Students who have experienced the Far East find a new love
In a university where many know Chinese food only as sweet and sour pork, a few students have visited China and know the authentic way to eat Chinese food. Although these students visited China for different reasons, all agreed on one thing: the food was fantastic.
I was surprised that American Chinese food didn’t even compare,
said Cameron Porter, a junior from Rexburg.
Porter, who lived in China for a month for a Chinese language program, described the food there as the best he has ever tasted.
When eating dinner in a restaraunt in China, it is customary for each person to order a separate dish and then share on a table similar to a lazy Susan, said Catherine Moore, a junior from St. Louis, Mo. One person acts as the host and makes sure everybody is getting enough of each dish. The dinner meal usually consists of many vegetables with a few light meat dishes.
Moore also visited China for a language program though Capital Normal University. Her favorite dish was the peking duck, a traditional Chinese dish. I was really nervous to eat it, but it was really good,
Moore said. I would have never eaten it myself.
Many of the dinner dishes are served as hot pots,
where people cooks their own food while eating. Pieces of the food are dipped into hot bowls of spicy broth-like liquid and cooked.
Hot pots are different, nothing like anything we have. Some are spicy, and some are sweet,
said Jessica Goodson, a sophomore from Pittsburg, Calif. It’s just a different style of eating.
Another favorite of Porter and Goodson was a breakfast roll called mantou.
Porter described this as a hard bread roll dipped in sweetened- condensed milk. It was like a cinnamon roll without the cinnamon,
Porter said.
Unlike American food, which can be filled with sugar, food in China is cooked with spices. Goodson said there was not much sugar in anything, but the same spices went into everything. I came home [to the States] right before the holidays, and the sugar in all the food made me sick,
Goodson said.
Porter said garlic is used in everything as the predominat flavor.
I still use garlic in all of my food,
Porter said. I love it.
