What we are eating...

As I have mentioned previously, we are not too adventuresome in the food department so I thought some of you might be interested in what we are eating.

We have ventured to the local market in Tangjia and have gradually been purchasing more of our fruits and vegetables from street vendors. We have found that as long as we wash things in soap and water and rinse them in previously boiled water, we have had no problems. The travel clinic told us before we left that "if you can't boil it or peel it, don't eat it." That could get old very fast so we are trusting the advice of our friends at Horizon Cove and UIC and have been fine. One of our favorite "new" fruits is a green orange that tastes much like the oranges we are used to but a bit more tart.

The best Chinese grocery store we have found is about a half hour bus ride from here. Since we are used to grocery shopping via bus (that's what we do in the Virgin Islands) it is not a problem. We have not been able to find "brown" rice among the several choices available and the supply we carried with us is running out (how many people do you know who actually bring rice with them to China?) so we may have to use white sticky rice in frequent stir fry dinners.

Going out to eat has been a fun experience. We usually try and bring a Chinese speaking friend with us to help translate the menu. Most of the restaurants have "live" tanks where you are asked to pick out the exact fish, shrimp or whatever you are eating. A Chinese friend old us that the Chinese like VERY FRESH SEAFOOD. Thought you might like to see the good looking shrimp we picked out for one of our very first meals here. Once we figured out how to eat them,
they were very good. It will take some getting used to seeing those beady little eyes looking up at us.

UIC has a "Staff lunch room" that our friend and colleague Jack introduced us to. He is the only person in the Physical Education Department who speaks any English so we have become very close to him. We usually bring our own peanut butter sandwiches for lunch because as you can see, you get way too much food in the school lunch room.

Thus far my favorite meal was last Friday evening when some friends from UIC took us to Mr Pizza. I've included the photo. We had antipasti, salad, pizza, cheesecake, coffee and wine for
about $12 for the 2 of us. Dining out in China is very inexpensive.