Adventures in China III

Ok, so I've covered the journey there (here) and the day I spent at purple mountain (here). The next step is a short post about all the food and drink I had in Nanjing. I mentioned the delicious steamed sea bass I had on Sunday night but that was nothing compared to the rest of the week! I was a little worried with my dietary choices that I would struggle to find food I could eat, but it really wasn't a problem :-)

Breakfast was a buffet provided by the hotel each morning. There was a whole array of different foods that varied each day. There was always cereal, toast, pastries etc. but there was always a whole lot more local food. There doesn't seem to be any real distinguishing feature of each meal in China (in Nanjing at least). If you eat it for dinner then you'd eat it for breakfast too... fried rice, noodles, mushrooms, sushi, seaweed salad, soup and one day they had something that was labeled donkey. Not sure if it was a translation issue or if it really was donkey! I don't have photos from breakfast though so you'll have to take my word for the fact it was a very nice start to the day!

On Monday night we had a workshop banquet and on Wednesday night a group of us went to a restaurant for dinner. I'm grouping these together as the food experience was very similar. Family style food where everything was brought out dish by dish. You never knew how many dishes there were going to be or when it would end! Luckily we had some people at our table who were able to tell us what each dish was so my no land meat eating wasn't a problem.

Fruit salad, Nanjing salted duck, black ear fungus, snails, fruit in gelatin and fried shrimp

 Anyway, there was SO much food - black ear fungus with chiles (delicious), more steamed fish and green leafy vegetables, lots of tasty tofu, sweet and sour shrimp (which was way better than anything I've had anywhere else) and a whole load of meat dishes that I obviously didn't try.

More snails, black ear fungus, fish, greens, fruit, chicken and the giant bowl of noodles to finish the meal!

More steamed fish, greens, and egg dish, beef, beans, black ear fungus, Nanjing translucent noodles and beer

The other thing I noticed about eating these kind of meals in Nanjing was that there is no main course/desert type division. Sweet things would appear in the middle of beef and fish course and noodles/rice always came out last (which was good as it meant I didn't fill up on starch). Some of the little sweet balls - i was told they were pumpkin but it didn't taste like pumpkin - were so good I could have eaten them the whole time.

The little fried balls on the right were so good, as was the fish

Most of the time I stuck to water, sprite and a few beers but on banquet night and restaurant night I had the delightful (not) experience of trying "Chinese Water" the local Nanjing liquor which was a type of vodka. I was not a fan, but others enjoyed it and I can verify it was very strong! Especially when served in what appeared to be soup bowls. I was polite and drank some but it really wasn't for me. Must be an acquired taste.

Chinese Water