Lunch

Teachers' Canteen

-Cauliflower
-Liver with doufugan, seasoned with garlic and ginger (ordering
mistake - the dried tofu, which is in everything, is doufu gan, pig's
liver is zhu gan - I just heard "gan" and didn't realize I was getting
both kinds!)

Christmas Eve Dinner

Hanlin Shifu

Dongsun 冬笋
Eggplant 茄子
Hot & Sour Potato 酸辣土豆丝
Some new kind of lettuce/cabbage which is really good (stir-fried)
Potato Noodles 土豆粉 - stir fried

Beelgara Estates 2006 Shiraz Regional Reserve

Lunch

Teachers' Canteen

Sliced mushrooms, doufugan, and meat
Cauliflower

Dessert

Last night we had tangyuan 汤圆 for dessert to celebrate dongzhi 冬至 -
the winter solstice. Tangyuan are balls of glutinous rice flour
filled with sweet sesame paste which are prepared by boiling them in
sugar water. Ours had been in the freezer too long, so they were a
little dried out and had a faint gin fragrance (from a leaking bottle
in the freezer that had gone unnoticed until last night), but one of
the bags was pretty good.

Dinner

Last night we made latkes (ostensibly for Hanukkah), which turned out
well. Zoe also made Japanese pyramids of rice filled with tuna
(onigiri).

Snack

Cheddar & Onion Biscuits

add black pepper, nutmeg, and a little bit (1-2 tablespoons each) of
chopped cheddar and onions to plain baking powder biscuits.

Seasonal Vegetable

Dongsun 冬笋

Another of the bamboo root varieties, dongsun is more expensive than
other dishes. The consistency has just the right amount of delicate
crunchiness, and the flavor has just the hint of a bite to it.
Usually cooked sliced in a light sauce with vegetables and a little
meat.

Dinner

No Signboard Bar

Sambal mussels
Kong Qingcai (green leafy vegetable, also eaten in Anhui but cooked in
a slightly different style)
Crawfish (practically the size of lobsters) in [black and white]
pepper sauce with scallions
Singapore Chili Crab - thick red sauce with egg drop in it - served
with a few small mantou (steamed buns) for getting the sauce (or
cooling your tongue...)
Singapore style fried noodles - sweet and spicy with seafood and tofu
Kalamansi juice
Sour sop soup (cold dessert soup - sour sop is a kind of fruit)

All very good, but I think I liked the pepper sauce more than the
chili sauce, which was spicier and (I thought) had less flavor.

Lunch

Vanilla Pod Restaurant at the Mandai Orchid Garden

Onion bread - like onion rings that melt in your mouth
Appetizer of chilled angel hair infused with truffle oil and sprinkled
with chives and Japanese seaweed
Roasted chicken stuffed with mushrooms and ricotta with some caramelized red onions, mashed potatoes, and greens
Strawberry mille-feuille - layered with fresh strawberries and vanilla bean custard

All great!

Snack

Ben & Jerry's at the zoo!

"Coffee coffee coffee buzz buzz buzz" flavor

Dinner Part 2

Went back for more!

Fresh egg roll (not deep fried) - crumbled hard-boiled eggs, peanuts,
bean sprouts, sauces, and cooked vegetables wrapped in a thin pancake
while you watch

Crunchy ice cream roll - rectangle of ice cream with crunchy topping
wrapped in the same kind of wrapper as above

All the food court food was delicious!

Dinner

Newton Circus Food Court

Starfruit juice
Stingray grilled with sambal and kalamansi (little lime)
Oyster omelette
Carrot cake (similar to turnip cake - made with daikon)
Laksa - coconut milk based soup with cockles, noodles, fried tofu,
fish cake

See also Dinner Part 2

Lunch

Set menu at Thai restaurant housed in the Freemasons Lodge (still
decorated with Freemason paraphernalia - dishes even have Freemason
symbol!) - good food!

Shrimp crackers with two sauces: peanut and salsa
Soup: chicken and mushroom in sour (lemongrass?) broth - spiciness
that tickles the throat
Thai kale
Tom yum seafood (shrimp, mussel, crab) with rice noodles
Some kind of blueberry? parfait

Breakfast

Fresh orange juice
Plain yogurt with grapes
Omelette with salami
Coffee

Lunch

Airplane (Dragonair)

Fish and penne in cream sauce with a couple pieces of butternut
squash? On the side - pretty good :-)

Snack

Place: vegetarian cafeteria at a temple (宝莲神寺) in Hong Kong

Looked like cheap tourist food, but was actually pretty good (if
expensive).

