Dear Steemian friends,
Please enjoy our first Food Diary entry!
Over our first month we've been eating our way through China and we've loved every bit of it – except the food poisoning part. Through China you encounter so much variety of specialty food from town to town. In this entry we'll keep the writing sharp and short, and straight to the noodles we go!
① 烩面 (Huīmiàn) Flat wide square noodles in tomato based soup. ② 牛肉拉面 (Níuròu lāmiàn) Hand pulled noodles with very little beef. ③ 砂锅 (Shāguō) Rice noodle claypot with beef
① Oat porridge with raisins and milk. ② Homemade chive and egg dumpling. ③ Mushroom risotto with mashed potatoes (made from powder)
① Fresh mini sponge cake sold by the kilo! ② Vanilla and Matcha ice-cream. ③ Cream flavour variety of strawberry
火锅 (Huōguō) Hot Pot
Before arriving in Lanzhou, we met a Chinese cyclist heading towards the same direction. We were very glad to have found someone to cycle together with. He had a friend that is a co-owner of a popular Hot Pot restaurant. We were welcomed to stay with them and was shown great hospitality through food as always.
Center of the table is a pot with a divide for spicy and stock based soup, the spicy side generally covered in chilli oil. You can put almost anything into the hot pot to cook. Today we had cabbage, mushroom (金针菇，木耳，平菇), thin beef slice, seaweed, sweet potato, lettuce and in Chinese 年糕 and 山药.
It is hard to find the correct translation for these ingredients, but here is the best I could find:
- 金针菇 → enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes)
- 木耳 → wood ear (Auricularia auricula)
- 平菇 → oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus)
- 年糕 → New Year cake (made of glutinous rice flour)
- 山药 → Chinese yam (Dioscorea polystachya)
Here is a short clip of the Hot Pot we had with our Lanzhou hosts.
https://pedallingcontinents.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/vid_20180430_2048442.mp4