China vs. US, Part I: Food

Everytime a stranger has found out that I'm from the states, the first thing they ask me is "which do you think is better? China or America?" To which I always respond like a politician. I don't know, they both have their own good points. Well, now that I've been in China for almost a month, and nobody in China pretty much no Chinese person can actually read this because google anything is blocked (Even though gmail doesn't always a VPN, blogspot def does), I'm going to compare home/America vs. China/China home. Let's make this a best of 7 (or however many necessary) category series. FIFA rules. China vs. America. Who will win? DUN DUNNN DUNNNN

I'm going to limit the category to food readily available in China and have a separate faceoff for restaurants (partially because I've yet to eat in Pizza Hut in China despite having been here like 6 or 7 times since I was 6…Blame my parents for not wanting to spend the equivalent to the American price for food.)

I'm also gonna have links to/pictures in this post of all the food that's not self explanatory/looks interesting so you non Chinese people know what I'm talking about. And for you Chinese people, I just wanted to make you hungry. =p

Breakfast: Standard Chinese breakfast options (that I will eat at least): xiaolong baozis (see the yumminess), youtiao（油条-literally strips of dough that have been deep fried… I haven't had youtiao since I've come back (don't think I had it last time either) b/c it was too oily—tho still tasty. I remember being obsessed with youbing as a kid tho…even worse for you. Like fried pizza dough circles haha.）, hard boiled eggs, 煎饼(idk how to translate this so here's wikipedia…see the picture), 粥(pretty much rice soup porridge that tastes good w/zacai or rousong)

Vs. American bfast: omelet, scrambled eggs (with ham and cheese of course, usually made into a bfast sandwich mmmm), fruit, cereal, milk, bagels, waffles, (pancakes, sausage, bacon not listed b/c I rarely eat them)

I don't know, I can't really pick which is better. I want to say American bfast b/c I've got the biggest craving for a bfast sandwich, but xiaolong baozis are soooo gooooooddd. And, hard boiled eggs are actually surprisingly good if you dip them in soy sauce (酱油--the Chinese kind you cook with, not that crap at Chinese restaurants). I have yet to have a good 煎饼tho…nothing like the ones we make at home. The 饼(pancake like part) of the one I got at the subway was too thick and not crispy/crunchy (就是不脆. Best way to describe the problem haha) and I couldn't taste the egg and there wasn't enough sauce haha…><. My aunt keeps telling me that they couldn't possibly make it taste as good as home because then they wouldn't make any money…-_-.

I also can't say if I'd prefer to eat breakfast in Chapel Hill or in China because I wouldn't eat breakfast if I wasn't in China b/c for summer and school, I wouldn't get up til brunch/eat a snack and wait til lunch. ><

Even. Still tied 0-0 after breakfast.

Snacks: Even. China's got awesome snacks that you can't get in the US easily (check out some of the snacks I bought ), but the fruit here is not as good as I had expected. Maybe it's because my grandpa doesn't buy the peaches I like to eat, but it's probly because I think yellow peaches are better anyways…but yellow peaches are nowhere to be seen in china. Anyways, peaches aren't the only reason why the fruit has been disappointing, haha although it's pretty much the main reason. I do miss pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes!, and SEEDLESS watermelon. haha

Lunch/dinner: I'm just going to compare china home vs. CH home b/c if it was American food vs. china anywhere…well it wouldn't even be close. American food kind of sucks…as my aunt and uncle say constantly "美国人真可怜，好吃的吃不着。" (Americans lives are so sad. They can't eat anything good.) hahah. The sad thing is that they asked me what American people eat for dinner/meals everyday and I still couldn't tell them…if you know please tell me. The few experiences ive had with American families eating dinner thankfully didn't actually require me to eat with them because I was working on a group project at an American person's house after school until dinner and I felt so bad for them…they were having hot dogs, watermelon, mac and cheese, and rolls for dinner…) Anyways, that's why I'm comparing china vs. CH home.

I think CH home beats china on practically all vegetable dishes/things I usually eat at home: 土豆丝 (it's potato)， Green beans (jiu ma makes really good green beans tho), shrimp and tofu/broccoli/cucumber (3 sep dishes), cauliflower and eggs, cucumber and eggs; non veg dishes: bing, hongshao rou (what it looks like at a restaurant, not at home tho), man tou (they're so piece-y and crumbly here =/), except for dou yar (bean sprouts).

And then there are the dishes that I rarely eat at home that China beats home easily at: liang ban huang gua (凉拌黄瓜liangban huanggua), 炒饼(chaobing)(picture I found online doesn't do my grandma's justice)， 炸酱面(zhajiang mian--noodles below)。 I just realized this summer that we rarely eat this at home is because my parents don't know how to make it well…

Fish—even.

Dumplings: it's funny, we pretty much eat dumplings for dinner once a week at home (every Sunday), and once a week here in China (every Friday). As good as the dumplings here are (they use some sort of bean and pork, I think jiangdou, whereas we have pork/chicken more often now haha, Chinese cabbage, shrimp and chives; pork and Chinese cabbage; or vegetable dumplings at home), I think I gotta go with home on dumplings because of the vegetable dumplings we have at home.

Lunch/Dinner: Home.

Dessert: China wins easily. For the most part, American dessert is too dense for me and super expensive. China has super cheap popsicles in a bajillion flavors (so awesome that its getting its own post in the future), red bean ice mountain things (红豆薄冰)—I have yet to eat this this summer -_-, and they have these amazing bakeries that are also super cheap—Breadtalk is one of my fav stores.

Still tied at regulation. 1-1.

In general tho, China food is way too oily for me. As good as it tastes, I can't stand the oily feeling in my mouth that I get after eating almost anything here, so I'm gonna have to give the US the win here in OT (ref's decision…hey it's the world cup, cut me some slack, at least I gave you an explanation for this horribly biased opinion). I stand by my decision because I think that I miss food at home more than I would miss food in China once I go back to the US. Yea I know I was horribly inconsistent in which foods I considered and which I didn't, eh whatever, we're going by FIFA's rules, so arbitrary baseless rulings are completely acceptable. And really, you should be happy I even gave you an explanation. =p

Crap I've realized that I haven't really posted on the weekdays once I started work. I'm gonna try really hard to try and make shorter more frequent posts than long ones once a week. (my bad Louisa ><)

Inserted pictures to come later (w/in the next few hours). Sorry, got to sleep for 2 hrs and watch Germany-Uruguay.

UPDATE: COMPLETE fail. Didnt get up for the game ><...