It’s easy to know what is on the menu at that 5-Star Radisson in Shenzhen or Shanghai. It’s in English and contains all the items you are accustomed to seeing on a menu - only much more expensive. But that is not really Chinese food, and so I won’t write about these. What I think is more important is for you to learn about what Chinese people eat, and why it’s healthy and good for you.

While many of the middle class restaurants I speak of have pictures on their menus, those pictures may not always be what they seem. Fish certainly looks like fish, but what is that stuff that looks like grandmas beef stew, and why does that look like seaweed?
Well the answers are simple and yet complicated. It very well could be seaweed, or it could be tofu, but either way it’s very healthy eating.

The Chinese eat lots and lots of vegetables of every variety. Many varieties of spinach, and lettuce, along with radish, carrot, turnip, broccoli and celery. And how many times have you heard US doctors and other advice givers saying that we need more vegetables in our diets?
Chicken, duck, fish, turtle, frog, and pork are the ‘meat’ mainstays, along with the occasional lamb and beef dishes. During holidays, dog is very popular. With each of these dishes you get everything except the intestines. Which means that the fish, turtle, chicken and duck all come with their heads and feet and the dog with his genitals. Beef, pork, chicken and duck liver is also plentiful and very popular, so people are also getting their daily iron supplement. Many times you will see some stuff that looks like some fungus or something.... It’s probably just tofu, but could also be an offshoot from the mushroom family, of which there are dozens here in China, and these are most welcomed from a mushroom lover. Many dishes are available with either rice and/or wheat noodles, along with a large variety of soups to warm your innards, especially in winter.

You will see that many of the dishes have little seeds in them, or slices of what look like green or red bell peppers. This means it is probably on the spicy side. Some locations are more noted for their spicy food than others, but with the exception of Shanghai - which is known for its food being ‘sweet’ - most food with these peppers means “spicy”. Oh and in some places, they will make you forget you ever heard about Mexican food....

Rice.... ah yes, rice. Rice is generally consumed at every meal when eating at home. Yet many times, while it is always available at restaurants, when Chinese people dine in a restaurant they do not eat rice. Especially when (paying the bill) entertaining bosses, girlfriends, foreigners, and/or other important people.

Finally, I always looked at the situation with this thought. There are 1.5 billion or so Chinese people, and they have been eating all of this for 5,000 or so years - according to their culture. So it can’t be harmful.

Next.... Some protocols of Chinese dining.

When I first came to China I was very interested in ‘walking around’ the town where I lived, to try to learn more about the culture, the people, and the stuff of everyday life for regular Chinese folks. I found that by walking through a village, a person could learn quite a lot about the average Chinese person, even without having a great command of the language itself. It’s great exercise, and I learned so much. I often wondered why the Chinese people walk in the street, never ‘look both ways’ before crossing, nor appear to notice the traffic signal (pedestrian signal) even if they bother crossing at a corner.

In america, I was taught from a very early age that we all followed a standardized set of rules....what used to be called ‘the rules of the road.’ A red traffic signal means to stop, a green signal means to go. All forms of movement were regulated by this signal. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and even those occasional people walking on the sidewalk all followed these rules. People walked on sidewalks, or at least didn’t walk in the middle of the road, and bicycles always rode near the right edge of the road. A 1950’s public service announcement reminded us that we might be “Right - Dead Right.” America is built for and around the automobile - for better or worse.
However for many years in China, only the high muckity-mucks had automobiles. Even as late as the 1990’s, only the ‘rich’ could afford a car. So pedestrians didn’t worry about cars (or trucks). The bicycle was the undisputed ‘king of the road’ in China, and generally speaking you can’t get killed if you are hit by a bicycle - those 18 speed, high-end touring bikes may be ‘Made in China’ but they’re certainly not in wide spread use here. The big coastal cities with the large populations are fairly well regulated with most (not all) people following the standardized rules of traffic management. Once you leave Beijing, Shanghai, or even the planned city of Shenzhen, all of that changes quickly. China has changed so dramatically in the interior in these last 10-15 years.
I came to the conclusion that walking (driving, motorcycling, or biking) boils down to the fact that there is no such thing as an accident, and until lately there has been no such thing as insurance. So it’s about acknowledgement and responsibility..... If you don’t look, and therefore don’t know if a vehicle is coming, you are not responsible and you can’t be held liable if it hits you. In other words, keep your eyes directly ahead (or better yet - look at your feet while talking on your cell phone). So nobody looks left or right before crossing the street or venturing out into an intersection on your bicycle. The law says that if you hit something, you are responsible - meaning you pay - and if you don’t have the amount that the aggrieved surviving family members want, you go to jail.... end of story. The people are right - and sometimes they’re “Dead Right”....

I don’t mean to leave the impression that China doesn’t have rules and laws. They certainly do - lots of them. The lesson is, that these rules of the road are for ‘other people’ or for when the police are actually taking notice -- after all, when trying to maintain order amongst 1.3 billion people (or more), they’re treated more like ‘guidelines’ rather than hard and fast rules.
Generally, people don’t walk on the sidewalks - or what look like sidewalks to my american eyes. You might see a car or a motorcycle driving on the sidewalk, but you won’t find many people walking there. People walk in the street. Sometimes wandering aimlessly along, seemingly unaware of the traffic around them, while cars honk their horns and then navigate around these pedestrians. I’m amazed that millions are not killed everyday.

Next time.... More on Restaurant and Dining.