Cloudy with a Chance of Doughballs

Several readers have asked for a description of the food that was photographed, so I thought I would update the previous slide-show with captions and add all the other photos we’ve taken of food. But first I should explain the title. This is a take-off from a popular children’s book and also describes our first day in Japan. The doughball part will be obvious from the photos.

In China, we ate mostly Chinese food but also enjoyed Greek and French. I loved everything served from the latter two. American Chinese food is considerably more appealing to the American palate, IMHO.

If you are considering a move to China, breakfast would take a lot of getting used to --- mostly meat and vegetables --- and unrecognizable ones at that. Additionally, you will have some fun with some of their adjectives. Specifically, we noticed “hairy” and “gelatinous” used a lot, and my favorite descriptor was “sauteed assorted fungus.”

Additionally, the Chinese seem to enjoy most of their meat as close to natural as possible with bones, shells, and skin. The most unusual in my opinion was eating crab that was all covered in cheese. Apparently, you either eat the shell or separate it in your mouth.

I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the desserts. We did find most of them to be fairly good. There were a few odd ones like ice cream and bean curd, fried potatoes, and my favorite ”eight treasure pudding (glutinous rice with assorted beans) --- looked great, but I just couldn’t order it.