Food In China Part 1: The Food Investigation

Part 1: The  Food Investigation
Part 2: The Strange Stuff


The Food Investigation 

Recently I’ve been enjoying juicing- no, not injecting steroids in to my muscles/groin, but putting fruit and veg in to a blender and drinking it. Raw food is claimed to have many benefits so I’ve been giving it a go and enjoying it. The thing is, produce is not only quite unappealing here, but not very cheap either.

Carrots aren't always this bad, but they are usually soft and grubby,
a bit like the old ladies I see around here 

When people say that China’s food is cheap, you might find that the savings cash in when you eat out, rather than at the supermarket. In the UK its the reverse, where restaurant eating costs much more than cooking for myself.

To investigate the cost effectiveness of dining out, I indulged in the Food Investigation: I didn’t cook anything for myself, and let others do it for me. Would I save money, would it be healthy and, most importantly, would I enjoy it?


Breakfast

For my first meal of the day I grabbed some food from a stall which appears outside my school in the mornings. I am impressed because the owner brings everything with him on his bike: The steamers, a gas stove, tables and even a gazebo when its raining.

For sale are bao (steamed bread buns which are filled with pork), a sort of rolled pasta dish, dumplings filled with vegetables and conji (rice porridge).

I chose the pasta-wannabe as  I had experienced the rice porridge before and the taste of extra soggy rice in the morning was not something I yearned for. The cost for take-away was just 3 yen (30p / 0.43 US cents). I think this was an excellent asking price because the polystyrene box was chock full, and it was a satisfying breakfast.

I'd not usually have something so heavy for breakfast, but,
when in China, do as they Chinese do.

Usually I would have had porridge oats and yoghurt in the morning, and comparing the take-away and my oat meal, I easily concluded two things. One: the street food was cheaper per portion. Two: The street food was probably less healthy. Even though there were bits of veg involved in the meal, it was mainly fried pasta and it was rather greasy.

I was kept full during my morning lessons which are usually quite active. I teach movement, which often involves children running around and me chasing them. Children also get picked up and flown around occasionally. (Of course in England I would not dream of picking up a child, but teachers here don’t have to be terrified by their every action.)


Lunch

I took a wander around the back of the school to the alleys where I see many Chinese going around midday. Its often advised to eat where locals choose to, if you want to get the best food. There were plenty of eateries here but it was hard to determine the best choice using the ‘eat where the locals eat’ rule.

A typical lunchtime spot,
complete with sun shades and plastic chairs

Since there aren’t non-Chinese people here, all of the lunch spots were packed with a Chinese-only crowd. I hoped that this would mean they were all decent, but a little seed of worry reminded me that my Western mouth does not always agree with China (eg. sloppy rice porridge).

Still, I knew that ordering friend noodles, or chow mein, is usually a safe bet, so I went with that. This time it cost 5 yen (52p/ 0.77USD) for the take away. A little more than my breakfast was, but nothing compared to ordering a chow mein takeaway where I’m from. Probably as much as 4.60GBP which is 44yen/ 6.65USD.

I really like noodles and have been enjoying eating them here,
but I can't eat them as frequently as it done here.
And, after 9 months, I'm ready for a break

I like these noodles and I have been eating them a lot here. They do tates good and are so chap that I can buy them whenever I desire. But when I finish the bowl or empty the styrofoam container, a lingering reservoir of grease washes the bottom. Some times its less than others but its always pretty greasy at the end.


Dinner
I went to the most suitable local restaurant- the one with pictures on the walls! Its walking distance from my apartment and has a friendly community of ‘the returned people’ which is what Muslims are known as in China. Ask me why.

I don’t know.

Ordering made easy- just point to what you want!

Pics on the walls was essential when I first moved here, but now I can at least order my favourite two dishes without getting my finger out. Asking for ‘Noo ra-mein’ gets me noodle soup, and 'chow fen' is fried rice. Both are just 10 yen (1GBP / 1.5USD.

Rather than a quick take-away, the food prepared here is served to you, more like a restaurant. I guess you could reason that the price is a lot compared to my lunch; its double what I paid for the chow mein. But in reality its still cheap- just over one pound.

As I’ve discussed, I do not think that my breakfast and lunch were very healthy options due to their greasiness.  I am not a nutritionist or food scientist- frying the rice might be pretty bad for it, but I certainly never have a grease pond when I finish my plate.

Probably my favourite dish I've been eating in China

 As for the noodle soup, the picture may look like the water is greasy, but that’s actually due to my addition of some sort of home-made chili and sesame seed oil that they have here. If the seasoning is not added, its still very tasty, and the soup is grease-free. As a bonus, I’ve seen them making the noodles freshly on site. I’ve read about instant noodles being frightful in terms of their nutrition, so its good that the noodles here will be free of additives and towering amounts of salt.

If you want a drink at this cosy diner, a bottle of Coke, Sprite or Fanta is 2yen (20p / 30 cents), and water is free (great in a country with unsanitary tap water). All of this adds to the good value of the place.

My questions at the start were: 

Would I save money, would it be healthy 

and, most importantly, would I enjoy it?

The total of my day's food:  3 + 5 + 10 = 18yen (1.8GBP / 2.74 USD).

In my mind, that's a great deal. All in all I am sure that spending the same amount of money the supermarket would not yield as much food, and the convenience of not cooking for myself in my tiny kitchen with no microwave, grill or oven, is a bonus.

I don't think that my diet scores highly on the health factor, though some dishes were better than others. I do feel like I am partly made of grease from all the fried noodles I have been eating, but the noodle soup is probably fine to eat every day.

And in terms of enjoyment: I did like eating out so much, but I am also happy cooking at home and having more control over what I eat or how its prepared. Vegetarians would definitely prefer eating at home as meat-free options are very rare in China, and, even then, you still might discover some meat in there when its brought out.

If you've read all this and think, fine, the food in China is pretty good, then beware! I have found far more things to be wary of than to enjoy, and I will reveal these oddities in my next post.