Hot and spicy

The first Chinese restaurant in Helsinki (and whole of Finland), restaurant "China", opened its doors 1973, same year I was born. Now Chinese restaurants are commonplace in Finland, even in small towns you can find one, and I eat in them quite regularly. Still, it is different to eat in Chinese restaurants deep in China, away from the biggest Cities with greatest western influence. It is different to eat with only Chinese people eating with you. And most important of all, it is different when you have a lovely expert Chinese "guide" arranging the details of the meal ;-) The food is different, the environment is different, the atmosphere is different, the customs are different. 

The food and food-related culture on our two weeks of travel with Jinlin in June were very diverse and interesting to me although we were travelling only in Henan and Yunnan. Eating together in restaurants, on the street, us two only or in a bigger group, morning, day and evening, turned out to be very happy and important part of the trip. Food allows simple ways of being together and have enjoyable cultural experiences without need for extensive language skills. 

And when it comes to the meagre Chinese skills that I do have from listening 200+ hours of  ChinesePod episodes, they are somewhat focused on everyday language of shopping and eating. So I can say and understand sentences like 我喜欢中国菜 (Wǒ xǐhuan zhōngguó cài - I like Chinese food), 好吃吗？(Hào chī ma? - Does it taste good?), 非常好吃! (Fēicháng hào chī - Tastes very good!), 我想吃鸡肉 (Wǒ xiǎng chī jīròu - I want to eat chicken) and 我可以用筷子 (Wǒ kěyǐ yòng kuàizi - I can use chopsticks), 请问.我可以有菜单吗？(Qǐngwèn. Wǒ kěyǐ yǒu càidān ma? - Excuse me, can I have the menu?)

Hot Pot

In Zhengzhou we visited two different Hot pot (火锅, huǒ guō) restaurants. On Hot pot a boiling kettle in the center of the table is divided to two compartments, other with mild spices likes herbs and mushrooms and other with strong chilis and peppercorns. Various sliced meats, vegetables and noodles are ordered from a long list, thrown to the the boiling soups for some minutes, fished up with chopsticks, rolled in various sauces and eaten. Super tasty! Though be careful with the chilis! The dish has obvious similarity to Swiss fondue and hence sometimes the name Chinese fondue is used for hot pot. Hot pot restaurants are found in wide areas of China from Beijing to Hong Kong, though the varieties of ingredients and sauces vary locally.

When discussing hot and spicy food, it is convenient that Chinese language has separate word for "hot" as in high temperature (热, Rè) and "hot" as in spicy (辣, Là). Although Hotpot is both Rè and Là you might notice that the disk name (huǒ guō) does not contain these words. This is because the literal translation for huǒ guō is "fire pot".

The first of our Hot pot restaurants was also the very first place where Jinlin took me to eat on Monday 16th June 2012 after we had met at the airport for the first time and arrived to the city. So it carries special significance of our first meal together. Jinlin sure ordered plenty of meat and other stuff to eat, I thought we could have easily served four person with all of that! :-)

In the "Happy Hot Pot" restaurant atmosphere was more casual and "fast food" style, but food equally tasty:

I'm planning later to write more food-related posts about topics like breakfast on the street, messy eating in groups, fresh fruit in the jungle and the endless variety of dumplings :-)