Food!

THE GOOD:
Shanghai has some great food! I'm finding new things almost everyday that I love! We have lots of restaurants on our campus that we can go to and all of them are amazing! I can get a sushi roll, a korean beef rice bowl, or indian curry with chicken and rice each for 16￥, or $2.53. I can go to the dining hall and get a big plate of fried rice with egg for 6￥($0.93) or a large helping of beef chow mien for 8￥($1.27)! So pretty much I'm eating the most delicious food for pennies! The other night we ordered food to the dorm and we got Mediterranean food so it was a little more expensive then normal and I started to regret ordering when I realized it was 50￥but then I thought about it and realized that it's less then $8 in the states. It's going to be so hard to come home and order food from now on! But even with all the amazing food I've found around Shanghai, I have absolutely found my favorite... classic Shanghai dumplings!! Oh.... my... goodness. I can't describe just how good these little guys are but I'm hoping to learn how to make them and bring the secrets home with me so I can make them forever! The classic dumplings are pork based or shrimp/ crab based and how a broth that is inside of the dumpling that cooks the meat when steamed :) it's SO flavorful on its own but when you dip it into the sauce which is a mix of vinegar and soy sauce, you just melt from deliciousness! I think I could eat these every single day..... and I just might! The other dumpling I tried you aren't encourages to eat the dough part (which is a good recommendation, it was not good when i tried it) but instead the inside it filled with lots of broth and little bits of pork that you suck out through a straw! Yum! Here are two pictures of my new favorite foods!

 Top right: dumplings, Top left: dumpling with soup inside, Bottom: Boazi

Me with my dumpling soup cup!


THE BAD:
This section doesn't have too much in it, I've found that most of the food here is delicious! The being said.... one tradition that the chinese have that I find a little gross is that when they serve a poultry dish, it is custom to put the ENTIRE bird in the dish. So we had dinner one night and were grabbing chicken from a bowl of thick broth, can't really see inside, and instead of a breast or thigh someone pulls this out...

A whole chicken head!! Not a great surprise, I don't think any of us has more of this dish after our little discovery. Second, I got a lot of questions before I left that sounded like "Are you going to eat dog while you're in China?", well... I found a place that serves dog. It's only about a 3 minute walk from my dorm in fact! And I know someone that is dead set on trying it before she leaves... we'll see about that! But besides those two little instances, the food is wonderful and I'm loving being able to pig out because its just so cheap! :)