I love Chinese food!!! We've had some good times....and we've had some bad times, my brother Rob knows all about it! haha
I've got less than 5 weeks left of teaching, and that means time is also nearing for my departure from all the Wuhan food I have come to know and love!
This first picture is of (clockwise) pineapple, ribs, some sort of pea or bean that you only eat the inside of, bamboo and pork!, and peas with shrimp and mushrooms. This meal also came with many other dishes like fish, eel, and many green vegetable dishes, including something like the leaf of a beet. All delicious! However I couldn't get over the fact that I was eating eel. Our friend Forrest took us to his parents home where his mother and father cooked up this feast.
This meal was made by our friends Louie and Justina who speak perfect English. L-R is Justina's attempt at spaghetti, a rice dish, some sort of Korean cabbage and Conjack dish (Louie is a 20 year old whiz kid who has discovered some sort of weight loss benefits from the Conjack plant...hence the conjack dish) , next is tofu and preserved old eggs (pretty gross actually but I forced it down anyways) and then something like homemade chicken fingers which were pretty good. Justina's mother lived in America for awhile so she has had these kinds of western foods before. In the glasses is the Chinese idea of milk....to me, it's runny sweet yogurt.
Below is one of those things you order by accident but just have to try! I was out for a late lunch with a chinese friend and her boyfriend (who happens to work for the chinese army...pretty interesting) and I have enjoyed every meal I have had with a local Wuhanese, so as usual, I let the Chinese do all the ordering. Unfortunately, this time the results were quite different! This picture is of Pig Kidney, yep, I ate pig kidney! Although, it wasn't too bad, definitely has a better texture than the lining of a cow's stomach, which I ordered once by accident....yuck. I took this picture after dinner, so it's hard to see the pig's kidney because the army guy LOVES this dish and ate most of the kidney pieces....the brown pieces are the kidney.
Look familiar Kneider?? This dish is delish! Made at a Chinese muslim restaurant a short bus ride away...unfortunately, this restaurant is now gone! A lot of the poor workers that work on university campuses are being pushed out because of the massive amounts of development going on in Wuhan. My campus has 2 muslim restaurants that are still here thank goodness! Most importantly...they make their noodles fresh on the side of the street, I've got a video of the noodle maker, it's quite impressive.
This is the muslim restaurant where the mother of the family is cooking us up our noodles in the kitchen/dining room. It probably looks filthy to you, I know, but trust me they make some good food!
And starting from the top, going clockwise, there is some sort of dried salted fish or meat, I can't remember for sure. Then fan qie ji dan (tomato and egg), an onion and pork dish, pumpkin with meat crumbs (not too sure about the meat on this dish, could be fake), lotus root soup....so delicious, cucumbers, stinky tofu with red peppers, and celery. I have definitely come to love tofu....but it is nothing like tofu in Canada, the texture is totally different...they also have (or so I've been told) over 20 different kinds of tofu, but so far I've only tried about 5.
Of course all these dishes have MSG....I have questioned them about having
MSG in every dish, they claim it's what makes the food so delicious...I beg to differ since I order my food
buyao weijing (translation:
I don't want MSG) and it tastes exactly the same.
