A Taste of Beijing

Ni hao, friend. It was an absolutely beautiful day here in China's capital. After yesterday's rain, the clouds and smog finally cleared blessing Beijing with a beautiful blue sky. And, for the first time since I arrived, I saw mountains in the distance - the same mountains that the Great Wall runs along. But, besides having lovely weather, it was a rather easy day here. The biggest thing that happened was that I finally finished eating my man-tou. Man-tou is similar to a steam bun but much thicker in consistency. It kind of feels like the bread is absorbing saliva while you eat it making it rather hard to swallow if you take too big of a bite. Imagine eating a flavorless, densely packed sponge and you've got yourself man-tou. I mention that I finally finished my man-tou because I've been consistently eating the same piece for the past few days. Here in China, with over 1.3 billion people, food does not get wasted. That means yesterday's dinner is today's breakfast and lunch, and if something has gone uneaten or is still salvageable it's likely to be served again. In addition, there is very little difference in variety of food served regardless of which mealtime it is. Breakfast consists of a meat dish (usually a whole fish), two or three cooked vegetable dishes, noodles, soup, and hot milk served in a soup bowl directly after boiling. Lunch is the leftovers of breakfast without the milk. Dinner is usually the same but with some other new dish that is destined to become the next day's breakfast. Beverages are usually not served at lunch or dinner. Now, living in an apartment where airconditioning is not used, where the outside temperature peaks into the 90s, and where drinking from the tap can cause a terrible case of diarrhoea, one starts to crave water relatively soon. The first day it took incredible will power to politely refuse the water that was given to me. I secretly bought a few bottles of water, but today my stock ran out. Fortunately, my Chinese father showed me where they get their water from in the kitchen. As it turns out, they boil their water before drinking it. In fact they boil everything before drinking it, hence why my morning milk is always hot. Since I joined the Tseng family, bread has also been present at every meal. I mentioned once that bread is an important ingredient in western cuisine, and that it shows up in almost every meal in varying ways whether it be toast, a sandwich, or a snack while waiting for dinner. Well, in order to make me miss home less, they bought a loaf of sandwich bread for me to have during my meals. So, even though it doesn't mix well with the rest of the Chinese cuisine, I show my appreciation by eating the bread anyway. And how do I eat my bread? Just like any normal Westerner would... With chopsticks of course.