Catching up on Food

I may have posted some of these before, but since food seems to be everyone's favourite topic here they are again.

Since Luoyang I've been staying at Youth Hostels (or "Young People Hostels" as the Chinese call them), although I've made sure to always get a private room with a private bath.  (I don't know if that makes me a "hotel princess" - maybe compared to the folks here that stay in the dorm rooms, but even a private room is pretty basic!)  So far they've all had very nice bar/lounge areas for relaxing, and the menus have been dominated by Western food.  I avoided this for awhile but the longer I've been in China the more I've come to appreciate access to "real" food when I get a craving!

This is a chicken burger (and margarita) in Xi'An.  Not recommended!

The hamburger in Kunming was pretty good, although a pretty low grade of meat with a lot of filler.  Notice it is served with a fried egg, "American Style".

Breakfast - muesli with fruit and yogurt and a latte.

Hong shau beef noodles at a small noodle shop.

My second "Crossing the Bridge Noodles".  I had a side order of vegetables, and ordered the recommended "slimy seaweed" (not sure if that is a correct translation but it's accurate).  I've had these before so I don't know what possessed me to try them again.  They're exactly what you'd expect to get when you order "slimy seaweed".

Plum duck and stir-fried celery and carrots with cashews.  Yum!

Spicy been with beans and rice.

Note the amount of chilies used in this dish.  This is comparatively very little.  The hot food here has a very interesting taste, it is not just "hot" as you get when you order spicy food back home.  In this dish the chilies had a nice smoked taste to them.  (It's not actually the chilies you have t watch out for although they are quite hot.  What you need to avoid are the small peppercorns that they sneak into some of the dishes.  They are VERY hot and also very hard to avoid.)

My "go to" snack in the afternoons, french fries and gin & tonic, how Chinese can you get!  When I go up to the bar to order now, they automatically ask "French fries?  Gin & tonic?"

Spicy pork stir-fried with chilies.

Breakfast this morning - french toast with chocolate sauce.

Oops they made me the wrong breakfast.  I decided to go with fate and accept it, rather than sending it back.  It consisted of eggs scrambled with tomatoes, vegetables and hot sauce.  It was pretty good but did not go with my latte at all!  A green tea would have gone done better.