Food Is Amazing!

For me one of the highlights of being back in China is the food and eating all sorts of unique and wonderful treats. Granted this time I haven't eaten anything too adventurous yet, but I've still got two weeks left here. Also, I'm not sure about half the things I eat, because sometimes I'd rather not know what I've eaten. But the highlights:

-I'm fairly certain I've had curdled blood. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it showed up in a soup somewhere.

-Chinese snails are different than French snails. In France, the snails are usually somewhat large and picked out with a small fork. In China, especially in rural China, the snails are really small and you actually suck the snails out of their shells.

-白酒 (white liquor). That stuff is really strong and has been described as the combination of gasoline and alcohol, which is not entirely inaccurate. It's pretty difficult to drink the first time around, but it kind of grows on you, even with it's strong finish. It seems that it doesn't go to your head quite as much as other drinks, though it might be because I've only had it with meals.

-Pig ears/tails/etc. are very common, so it's nothing really too exotic, and same for jellyfish.

-Duck head was very interesting. It's not very meaty, and it's a little hard to pick around it if you're trying to avoid any part of it in particular.

-Right now I'm in 湖南 (Hunan) province and there are peppers everywhere and it's pretty awesome.

-Frogs legs, though they taste like any other meat...

-Red dragonfruit, while it tastes like regular (white) dragonfruit, is incredibly rare (and looks bloody if you get it all over your face...)

Going to a restaurant in China is also a much different experience. In a restaurant in China, the wait staff is there to serve you, and they really do-you can ask most anything of them (especially at good restaurants and restaurants where you can get a private room). For example, when they bring out a big bowl of noodles for the table, you can ask them to portion it out for you.

Travelling outside the country is also nice because airlines serve food. It's not really a huge perk, but it's a nice plus. For a 90-minute flight, we got a hot lunch of rice, beef, and veggies that is larger than a meal you'll see on an international flight on a major American carrier.