Trip Along the Yangtze River & Three Gorges Dam

I took a 6 day cruise/trip to Chongqing, Fengdu, Shibaozhai, Wanzhou, Fenjie, Wuahan, Yichang, Shashi, Wuhan, etc. to see the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Dam. It wasn't as fun as my Yunnan trip but the food for the first two days and last day were decent. Why? Because in the middle we were on the boat for the whole time with Hong Kong andMainland Chinese tourists-all of whom do not eat spicy food. GR! Really? You go to the home of some awesome ethnic minorities who put peppers on everything and you stick to eating the stuff you eat everyday at home? NOT COOL. Here were some of my better meals before my fellow people on the Hong Kong tour complained that they couldn't eat spicy. BLEH!

 Yummy cucumbers and pork I believe. 

 String beans

 Egg plant-always a favorite of mine.

 Ma po tofu. They made it really good. Got the ma la part down. Love when that happens.

 Spicy peanuts.

 Even the veggie was spicy. I really enjoyed this meal, until people on my tour flagged down the guide and made sure he knew they never wanted another meal like that again. They complained that it was too spicy and that they could only eat  2 dishes the whole night. I, on the other hand enjoyed all the food and even had 4 bowls of rice. Yes, I counted. 

 My favorite candy as a kid except made into the shapes of turtles and dragons. 

 Cute huh? Little girl about to eat her dragon candy.

 Hot Pot! The middle hole was spicy and the outside was not. I of course was pretty much the only one that ate from the middle. 

 Yum! We had lots and lots of plates coming and going. It was pretty good. Not the best hot pot I've ever had though. 

 Pork, veggie goodness

 More goodness

 Yummy crab, egg goodness. 

 Salt & peppered pork

 Spicy fish

 Delicious tomato soup!

 And of course more non spicy food. Seriously Hong Kongers need to get with the program.

 Look at the mini shrimps!

 Yummy tofu! Reminds me of the Japanese kind I like to get. 

 Fried taro and sweet potato balls.

 Sweet and sour fried fish!

Towards the end of the trip, I just realized I wasn't going to be having any real authentic food. I really would advise people who like to eat to never join a tour with Hong Kong people. I did it once many years ago (10?) when I made my first trip to Vietnam and I swore never again. Apparently my mom really enjoyed it. I am boycotting any trips like this ever again. My stomach is protesting.

Happy Eatings!

Sorry about not putting captions on the rest of the food. I just got too upset thinking about how I missed out on some good, spicy food. Hmph! 

Summary of Beijing

Being in Beijing by myself for a little over 2 months was definitely a new experience for me. It made me have to use mandarin 24/7 and cut down on my Chinglish. I thought Beijing would be a lot different from the last time I visited 4 years ago since the Olympics happened, but nothing really changed. *ahem* Take that however you want to. I may make fun of Beijing at lot, but honestly right now I'd rather be back in Beijing than getting my butt kicked in Graduate School.

Here's some nice video from my trip:

If you recall my earlier post on The Great Wall here, you can remember how coming down the Great  Wall was a matter of life and death. The video above is me choosing to possibly die by sliding off the tracks instead of dropping to my death from a cable car! They called it Toboggan. 

Here's a guy on the street drawing my Chinese name in calligraphy. It's like the kind you get at all touristy places where each letter looks like an animal only more awesome!

Most food outings  that stood out the most included:
Miao Food From Guizhou
Southwestern Minority Food
Mongolian Food

Happy Eatings! Goodbye Beijing! See you soon?
By the way if you were wondering what my first meal back in the U.S. was.....



It was In & Out! Double Double, Animal Style with a Chocolate Milkshake. How American of me!

Southwestern Minority Food!!! 西南民族菜

I'm home back in the U.S. of the A!! Super excited! This is the first post I'm actually able to post myself since I'm finally away from the Great Firewall of China and had to have my sister do all my posting. I can finally comment back now! Very exciting!  My 2nd to last meal in Beijing was Southwestern Minority food. I love minorities & I love food. It was the perfect combo. Very, very good! Plus, I've never had 西南民族菜 (Southwestern Minority Food) so it was a great send off meal.

Spicy cold noodles. The best I've ever had!

 Look at all that bone marrow. That meat was amazing. It fell off the bone. The best part of of it was the seasoning. Just that was enough to eat with rice!!!

 This was pork meat with special southwestern chinese seasoning!!!

The most amazing fried fish balls ever! The sauce made it ever better!

This was a plant of some sort. I forgot what it was exactly but it was super good too!

Southwestern Minority food was really good. Only problem was that their seasoning was so good you had to eat it with bowls and bowls of rice!!! It was spicy too!

Happy Eatings!!