Lunch issues

Working in an area that's dominated by foreigners, there are a lot of places nearby that serve Western food at Western prices. Unfortunately, I'm one of the world's one billion or so people who earn less than a $1 a day, so I can't afford to eat there. I have to do something cheaper.

For the most part, I've been bringing my lunch. Peanut butter and jelly were easy enough to find, and sometimes SY will make fried rice for me. About once a week I like to go to McDonald's, where I can get a Big Mac (jù wú bà, 巨无霸) combo, medium-sized for 18 RMB ($2.25). That's a real treat.

After almost four weeks of this, though, I really want to find someplace both cheap and good with a varied menu that I can take out. So I asked the two Chinese interns if they knew anyplace and could show me.

Today we went out someplace that was both new and different, but didn't quite fit the bill. They took me to a typically Chinese (meaning loud and smoky) place and ordered a chicken hotpot to split among the three of us.

Now, I don't know why Chinese cooks do this, but they cut chickens up really strange. Instead of cutting at the joint, it's like they try to cut across the bone. I didn't like that about our dish. The taste was good, and I can use chopsticks, but trying to pick meat off a bone while you're holding it isn't so easy.

Two other things were chicken feet and the threat of excessive pesticides. Number One: I don't like chicken feet, period. I have grown to hate chicken feet from my experiences in both Korea and China, and even when I'm not actually eating them I don't like seeing them in dishes that I am eating.

Number Two: We ordered some vegetables to put in the hotpot, including one called 鸡毛菜 (jī máo cài, lit. chicken hair dish). One of the interns remarked that they use a lot of pesticides on it, so they don't eat it at home anymore, but put them in the pot and stirred them around just the same.

Hmmmm.... I kind of lost my appetite after that.

So I'm still on the lookout for someplace cheap and nice with a varied menu that I can take-out from. With the weather much cooler now, getting out and walking around seems like the most likely way.