Mushroom Tart
Turnip Cake
Curry Pastry
Noodles with vegetables

Breakfast

Starbucks 星巴克

Toffee（太妃）nut muffin
Toffee nut latte

Dinner

Yuhe Fandian 玉和饭店 ("Hole-in-the-wall")

Shredded carrots 胡萝卜 stir-fried with small pieces of meat -
delicious!
Onions stir-fried with egg
Eggplant (not very good today)
Green beans
Stir-fried rice cakes 年糕

Lunch

Teachers' Canteen

Marinated Pork Slices 卤猪肉 (lean meat!) vinegar, anise, hot pepper
and other spices - my favorite!
Eggplant (sliced and cooked with plenty of ginger)

Note: pretty much every dish in the teachers' canteen is just so-so by
itself, but can be really good when combined with another dish.
Usually we get two dishes on white rice.

Dinner

Last night we made pizza! We had some cheese from Hangzhou, and I
made a yeast-less crust, which was pretty good considering it was
yeast-less. Picture at http://gallery.me.com/bgw1114 in the Fall 2009
album (we made 3 this size).

Dinner

There was broccoli 西兰花 for dinner - first time seen in Xiuning!
Stir-fried with garlic and some peppers. We also had some of our
usual dishes.

For dessert, Zoe made chocolate cake with Oreos in it.

Lunch

Restaurant on Old Street in Tunxi 老街第一楼

First time eating here - great food!

Eggplant 香爆茄子
Bamboo (thick slices - dried, then stewed)
Dumplings韭菜鲜肉饺子
Stir-fried fensi with doufugan, shredded pork, etc. (Hui style)农家炒粉
丝
Snap peas (stir-fried with garlic)荷兰豆
Potato & vinegar 醋溜土豆丝

Breakfast and Lunch

Sesame Swirl Toast (bread made by me)

Cauliflower, tofu, and rice.

Breakfast Part 2

Hazelnut Cappucino and Banana Toffee Muffin at Costa Coffee

Breakfast

Ham & Potato Panini at Starbucks!

Breakfast

Sweet pancake - relatively dark (buckwheat?) with some sesame seeds

Soy milk (lots of sugar added!)

Dinner

许记牛蛙馆 Bullfrog Restaurant

Bullfrog
Sliced potato (a little spicy, but good)
Meat on bone with hot pepper
Small pieces of meat with hot peppers and cumin
Fun see and skinny white mushrooms
Fish with noodles
Eggplant and green beans
Squash of some kind
New kind of tofu (kind of translucent)
Small plain bao with condensed milk

Dinner

Xiangxi Buluo 湘西部落

Rice and meat cooked with seasonings (including anise) in bamboo
Sweet potato (or pumpkin?)
Cabbage (hot)
Stewed chicken with onions and cilantro
Stewed tofu with green hot peppers and scallions
Green beans
Hard-boiled eggs Fried with hot peppers
Pickled green beans (very spicy)
Cauliflower (hot pepper and cumin?)
Mashed taro
Fish in broth (seasoned with lemongrass)
Wintermelon
Plain steamed buns 馒头
Deep fried balls of dough with sweet taro filling
"Farmhouse" pork 农家肉 - marinated with hot peppers

Lunch

Xinjiang Restaurant

Bread stuffed with meat and onions
Lean grilled meat with two dipping sauces - one like ketchup, one
darker ( more like BBQ sauce)
Meat stir-fried with pieces of flatbread in a slightly spicy sauce
Broccoli in chicken broth and soy sauce?
Eggplant with hot peppers
Plain flatbread
Spicy tofu
Chopped noddles in sauce
Green vegetables
Sliced fried potatoes (slightly spicy)
Lamb ribs

Breakfast

Place: street outside the hotel

Pancakes (kind of like pitas), some with sugar, some with meat,
ginger, and other seasonings.

