From Grits to Chopsticks

Now that we’re back in the USA, we often miss authentic Chinese food from Yunnan province.  During our final month in China, we enjoyed some unique things.

A group of students invited us to dinner at a new, very delicious hot pot restaurant.  After we sat down, the manager spoke to the leader of the student group, who then interpreted for us: “Would you like to visit the chicken?”  We agreed to do so, assuming that we were being given the opportunity to select our dinner.  But actually, we were being given the opportunity to visit the “kitchen” (a slight mistranslation):

That was probably the cleanest kitchen in our city, unlike the one at our usual street-side restaurant:

Its rating is a clue to the cleanliness of the kitchen:

But the food is tasty, especially the lotus root and stir fried okra:

We also enjoyed the fried pork on toothpicks.  During our final two weeks in China, our friends ordered other parts of the pig for us, including sliced pig stomach (which has the texture of rubber bands):

pig intestines (a bit slimy, but okay if you eat it with the tofu):

and pig brains (fortunately, boiled thoroughly in a spicy soup):

Well, we miss most of the authentic Chinese food…