Tasting China one city at a time!

First stop: Beijing! The capital of The Peoples Republic of China (PRC)!! This place was the first city our group visited. We were instantly submerged into the Chinese culture and had quite the time trying to figure out our first few days! Beijing provided a wide variety of foods. It was almost like a melting pot of all the styles of dishes we would later encounter on our trip. It also gave us our stereotpyical "weird foods" that we all had heard about prior to the trip! It also held the largest selection of street food vendors than any other city we had been! The most famous dish in the Peking region in which Bejing is located is, Peking Duck! OUR FIRST MEAL!! This restaurant experience occured after the long flight from the states and we had been up for over 24hours! It was later found out that the dish was called "A Peasants Dish".....silly Americans.

The best place to experience Peking duck is located off a small, back alley road in the middle of what I could only describe as ..NOWHERE! The name of the little restaurant is called, "LiQun Roast Duck Restaurant"

Before the OVEN!

It was cooked in a brick oven!

More ducks ready to eat!

OUR DUCK! Brought to us personally by the Chef to show us the quality before he sliced it up into tiny thin pieces!

TIme to EAT!

Street Food!

The Night Markets!

Rat head anyone??

"Woof Woof...Meow Meow"

Second up: Chengdu Chengdu is located in the Sichuan Province of China. It has rich history and is a region that has undergone much change and development during Phase 3 of China reforms. A typical dish found in this region is the HOT POT! It is made with very hot peppers and lots of spices that will leave your mouth either extremely hot or extremely numb! The Business : SIchuan Peppers and "NUMB NUMB BALLS"

Another typical dish in Chengdu

HOT POT!! The general idea here is that you get this pot of boiling spices and oils and you cook your meat (served raw) until it is how you want it done. Another route is to dump all the meat into the vat and sit back and relax!!

Time to cool off...the Chinese Way!!

Pictures of the Private farms that opened up after the reforms! It can be assumed that these farms were once part of a "Commune System" in which Chairman Mao implemented during his revision of the 2nd Five year Plan!

Last but not least: Guangzhou Guangzhou is a port city located in southern Guangdong Province of the PRC. Due to its geographical location seafood is a typical dish found at most establishments! While staying in Guangzhou we got to experience a number of different seafood dishes. We also got a first hand encounter of a fresh market where a large array of sea life could be bought and chopped right in front of you! A typical fish entree served at a restaurant, served head to fin!

Another famous dish in Guangzhou, "Shaved Beef Noodle"

Here is a look at the fresh market we encountered!

Conclusion: I hope that if you are ever in China you get to experience all of the great food this place has to offer. My advice is to try anything and everything you can you never know when you’ll get an experience like this again! Oh yeahh and remember when in doubt……..GAMBEI!!!!