The Noodles of Haiyuan County

While in Ningxia, I embarked on a quest to photograph all the different varieties of noodles I ate.  With noodles for most lunches and a few suppers as well, I had many opportunities.  Here I present the Noodles of Haiyuan County:

Hui Mian

Saozi Mian (my favorite)

Some kind of noodles

The same noodles after adding beef and sauce

Chao Mian (fried noodles)

Liang Pi (cold noodles with broth, tofu, and slivered veggies)

Some kind of rice noodle or potato noodle

Not noodles -- dumpling soup!

Homemade dumplings

A local specialty: the stuff on the left is buckwheat flour mixed with water.  You dip little pinches of it in the sauce on the right and eat.

La Mian (pulled noodles)

The price range of these dishes was about 4 RMB to 20 RMB, with most around 10 RMB ($1.50).  Now that I'm back in the U.S., I'll be looking for local recommendations to get the same thing for cheap!

Wonders (and Banquets) Never Cease

Welcome to our year-end foreign affairs banquet.  Hope you brought your appetite!

Here we have Attraction #1, the sea cucumber.  Contrary to what I first believed about this delicacy, it is not a vegetable.  It is a leech-like bottom feeder that is chewy but expensive, and therefore is required fare at a banquet designed to impress.

Yum yum yum!  The seafood broth wasn't bad.  I nibbled on this guy but didn't eat the whole thing.

Minutes into the meal, a giant plate with a grotesque and gargantuan figure was placed on the table: Attraction #2.  Looking at it from the side, I didn't know what it was.  Then someone told me it was a cow head.  Here's the progression of Beefy as he made a few turns around the table:

Beefy as he first appeared

Plenty of people took a serving.  I thought it was pretty good.

Picked clean

Tell me that's not awesome.  Here are a few other dishes.

Cicadas.  This is the second time I've seen them at a banquet.  (They're also expensive.)  I recently read a World-Vision report that described an African famine in which children were eating locusts to survive.  And yet here they are a delicacy, and local people seem to like them pretty well.

A sweet and spicy meat dish and a big fish.

Seafood and stir-fry

 As usual there was toasting a-plenty:

Since it was the last school banquet of the year, my roommate and I decided to bust out our traditional Chinese dresses.  They were a hit.

With teammates Sara and Joni

At the Fireplace Restaurant

A few days ago my Chinese teacher took me and my teammate out for a meal to send us off before we leave Rizhao.  She wanted to take us for a traditional style meal that mimics the way people used to prepare food in their homes.

There was a large table with a small fire underneath that directly heated our pot of delicious free-range chicken soup.  The restaurant is advertised for serving "green" (healthy) food, so in addition to chicken our soup also had some items to add medicinal value: ginger and goji berries.

It was a little smoky, but delicious and fun.  Thanks, Li Laoshi!

I nearly deleted this photo but persuaded myself to keep it for the sake of the "Pleasant Goat" wastebasket peeking out from behind the kindling.

Our teacher carefully washed the place settings in hot water before the meal.

The staff poured in the soup and lit the fire.

Even the chairs are a traditional style.  Love that fire!

Here's an interesting side note.  Many traditional countryside homes had (and some still have) a bed called a kang, which is a platform heated by a fire underneath.  The family can sit on the kang during the day and sleep on it during the night.  This can provide the only source of heat in an otherwise unheated house.

At the end of the evening, after eating most of the chicken, we boiled vegetables and handmade noodles.

Things I Did That I Never Told You About: May

Life in China, whatever else it may be, is always interesting, and I would hate to keep such interesting things as a squid kite or a purple potato to myself.  In that spirit, here is another month of weird and entertaining happenings that somehow failed to make the blog:

• A trip to JiuZhaiGou (nine village gorge), a complete knock-off of a more beautiful tourist site by the same name in Sichuan province
• A farewell banquet with our school leaders
• A beach party for our fellow teachers -- the last big teacher event our team hosted this year.

Jiu Zhai Gou


Two sophomore student friends invited me to head a couple hours outside of Rizhao to visit a scenic spot called "Nine Village Gorge" (I think.)  Apparently this is a privately funded enterprise -- some guy decided to copy the original jiu zhai gou in Sichuan province by building his own nine hamlets in the low, wooded mountains outside my city.  He ran out of money before he finished, but there are still plenty of tourists coming to check it out.

It was fun to spend a day out in nature seeing new fake villages with my students. 

One of the main "villages"

We walked up a long paved road and got this view.

Sweet students

The rather apathetic looking monk by this little temple told us the well on the left is from the Ming Dynasty.  I have my doubts.

On the bus home, we saw a tea farm, the first I've seen in Rizhao (which is known for green tea)!

Banquet with our school leaders

As foreign teachers, we are given formal banquets several times a year.  This banquet was given by the leaders of our department to celebrate the end of the year and to thank me, Sara, and Cathy, the three teachers going back to America. 

It was Sara's first time to sit in the seat of honor and give a toast.  I also had to toast.  FRIGHTENING.

My seat was by the Communist Party Secretary, a powerful and friendly lady.  We realized her daughter is about my age and she told me she is very worried that her daughter doesn't even have a boyfriend yet.*

After the formal eating and toasting, you also walk around and toast people in the order of their importance.  Sara and I teamed up to toast our vice-dean.*

Johnathan, our liaison and friend*

With my teammate Renee', who supplied a lot of the banquet and beach pictures for today's post.  Thank you!*

Some of Renee's food shots:

Candied walnuts*

Tofu?*

Fruit with a message: "Yi lu ping an."  (Bon voyage)*

Purple potatoes, boiled corn, and peanuts are often served together.*

Dumplings*

Gelatin soup*

Seafood sampler*

Another kind of tofu..  Looks like Parmesan cheese; tastes like nothing.*

Jian bing, a local cardboard-like specialty*

Cabbage.  YUM.*

Shrimp.  The Communist Party secretary helped me peel mine.*

Biggest fish I've ever seen at a banquet!*

Year-end beach party with our Chinese colleagues

Our team plans a "Coffee House" in our apartments once a month for our colleagues and their families to speak English and hang out.  We decided to make our last one a party at the beach.

Jumpin with our teammate Harrison*

The whole group. :)   *

One of the families brought a kite.*

It's a squid!*

Johnathan with his family*

Cute little guy*

Harrison and his buddies*

Lynn and Lai Lai*

This is a student I taught last year in Qufu, who happens to be my dean's daughter.  She also came to the picnic.  It was fun to see her again!

That wraps up the fun and full month of May.

*Photo credits to teammates Renee', Jason, and Joni