My dinner is staring at me....

I've been in China less than three days, but I've got enough for an opening post. My first meal here was fish and chips from the hotel's late-night menu. It was past 11, choices were limited, and I was jetlagged out of my mind. It was quite tasty -- at least I thought it was in my semi-conscious state. I ate what I could in bed mostly lying down, and immediately passed out afterward. The hotel breakfast pretty much caters to waiguo (foreigners). I haven't tried the Korean-style noodle option for breakfast. I've been having bread and cheese and fruit and the most heavenly fresh squeezed orange juice ever. And I think I had some herring this morning.

One thing that's only slightly food related, that I'm trying to get used to, is brushing my teeth with bottled water. It's very interesting. You don't use tap water for anything that goes in your mouth unless you're going to sterilize it or the water's been boiled first. Instead you pour water in a cup to get your toothbrush wet, rinse it out, and rinse your mouth.

So here is some of what I've eaten here so far this trip.  Some of this I've seen in the States, but a lot of it I haven't, or at least I haven't had a chance to try it there.  So because I'm in the middle of a busy trip trying to set things up for our move, it's picture dump time.  I promise to be more elegant and interesting later.  <3  Up first: lunch!

I'm not sure what this vegetable is, but it's slightly pickled and very tasty.

Lotus root, with the holes stuffed with rice.  I was surprised that it was sweet, but I really liked it.

Itty bitty squid.  SO GOOD!

Crunchy <3

Beef.  They said it wasn't spicy.  ....  Must have been from Sichuan.

Green beans and eggplant... and peppers.  But it was still really good.  Just watch out for the peppers.

This was the most expensive dish on the menu.  We weren't looking at prices when we ordered it.  But we also didn't have to pay.  ha ha ha ha  It's abalone over pigs feet.  Mark said it tasted like chicken.  XD

Tasty tasty abalone.

Less tasty pigs feet.  It's mostly fat, and I'm not a big fan of fat.

Chinese spinach.  Apparently.  It was good.

Up next: Dinner!

This is the statue outside the restaurant where we had dinner.  Tasty tasty seafood!

This is where you pick out your dinner.

Prawns....  I love prawns.

They're looking at me as if to say, "How could you do this, you evil human?"

This is pigeon.  I will never look at these birds the same way again....  They're delicious!

You could make a death mask off of this.  I'm not sure why the Chinese think that including the head (which you don't eat) is somehow decorative.  It strikes me as rather macabre.

I think these are a kind of crayfish.  They're called mantis shrimp, but they're not the kind of mantis shrimp immortalized on The Oatmeal blog.  They're a little longer than my finger and about twice as wide.

They look like some kind of alien life form.  Tasty tasty aliens.

Let me show you how to eat these:  First you peel the armor off the back.  Watch out.  It's pointy.

Then you take bites out of the back.  This is the egg sac, so this one is female.  The egg sac is hard, harder than egg yolk, and has an unusual flavor.  Our Chinese friend says it's the best part, but Mark and I don't so much care for it.

This is what the egg sac looks like from the top.  I pull mine out and eat the rest.

Sea snails.  Mark says they were better last time.

Clams with... stuff.  It was tasty.  I've never liked clams before.

The happy gourmands.

Oh, and we had some vegetables.  I forgot to take a picture when they first came out.  They were really stringy, and I kept having issues with swallowing.  But you never say no to fiber when eating Chinese food.  Seriously.

Flounder.  It was delicious.

That's all for today's installment.  We had dim sum on Monday and I'll post pictures of that later.  It was tasty.  Less weird than some of this, though.  And we'll be going by a MaiDangLao (McDonald's) later.  I'll be sure to get something you can't get in the States so you can see how they localize the menu over here.  Until later, then.  Eat well.