During our three week tour we tasted several different kinds of Chinese food. We always stayed at hotels where a nice western style breakfast buffet was available, but the lunches and dinners were always an interesting experience. Tom and the local guides arranged the meals at a variety of restaurants and always added something special. Since we did not want to drink the local water, beer was generally the beverage of choice. We did try some of the Chinese wine but quickly decided that was not worth 'all the tea in China'.

We had Peking Duck in Peking (now Beijing), Cantonese food in Canton and a myriad of dishes that will remain a secret to the persons who prepared and served them. Most of the time we would sit around a large table for ten and admire the platters of food placed on the 'Lazy Susan' in front of us. One time we visited the kitchen where several cooks did their thing. So let me show you a couple pictures of that first.

At one place we were served a variety of noodle dishes. There were two kinds of noodles: the ones that were shaven from a large hunk of dough, and those made by this artist shown below. A spicy sauce, similar to an Italian meat sauce, could be added or you could have the boiled noodles in a bowl with vegetables.

In the northern part of China we generally had interesting dishes that were a bit more spicy. Most of the time we had soup which was served towards the end of the meal in the north. And, as I mention before, beer was always there. The Chinese fortune cookie is an American invention, so we often had water melon or other fruits for desert. Did you know that beer is very common all around the world? Even Budist monks will indulge so once in a while.

An interesting meal was this fundue. Each of us had a pot of hot water on a small stove. We would select any of the items on the turn table and cook it for a few minutes, add some sauce on our plate and eat. There were several kinds of vegetables, pork and lamb slices, shrimp balls, and even eggs to be poached. It was fun and we all enjoyed this dinner. Just don't ask me where we had what.

Then there were the street vendors and little 'hole-in-the-wall' places. After all, food is paramount in China, and a meal on the go (or a take-home) is just like fast-food stops in the US. How about a roasted yam, roasted chestnuts or some earth nuts and tangerines?

Of course there is also the special snake wine, a strong potion that is drawn from this glass jar where snakes, lizards and other critters are fermented to impart additional virility into the 'he man'. So Roger and I had to try some.

When we arrived in Hong Kong all of us wanted some 'western' food. Several found the 'Spaghetti House' and had some pasta and a descent bottle of wine. The following evening six of us took a ferry to Lamma where we had another memorable dinner along the beach front.
BTW the prices you see in the picture above are Hong Kong dollars; divide by seven. Also note that the oysters were listed as 'oyster Rock Felier', a nice French touch! See Hong Kong.
But what really hit home was Fernandez, a Portuguese restaurant on one of the three islands that comprises Macau. It was beef and fries for Sharon, oven-baked veal for Jay, clams in tomato sauce for Bill and Pat, and paella for Roger and Lani. It included a round of beer, of course.