Dinner

Broad Sweet Potato noodles with beef curry sauce

Lunch

Chopped chicken (very little meat)
Wintermelon
Bitter melon 苦瓜
Fried potato slices
Fried scallion cakes
Soft doufugan
Bamboo (not as good as Anhui)
Deep-fried kernels of corn
Lotus root (sliced)
Fish
Tomato and egg soup
Watermelon
Peanuts in sweetened vinegar

Dinner

Small restaurant in Changsha

Egg and carrot (delicious)
Bok choy
Garlic beans and meat
Wintermelon? In spicy sauce
Mala (numbing and hot) tofu
Green beans and (deep fried?) eggplant

Also, the rice here seems to have longer grains, so there is a
fluffier, airier effect. Anhui rice is smaller and more pearly.

Lunch

Hotel in Changsha - lots of hot peppers (Hunanese food)!

Tofu with little green peppers that look like scallions if you're not
careful, but are actually extremely hot
Fish
Soup with greens and a few beans
Cauliflower, but seasoned a little differently than the Hui style 徽菜
that we're used to
Cold tree ears in sesame oil with some hot pepper
Cold carrots and scallions, julienned in some kind of dressing
Some kind of white colored bean that was almost like a bean sprout,
cooked with some kind of Chinese sausage
Deep-fried pastries with sweet taro filling
A couple chopped meat and pepper dishes
Green vegetable (bland and greasy, I thought)
Bitter melon
Taro in sauce

After lunch, I got to help make the order for tomorrow's lunch!

Dinner

Korean Food!

Vegetables, some mild spiciness, some meats, deep-fried vegetables,
noodles

Lunch

Sliced zazha noodles 刀削杂炸面 - noodles shaped by slicing pieces off
a block of dough; in broth with ground beef, scallions, fermented
black beans

Dinner

Mixture of dumplings, cold sesame noodles (made by me!), cauliflower,
green vegetable, and rice.

Breakfast

Zoe made French toast and I had the last of my Yankee Molasses Oatmeal
bread (toasted).

Lunch & Dinner

Lunch (at the chain restaurant in Xiuning):

Mooshu pork 木须肉 - strips of pork, tree ears, carrots, and
cucumber (julienned) stir-fried and served over rice.

Dinner (Hanlin Shifu):

Chrysanthemum Greens 菊花菜
Dumplings
Potato
Chow Mein
Edamame 毛豆
Tomato & Egg
Bamboo 干笋 with doufugan

Dinner

Michael's parents are here, so we had a few extra dishes (at Hanlin
Shifu):
Eggplant (stir-fried in sauce)
Potato with vinegar
Green beans 四季豆 (with hot pepper)
Luobo greens 萝卜菜 (with garlic)
Pumpkin rind 南瓜丝 (slivered, with garlic and chicken broth? -
pumpkins are mostly green on the outside here, and this dish lacks any
offensive squash-like flavor)
Stir-fried noodles with vegetables 炒面

Also, the other day we tried fresh water chestnuts 荸荠 (also at Hanlin
Shifu) for the first time. They were pretty good, unlike their canned
counterparts in the US. They were sliced and stir-fried in a light
sauce, and don't have a lot of flavor - mostly just a faint fiery
taste, like a hint of radish.

Dinner

Place: Zhuangyuan Shifu 状元食府

Dishes:
Cabbage with bacon-like slices and white onions
Eggplant and green beans (note: Chinese eggplant is long and thin,
rather than the fat, unpalatable, mushy stuff we have in the U.S.)
Hot and sour potato (julienned)
Wosun (light green translucent root vegetable)
Meat (fat) and Meigancai 梅干菜 (fragrant mixture of dried
vegetables) with buns (you make a sandwich)
Dumplings
Marinated doufugan (dried tofu) - served cold

Lunch

Place: School Teachers' Canteen

Dishes:
Julienned Jiaobai 茭白 (a root that grows in the water - "water-oat
shoots") with doufugan and peppers
Hongshao Tofu 红烧豆腐 - cooked in soy and oil
Egg with Tomato - made by Zoe and her tutor

Dinner

Place: Hanlin Shifu 翰林食府

Dishes:
Cauliflower 花菜 - light sauce with a little bit of hot pepper
Malan (Aster?) 马兰 - Leafy green with a slightly bitter taste, cooked with diced doufugan and peppers
Dumplings (fried) 饺子（煎的）- meat and vegetable with vinegar
Egg and Tomato 西红柿炒鸡蛋 - scrambled eggs with tomato mixed in, and maybe a little garlic