On how I love Chinese street food!

One of the worst things about not being fluent in Chinese (in my opinion) is ordering food. I often get flustered when ordering food and try my best to avoid it when it involves actually speaking to someone. I've been tricked into ordering too much, or have ordered not enough food (ie. two crabs) that the whole process of going to restaurants has traumatized me. Ordering food at restaurants isn't just a matter of saying what you want and instead incorporates a long series of questions and answers, and you know how Chinese is with tones, if it were a beauty pageant, I would've said something about world peach rather than peace. This "conversation" is also preceded by the antsy server who is hovering as you browse through the menu (that hopefully has pictures). I feel like I'm being interrogated for a crime or that I'm taking the waitress away from more pressing issues.

In an effort to reduce my restaurant anxiety, I've taken to the streets.

Nothing I can say can give street food justice. The whole industry incorporates everything I believe in; its cheap, fast, fresh, lots of variety, and the process involves pointing and saying how many you would like. Street food encompasses a large range of food so you will definitely find one you like the most. My personal favorite is the jidanbing (not to be confused with jIAnbing), which translates into "egg pancake". It's a fried dough pancake thing mixed with an egg, topped with some black bean sauce (I think), spicy stuff, lettuce and is served like a taco (something tells me I won't be able to make a living as a food critic). Price for one of these is usually 4RMB ($.60). The picture below is of a premium jidanbing which is pretty much a jidanbing sandwich.

Another street food staple is "chuan"/"chuar", which are skewers but nothing like what we are accustomed to in the states. These pictures were all taken during my first trip to China in 2007.

The bottom type of chuan is squid which I enjoy very much

random types of vegetable wrapped between tofu pieces

These are skewered pieces of everything you can imagine that range in price from 1RMB to 5RMB. They are cooked on a grill (don't worry, these people are professionals!) and spices and sauces are put at your request.

Can't you already see the appeal of street food? I know Alex has. I'm so proud of him, he can go out and buy street food all by himself!

Another type of street food I recently discovered is fried rice/noodles. One of these stands happen to exist right outside our hostel here in Shanghai. A big plate of fried rice or fried noodles costs 10RMB ($1.50)! Alex and I have been patrons of their stand -they even have a little picnic table to sit at, a sure sign of their success - the last two nights.

I should also mention that big dumplings ("dabao") are 1RMB each (the most expensive ones are)!

I feel like I've gotten so excited over street food that my coherence and wit have faded away.

Anyway, while street food is amazing, there is still a lot I have to experience (that occurs within walls) when it comes to Chinese cuisine. My goal is to become familiar with the Chinese food characters/terms so I won't have to deal with the ambiguity of the restaurant scene. Or I guess I could just speak Chinese more. Oh well.