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Hello Steem Blockchain!

Have you ever tried authentic Chinese food? No, not General Tsao's Chicken or fortune cookies! I'm talking real Chinese food. You know, from China!

How you would like to eat some grilled scorpions?

No?
How about these ones?

I've been living in China for years. Do you think this is what Chinese people eat on the regular? Well, you've come to the right place to find out!

In this post, I want to explain to you what normal Chinese food is like so that anyone that hasn't been here can get a deeper understanding of this massive country. Most of the following pictures are from Beijing, namely Wangfujing. Wangfujing is a famous shopping street that has a fairly sizable snack street full of food.

Let's talk about breakfast. Breakfasts in China are quite diverse, but there is some similarity between provinces. In the morning, you can expect to eat some kind of porridge.

The most common porridges are made from white rice, black rice or millet. Call me boring, but I really like eating these in the morning. Normally, it will just be plain rice or millet in the porridge, but you can get fancy and add some dates or herbs to give it more flavour.

Not too crazy, eh?

But does it get disgusting from hereon out? Let me explain!

A lot of people have this preconceived idea that Chinese people eat really exotic food and most of it is completely bizarre.

I'd say that most food is actually quite normal.

While the food may not look and be prepared the same way as you are used to, often times, the food consists of very similar food sources.

Here in the north, they primarily eat pork, chicken, fish and lamb for meat sources as well as rice, noodles and potatoes for starch.

The soup above is a spicy and sour beef noodle soup. It has slices of beef, noodles and a delicious soup base. I absolutely loved it the first time I ate it at a restaurant.

Chinese people also eat a lot of tofu. It is healthy, nutritious and has lots of protein. You can find stalls everywhere selling fried tofu or even stinky tofu.

Aside from the common meat sources that I listed above, I also found a new kind of meat that actually tastes awesome. Give donkey meat a try! It tastes a lot like beef and it's really lean.

This sandwich is called Lü Rou Huo Shao and is a toasted bread that they fill with cooked donkey meat, cilantro and green pepper. This snack only costs 10RMB which is about $1.59 USD.

Sausages are really popular as well. Most are made of pork. I personally don't eat pork so I can't comment on the taste, but you are almost guaranteed to see a line of people waiting to get their hands on one of these. The appearance is very similar to a hot dog.

Didn't you think Chinese food was all strange and disgusting? Well now I am showing you real Chinese food. There is one province that is known for eating really bizarre food and that is the province of Guangdong

This might be the province where all the stories of Chinese people eating wild things comes from. In this province, you might find people eating snakes, scorpions, rats, endangered animals and a whole bunch of other stuff. There is a famous saying that Chinese people eat "anything with four legs except a table and anything with wings except an airplane". People from Guangdong are probably to blame for this saying haha.

But one thing that you might find off putting if you grew up in a Western country is the consumption of organ meats. I know people in the West that only eat chicken breast, thighs or legs. But what about the rest of the chicken? Do you just throw it out? No in China!

The Chinese have many recipes for preparing different parts of an animal. Chicken feet is extremely popular here. I personally don't like it because there isn't enough meat and most of it consists of small bones and cartilage.

Eating the intestines of animals is particularly popular here.

Grossed out yet? No? Didn't think so hahaha!

China also has some cool vegetables as well. There is something called lotus root which is a really delicious and crunchy vegetable. The texture is similar to a raw potato.

The way they cook eggplants is really good as well. Eggplants absorb oil like a sponge, but once it is cooked, it absorbs all the juices and sauces you cook it in. By the end of it, it will tastes like a soft, juicy, flavourful potato!

And if you've never tried hot pot with friends, you are definitely missing out! No question!

Like I said before, Chinese people will eat more parts of an animal. If you look above, you'll see tripe, which is the stomach of a cow. It's actually really good (and chewy). It goes great with hot pot.

We've made it to the final stretch folks!

If nothing here looks extreme to you, you'll have a blast in China. If something here disgusts you (except for the scorpions and maybe the intestines), then maybe you should stick to salads and/or McDonalds lol.

As far as fish is concerned, you'll have plenty to choose from.

You can try a God damn KALUGA FISH!

But one of my favourite seafood dishes is called Suan Cai Yu or Sour Cabbage Fish

They cut up a grass carp and cook it with a type of sour cabbage,, ginger, garlic and other ingredients. I love sour tasting food and this isn't an exception.

Some honourable mentions:

Soup Baozi: A bun filled with soup inside you can drink from a straw

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Chicken Curry

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How about a snack?

Give these candied fruit a try while you're at it!

So there you have it folks. This is what a lot of normal Chinese food looks like. Nothing too crazy right?

Thinking about visiting this country? Do it! You'll definitely find some crazy food here, but let me tell you that it isn't the norm. If you are looking for an exotic food adventure, check out the province of Guangdong. Even outside this province, you can find some strange food you've probably never seen before, but I wrote this post to inform people out there that are afraid of venturing off to the Middle Kingdom (aka. China) because they won't find any food they like.

This country's food is extremely diverse. With all the different dishes out there, you could probably fill up an entire phone book with names of food they have here.

It just goes to show much old this country is and how they have preserved a lot of their culinary traditions.

Hope you enjoyed this video and blog post.

Thanks for reading & watching!

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