Hooked!

My time in China can be described as a series of addictions. You know, you show up, find something you like, and end up devouring it every day for three weeks. Since I’m nearing the end of my stay in this crazy country (less than three weeks left, it’s hard to believe!), now seemed like a good time to chronicle my obsessions. The first amazing thing I discovered in China was called 鱼香茄子 [ed. note: unfortunately, the characters she used didn't translate], which translates as Fish-Flavored Eggplant. For me, it was one of the most delicious things I had ever tasted. It was a taste explosion of sweet, sour, and eggplant all in one! Believe it or not, it actually has nothing to do with fish, except that the eggplant is prepared similarly to how fish can also be prepared. The eggplant still tastes like eggplant – nothing fishy. However, I effectively got over this addiction about a month after I arrived in China (also, realizing that the eggplant was deep-fried helped quite a bit). While traveling in Yunnan, I had a plate of mediocre Fish-Flavored Eggplant and proceeded to get sick. While my head knew this disease was not caused by the eggplant, my tastebuds told my stomach to get queasy whenever鱼香茄子was in the near vicinity. Suffice to say, by the time I was able to overcome the silly brainlessness of my taste-buds, I was over addiction #1. In the meantime, I filled the empty place in my heart (and stomach) with tasty things from the local bakeries. This was not aided by the fact that they’re all dirt cheap, like most everything else in this country. However, realizing this was not the healthiest habit I could have picked up in China, I forced myself to stay away from the bakeries for two weeks, and by the end of the two weeks I was cured once again. Somewhere in the middle of those, at some point in the beginning of my stay in Chengdu, I discovered green onion bread. This bread really is phenomenal – kind of like a round patty of bread stuffed with green onion deliciousness (also friend, I believe). For a while, I got green onion bread every day. It was warm (and believe me, it was cold outside) and delightful. This was one that I made no conscious effort to get over, but simply faded away with the ravages (or apathies) of time. From here we proceed on to milk tea, which for a time was my favorite kind of tea in China (and I effectively got several other people hooked as well – mwa ha ha). We have a milk tea stand quite close to my apartment complex, and when it was chilly, nothing felt better than some hot milk tea. I started buying boxes of milk tea at the local supermarket – I drank it at least once a day. At some point I realized I wasn’t quite as keen on it as I used to be, which might have had something to do with the fact that the milk tea stand’s milk tea had so much sugar in it that if I drank it too fast I tended to feel vaguely ill. And so that obsession ceased to be, like all the others. Next in line are rice cakes. In fact, I’m not even sure they are rice, but they make me think of rice, so I shall proceed to call them rice cakes. They were steamed treats from a restaurant close to the gym I frequent; for a long time they were my treat after every workout. I got my other gym buddies hooked on them too – another addiction that gently ebbed away to nothingness. My last and latest obsession is baozi, which I wrote about it a previous post. In fact, so ardent was my enthusiasm about them that I took a picture of the baozi (包子) from the place I buy them and put that up online (which I’m sure some of you may recall). At one point I got baozi three times in as many days. The woman who makes them quickly learned who I was and knew what I wanted without me having to say a word. I am happy to say that as of right now, I am addiction-free. I did get milk tea today, but it was the first time in quite a while. I also go to the bakery (quite infrequently) every once in a while for some sweet bread. I am, of course, still hooked on tea – but that’s nothing new. And as far as addictions go, it’s rather innocuous. What can I say? I’m hooked!