Food from my recent China trip (img heavy)

So, my grandfather and I landed in Beijing in January to attend my sister graduation ceremony. Can't believe that she got her bachelors degree before me, but hey that ought to teach me a lesson not to jump from one study to another after 2 years. After the graduation we hopped on a plane to Jinan, Shandong which is where my grandfather was born. First time for my sister and me to see that place so it was exciting. We stayed in the city of Jinan although we did get to go for an entire day to the village on the countryside and saw my grandfathers parents grave.

Alright, from the beginning in Beijing:

Haha, believe it or not, this was my very first time trying Coldstone. I like the concept that you can choose whatever flavor you like and have it made in front of you. Very nice! It won't be the last time I try it. (another downside to living in Denmark, we have nothing here, NOTHING!)








Coco is from Japan and SUPER delicious. It was so good I completely forgot about pics so all I have from that lunch is this cheesy pic of me holding a wet towelette package. Japanese curry is not like Thai or Indian curry, it's less spicy and has a texture that reminds me a bit of gravy. I was hooked the first time I tried it :)




Ah, the three of us went to a place where they served Xiao long bao, small steamed dough-wrapped meat buns.





The first night we arrived in Jinan, we had dinner at...let me see if I can get this right... uh, my grandfathers sisters grandchildren who are aprox 10-20 years older than me. To my surprise, we were gonna have dumplings that night and boy they were good! First pic is all prepared and ready for boiling and second pic is when we were halfways through when I realized I forgot to take pictures.






Here are most of the dishes I remembered to document in Jinan:




eggplant




Tofu



Fenpi, a flat noodle made from green beans, very chewy in texture and lovely when accompanied with soup and other good things :)




Mmh.. I believe this is called sea cucumber...not sure but it's considered to be a delicacy in China.




On a street in Jinan here we decided to get a snack. Meat on a stick! Hahaha! This is an awesome snack, perfect for a carnivore like me!







So, we went to the countryside and had lunch there. Holy cow, meeting our "relatives" for the first time and they just wanted to stuff us with food.

These veggies/leaves are found in the wild. Served tempura style, dipped in batter and deepfried. Very clean and sharp taste. Delicious!




So, apparently they eat this around Chinese New Years, it's Tofu and the way it's pronouned means wealth...or something like that, can't remember....




Lotus root








This is how it looked in the beggining. Later on they added 7 more dishes!




Just a variety of different foods in the city of Jinan, I swear they want to fatten us up, otherwise they wouldn't know what to tell our parents!

Haha, this guy is in his late teen years/early twenties and he is supposed to call me and my sister for aunties (I suppose we are, since we're very distantly related (children of those grandkids of my grandfathers sister, confused yet?) but hey, I asked him and his cousin, same age too, to just call us by name. I felt so old all of a sudden)






























This was pretty cool. A fish deep fried so it stays in that shape. It's a Chinese thing to have fish at New Years. It looked pretty impressive!







So these are the famous HUGE leeks from Shandong. The taste is more sharp than regular leeks which is why my grandfather loves these.









Hope you enjoyed these pics!