From Grits to Chopsticks

Timothy’s time in China is drawing to a close, so we decided that it would be appropriate to do a “Chinese marathon” on Saturday night.  To dispel any confusion, this has nothing to do with running, but actually an attempt to eat as many different kinds of food for dinner as possible.  He started early with a large plate of noodles while sharing some of my duck-rice:

These Muslim noodles were a favorite of his when he used to live in Chengdu:

As we walked to our next restaurant, the streets of the school village were starting to fill with people:

On the north end of the village is a good place to eat jiaozi (Chinese dumplings):

On the way back, we stopped for some street food, partaking in a local specialty of ground rice and raisins:

We topped off the evening with some “shaokao” (barbeque) in the market next to our apartment.  There are so many choices of interesting things to eat:

We settled in on some “normal” things:

Of course, one of the highlights of a Chinese marathon often comes later that night (when running can become part of the process).  Fortunately, we had a good rest and even felt up to eating some “zongzi” the next day.  Zongzi, a special food eaten during the Dragon Boat festival (last week), is made from sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, usually containing some beans, nuts, or meat:

As a holiday gift, our school had kindly given us some salted duck eggs to eat along with the zongzi, but by this time, we’d had our fill…