I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 8 years now which was a complete disappointment to my boyfriend while we were in China. He wanted me to have the full food experience, which to him meant eating different types of meat cooked in a variety of ways. I definitely missed out on a lot of delicious smelling street food — sad face.

I can’t say I know any of the names of the things we ate because 99% of the time my boyfriend could only tell me the Chinese name and I’d just go ahead and eat the furry-looking fruit and watch him eat crickets and snake and eel and seafood galore. (I always laugh when people think he’s a vegetarian because I’m a vegetarian, but he’s really the furthest from ever becoming a vegetarian). So I’m sitting there at the restaurant and everyone’s concerned about what I’m going to eat because I don’t eat meat, and all I’m thinking is come on guys, rice and beans and I’ll be golden. I mean there are plantains, right? No? Oh.

“Give her some soup” — nope thanks, chicken broth is not my friend.

“She’ll like these buns they have a sweet filling” — nope, sweet things give me a stomachache.

“Ask her if she wants to try this fruit” — why is it furry? OK, I’ll have some; sour and delicious thank you, thank you, thank you!

“Will she eat this fish, it’s fresh!” — nope, don’t eat that either.

Everyone was very concerned, and my boyfriend even more concerned because he knows just how picky I am with just about everything. I didn’t go hungry though as was a lot of my friends and families' concern before I left because there were actually many different things for me to eat. An array of different kinds of vegetables, noodles, rice, buns, cakes, desserts, fruit, and junk food too! I was actually having the biggest craving for pizza the second week we were there and I hopped onto the trusty internet to see if I could find anything and I did – a Pizza Hut a 5 minute walk away! But alas the trusty internet was a liar and there was no Pizza Hut, which I’m glad for because my boyfriend and I ended up finding this little pizza place not too long after.

We’re in the pizzeria and my boyfriend goes to order us a plain pizza, which all of us New Yorkers know is code for a cheese pizza, but not here. My boyfriend actually had to explain his order to the cashier because as it turns out, a plain cheese pizza was not on the menu! They had meat topped pizzas, durian topped pizzas, vegetable topped pizzas, and a bunch of other toppings but no plain pizza. So my boyfriend asked if they can make it for us even though it’s not on the menu, and the cashier told him of course but he doesn’t think it will taste very good with just cheese. (What would he think of the beloved $2.50 plain slice?!). Nonetheless, we got our pizza and it was delicious and my craving had been successfully satisfied.

Onto the fun stuff!

Going to China you should know that when going out to restaurants there is no tipping like there is in America. You also sit wherever you want- no impatient waiting for someone to go sit you at a table. While visiting restaurants you will be provided with a couple of things: a pair of chopsticks, a cup for tea, a bowl, and a bone plate (a small plate that is used to put the bones of the meat you’ve eaten onto). As soon as you get to the table, you’re provided with boiling water or tea which you use to clean all of your utensils, a whole process I can now say I am an expert in. Even though some restaurants would provide us with the cup, bowl, and plate that was all wrapped in plastic that you would then have to rip off, it would still be cleaned.

Breakfast: My boyfriend would usually down two bowls of congee and later two cups of soy milk while I’d sit back and enjoy my eggs and noodles with this really intense hot sauce.

Lunch and Dinner: Some days were different than others where we would go somewhere far to eat, or maybe visit the village and eat somewhere around there. Some places I was actually able to go into the kitchen to see what kind of vegetables they had available and then I’d just pick what I wanted to eat. There was this one restaurant we frequented that made these fresh plain buns that were supposed to be dipped in a condensed milk, which I opted out of, and I would eat about 4 or 5 of them because my love for anything doughy is endless.

On days where we went to dim sum I’d usually have more of a variety of things to eat seeing as there are many different small dishes to choose from in dim sum. If we would be eating at home with the family I’d usually stick with green beans and cauliflower which would be accompanied by potatoes, rice, or noodles. My boyfriend, on the other hand, was happy eating frog legs, snake and snake gallbladder, eel rice, goose, beetles, and snails as he answered my questions on what the next dish approaching the table was.

Tea Time: Tea time consisted of the odd hours in between lunch and dinner where you’re hungry but not very hungry. After being in doors for a while or doing some shopping, it would be tea or coffee time where we would go out to chat over coffee and desserts.

Thank you China, for the endless amount of weird packaged foods and chips with interesting flavors. Thanks for the delicious ice cream and fried dough, the endless amount of saltine crackers and frosted flakes. Thanks for the delicious noodles and cakes; thanks for all the carbs and helping me gain 4 pounds (Seriously, thank you!)