Food

With the “kitchen” in my flat not properly commissioned until it is thoroughly cleaned, I usually eat out. There are many restaurants and food stalls. Sadly, the food I have experienced in this city is not as good as the Chinese food I have experienced elsewhere (including Melbourne).

Most dishes are oily. Watching the amount of oil being added during the cooking process is a definite turn off. James agrees, saying his experience of the cuisine of southern China was superb compared to this. But I shall persist and look forward to discovering the ideal restaurant.

Smoking in restaurants is something hard to get used to – yet it only a matter of what, five years, since we legislated against such a practice in Australia?

If I don’t eat out, I call into a local corner store and attempt to break through incredible communication barriers (eg is this egg cooked or raw?} and take home sachets of yoghurt, Nescafe, UHT milk, small oranges, apples, nashi pears, bananas, biscuits – even ice-creams! I also purchased a nine pack of Chinese beer, which is palatable indeed! My only attempt at asking for something in Chinese – la cha (green tea) – resulted in stunned expressions, experiments with various tones, the enlistment of a passing student, much mime-acting, and no I didn’t want a bottle of liquid green tea, just the tea leaves, please! Cha! In the end, it turned out they had none in stock.