Appooppanthaadi-50

There is less chance to come across anything sweet to eat in China. For the past 80 days of my stay here, I have hardly had anything sweet. The day here does not start with a bed coffee  made with a thick blend of milk and sugar.. The Chinese have no habit of taking sweets. Of course they take chocolates and ice creams. 

Sweet shops are a peculiarity of our country, we must think so. It looks so boring in Chinese work places to see no one distributes sweets when a child is born. No sweets on a wedding anniversay day nor when anyone gets a promotion.I wonder, how they share happiness here. In my office in Chennai, I take one sweet minimum every day. There need not be any specific reason for this however.

Taking an example from the Chinese, I too stopped the intake of sugar and milk. Now my tea too, like the locals' is hot water with tea leaves. Though it has no great taste - it has a mild sour taste- I felt it very healthy. No adulterated milk and refined-using-bone- powder-sugar in my tea any more. 

People prefer to drink green tea here. In offices, they have big cups near their seats full of water and a few leaves in it. There are a number of types of leaves and even dry flowers are used to make tea.

 Bottled tea in different flavours are very common here. Some of them taste like perfumes and is very difficult for us to drink. Believeing that green tea is healthy, I  take two cupfull of it everyday. green tea leaves cost from 1 yuans to several hundred thousand yuans. There are tea leaves available even for 200,000 yuans for 500grams. This is almost equal to a Audi car!!

Still, if anyone feels that Indian tea is unavoidable in their daily routine, it is not difficult to have it. Lipton's tea bags are easily available. Pasturised milk in sachets and sugar are available in every grocery shop. Black tea dust is also available in the market although it is rare. Indians living here normally bring tea dust from India or depend on the Indian stores in big cities.

 Milk is not seen in packets like we see in our country. Milk sachets in 200 ml or less are available in the market that need not be preserved in refrigerators. There are so many flavours added to milk. We must be careful while selecting milk.

Though it is healthy to go Chinese in terms of tea, it is not so comfortable when it comes to food. Of course, for a non vegetarian, there are wide varaiteis of dishes on the offer to enjoy. But a vegetarian may be starved to death if he/she canot wink his/her eyes at the sight of meat. There are a number of vegetable based dishes availablable in the restaurants, but there is no guarantee that they are not laced with meat or meat based products . At the minimum, the utensils and spoons used for preparation and serving a vegetarian dish are the same that are used in non -vegetarian items. Egg and Sea food are considered vegetarian items here!

Fish brand Soya Oil

Ground nut oil, soya oil and sun-flower oil are availbale in the market in plenty but  animal fat is also common. So, no one can be sure which oil is used in the restaurant. I have been told that fish oil is much expensive and hence there is little chance that this oil is used. But, there is no guarantee that animal fat is not used.

The kitchen of my serviced apartment

For a vegetarian, the best way to overcome this situation is to cook own food. In China, getting a serviced paprtment is not so difficult. A serviced apartment provides every facility including kitchen with all utensils on daily rent. We only have to buy vegetables, rice, weat floor and sun flower oil. Serviced apartment is the best option for Indians to survive better in China.

 Every vegetable is available in the market except ladies finger and drum stick. Ginger, green chillies, red chillies, spices, masalas, different kinds of rice including basmati rice, garlic and ginger are very common in the market. Still the absense of daal, tamarind, mustard seeds and turmeric powder makes the difference.  

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The Chinese eat their food in a group. The dishes are kept in big bowls. People sit around and pick each item with the sticks. Food is not seperately served in plates here. 

Everyone picks from the common bowls. They eat rice too. Unlike our rice, they use sticky rice. This rice, once boiled, set together. For them, this makes it easy to pick it with the sticks. Though the western influence is so visible in their life style, every Chinese eat food with chop-sticks. I too learnt it and started eating food with these sticks now. I can even pick ground nuts with the sticks now.

Beer is an essential part of lunch and dinner. Probably, they avoid it during the breakfast. Every restarant -big or small- serve liquor. From Beer to wine to vodka to whisky, anything is freely available in any restaurant. No restaurant was seen displaying a board like "Tiffan Ready" , Tiffen Ready" or "Meals Ready" in the morning. The Chinese, thankfully eat food at home in the morning but flock to restaurants for lunch and dinner. There are a number of eateries in every nook and corner to cater to their needs. 

Contrary to the perceptions, these restaurants are reasonably clean. Of course, a few of them have a pinching smell inside the restaurants. Some of the ingradients in the food items cause this smell. This smell, for us is not so comfortable. But, though I visited so many restaurants, I seldom came across this smell. If we happen to pass by way-side eateries, chances of coming across such smell are more.

They offer dishes based on pork, beef, chicken and egg. I have not seen any snake dish anywahere but there are some restarants in some parts of China where they keep live snakes. Customers select a snake and it is converted into a dish. Snake is an expensive dish here and hence not so common in China. Look, they are far advanced from what we think of them. Still, everyone whom I questioned about snake had atleast once tasted it. They all have the same opinion- it is very delicious.Probably in villages people are still consuming snakes in large quantities.

Foot path eateries are common here.  During the dinner time, many of the foot paths are filled with tables and chairs. The wayside restaurants occuppy the foot paths to extend their business. As I mentioned in an earlier essay, poeple start eating by 6 in the evening.  They wine and dine themselves accompanied by beer in groups. Lastly they leave the tables wasting most of the food items.  


I must add one more thing here. Maximum Retail Price (MRP) could not be seen on any of the products in anywhere in the countries I so far visited. This is a speciality of our country. In the absence of MRP, shopkeepers charge as they please in foreign countries.