

Another favourite meal was when we had the opportunity to stop in one of Shanghai’s downstairs food courts. 

#1 Chicken feet, though not as appetizing to me as the ones my son made for my birthday last year, which were boiled, baked and deep fried to salty crispy nothingness.

Julie, our reluctant tourmate:

One blustery night I craved a bowl of laksa. When I saw the sign I knew I had found my soup. “The pork in Canada is Laksa.”