Food

Since my arrival in China I have eaten out. Largely because they kitchen facilities are not exactly conducive to cooking, secondly this may be the only western contact you have in your day and lastly why would you cook when it is so cheap to eat out.

This all came to a sudden end for me. With my partner in crime returning to America, the arrival of new teachers who don't enjoy the Chinese cuisine, my new teaching roster and it being way to cold for a Queenslander I started cooking. My dishes became simple one pot receipes.

Blair had purchased a crock pot so I tried it out. Ever since October I have been living on Chicken Cacciatore, Minestrone soup, pumpkin soup, vegetable soup, cabbage soup. Throw everything in the crock pot and it will be ready when you are.

I've had to set up my kitchen. I had to buy the basic kitchen utensils and serving plates to survive. Certainly nothing like my kitchen at home. I even made a trip to Jinan to buy some western style products that you can't buy here in Tai'an.

I will bequeath all sorts of things to the new occupier of my apartment.

Our first morning we went to Ming Tien for Breakfast. There is one of these in Tai'an. I ordered a latte and french toast. The latte I couldn't drink. It had like a milk film on the top of it and I think it was made of carnation milk. The french toast was a peanut butter sandwich that had been crumbed in coconut and fried. it was served with condensed milk. It was edible but not something you would order again.

Pizza Hut became our restaurant of choice. It was the only place we felt we could eat something to give us some comfort.

When you go on holidays you like to eat the food that the locals eat, however in Tai'an we don't have too much choice. It is either Chinese or Chinese. So when I travel I like to have western food! Crazy, yeah I know, but you try and eat Chinese food every day for 12 months. You too will be craving western food.

My first morning in Xian I chose to eat at the hotel. Traditionally hotels only serve Chinese breakfast, which I cannot stomach. However, I know that at the Ibis they do have a variety of western foods for breakfast. And Breakfast is cheap at Y15.

I grabbed my breakfast sat down to eat it and it was cold. I can't drink cold coffee. I left the hotel very disappointed. As I strolled into the city I found a Starbucks on just about every corner. This was going to be my breakfast place. Typically everyday I would head to Starbucks and have a Latte and a Scone or Muffin for breakfast. I was getting quite accustomed to this, wishing that it was possible even just to buy a coffee in Tai'an!

For dinner I went to Pizza Hut or an Italian Restaurant. The Italian Restaurant was called Colabo. It was difficult to find especially as it was raining and I didn't have an umbrella with me. I pursued the find because I was told that the found was sensational. The service was good but the food was terrible. However the red wine was worth pursuing. Something else we can't find in Tai'an. This red wine was a Shiraz from Chile. Very nice, indeed! And the only reason I would go back. Sad yes I know!

Breakfast
On our first two mornings we had breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast basically was a continental breakfast with muesli, fruit, toast, tea, coffee and juice. Of course they also had the traditional Chinese breakfast food such as noodles, pickles, lotus root, etc.

On our last morning we ate at 'Western Food Pub Hyatt '. We had French toast and a fruit plate. I had coffee and Barbara had a chocolate milk tea.
The French toast was not like anything I have had before. I think they spread the bread with peanut paste, fried it, dipped it in egg and fried it again. It was OK but as I said before not French toast as we now it. The fruit plate was huge and the presentation was outstanding. The latte I tried to drink but couldn't. It would have been the worst coffee I have ever had.

Lunch
We normally don't have lunch when we are travelling. That takes up precious time that we could be shopping or sight seeing. We normally have fruit or nuts to keep us going.

Dinner
On our first night we stumbled across a restaurant that really looked something like a family chain restaurant. There were heaps of people in the restaurant so we thought we would be fairly safe. Ordering was a challenge as they didn't have an English menu and no one spoke English. We toured the restaurant with the waiter in hand and pointed out what we wanted. We ordered Chinese pizza, shredded potatoes and eggplant. The potatoes are fairly standard in Shandong Province excepts these ones had a bit more chili. The Chinese pizza was great. It was on like a very thin pita base, that then had a egg cracked on top with ham, onions and capsicum. It was really nice. The eggplant we weren't at all excited about it and it looked like we hadn't touched it. The meal was very cheap. Even cheaper than what we pay in Tai'an.

On the second night we found a restaurant that looked OK. Still had some difficult with communication barriers. Anyway we thought we ordered Egg & Tomato but ended up with Egg and Chili. I did not like it at all.

On our last night we found this place called - 'Western Food Pub Hyatt'. The had western food, an english menu and a student who worked there whose major is English. We ordered a Supreme Pizza. It was just like at home. We decided we would go back for breakfast the following morning.

On the way in I saw a restaurant with a sign - Chinese Western Food and Italian Coffee. I had made up my mind that is where we would have lunch. I have to convince the others. I can be very persuasive when I need to be.

We all decided we would have BLT's. I was also going to have a latte.

Our drinks arrived. The latte was the best I had had since I had left home.

When they delivered the BLT they only delivered one. So we then tried to explain we wanted three. Thinking we got this right I also ordered another coffee. Yep I was going to be bouncing of walls tonight.

The next BLT arrived. We had to explain we wanted another one. How on earth did they ever think that 1 BLT was going to be enough for 3 people?

Sunday afternoon we found Jenny's cafe. Everyone raves about Jenny's cafe. It has western food. I was amazed at the menu. I settled for a wrap. It was delicious with feta cheese, red onion, olives and balsamic vinegar. We decide we would be back in the morning for breakfast.

We went to the shop next door to check out the western food. It was here that I found camembert cheese and Paul's milk from South Brisbane.

We came back the next morning for breakfast. We ordered one of everything on the menu and split it between the three of us. I think they thought we were made. I had a latte but it didn't compare with the two from the day before.

We then went next door and stocked up on our Western goodies.