I'll throw in a second $0.02 worth of opinion to the discussion on food.
One of the things I appreciate in Hong Kong is the ease of eating. It's safe and they have a great selection available almost anywhere. The advantage over Malaysia lies in the ease of finding a restaurant. The information on where to eat is available easily and finding a restaurant doesn't really rely on prior knowledge. Malaysia, on the other hand, has more Indian food - perfectly suited for me.
In both Malay and HK eating the food will be safe and decently priced. And to be honest, I prefer both places to Chinese eating.
I'll share a short news story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080711/ap_on_re_as/china_dog_meat
It's just a short article on how Beijing is taking dog off the menu for the Olympic Games. Nothing new in the fact that the Chinese eat dog, but it serves as a reminder that while eating in Continental China it is very possible to order something quite unpalatable.
Chicken feet in vinegar is the only dish I have been literally unable to swallow at all. Smoked tofu came close, and there have been various oddities ever since. I never ran to anything as strange in Malaysia or Hong Kong.
Seafood is, like Pekka mentioned a good alternative. If you are open minded enough, most of the things that crawl from the ocean bottom to your plate are fresh and according to some, tasty. I'm not that open minded, but I can eat the shrimp and crab shoved on my plate.
The key in eating in China is to find a dish or two that you like, and when asked what should be ordered, always pick the favourite. The other people will order stuff too and you will be safe in the knowledge you get something you like. It's a way of betting on a winner.
There are other tips as well. Eat in a restaurant where you see locals eating. Perhaps it is a coincidence that a restaurant is empty at the moment, but I haven't really gone wrong in following the popular opinion. Even a small dodgy looking place gets an instant "good enough" certificate if it's full with people eating.
In China, you are allowed to say you don't like a certain dish or a food. The Chinese consider it as an honest response and won't think twice of you eating something else instead. This is true especially since the Chinese have a large variety of food. Guangdong food is seafood based, Sichuan is spicy, Shanghai sweet and so on - the Chinese understand fine if someone doesn't like something.
It also helps if you don't really think of what exactly do the crab eat on the ocean bottom, or how clean the water is in the pool used to grow the fish.
OP out.
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I've found that often it's even better not to know what it is exactly you're eating. I've given up on asking a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteMy personal guideline is that I'll eat anything - but only if I can see someone else (preferably the person offering the food) eat it first. Then I know it's not another joke on the Gweilo.
The importance of knowing what you eat is quite trivial, actually. Does it help you at all to know the thing you're chewing on is a part of a cow's stomach? Does it really? No, it just makes you not want to eat it - even though it's completely eatable (albeit chewy).
Of course if you have allergies, then it's a completely different issue.
But on a personal experience, I've found that being open-minded about food has opened a new door in flavor. As I've mentioned before, for example, seafood was something I couldn't stomach before or anything else except the highest grade A meat. Well, it's all different now.
Oh, and one more thing. It's ok to not like food. I have tried plenty of foods that I honestly don't like. It's not because they're yucky or weird - it's because my honest opinion is that the food is not good.
One example is the chicken feet. The taste is ok (like chicken) but there's nothing to eat except some skin and bone. So what's the point? There's nothing to eat and if I want to eat chicken, I'd rather have proper piece of chicken meat and not just small bones.
What I don't understand is giving up perfectly good food based on prejudice towards it. I think people especially in Finland have gotten used to too fine pickings when it comes to food. The selection is quite narrow there, actually, and people can't seem to think outside what is generally available domestically. (That's a generalization, I know)
Well, that's all about that this time.
More directed @ pekka, than @ the original post;
ReplyDeleteI agree, but.. :D
I accept "I don't want to eat that - regardless of taste, ingredients or looks." as a perfectly good reason to skip eating something.
And I find Finland food culture being rather "don't complain, and finish your platter" than picky. Oh yes Finns are picky when it comes to selecting the ingredients, but once the meal is done, you can't complain because "It was made from the top ingredients".
I don't want to eat certain dishes based on the way they look, smell, sound or anything like that. I just don't want. The same way I don't want to listen to a theoretically perfectly good song if I don't like it.
If we assume the food is fresh, safe and not contaminated, "I like" and "I don't like" are really the only arguments one has. It is also a matter of taste to disregard food based on looks/smell/ideal and so on. Many people don't like Finnish specialty, Mämmi, because of how it looks and that is completely fine. World doesn't get better if we have one more foreign Mämmi-eater - nor it gets worse.
Prejudice and picky when considering food stuffs are survival mechanisms in human sub-conscious. They can be overcome , but why bother if there are options? Those who are up for it and like to experiment in general, are already doing it.
Haha, somehow I knew you'd get back at me on this. :P
ReplyDeleteAnyways, my point was that it's ok not to like food. But I just find it silly to not eat something "because"...
Of course many, many people do skip dinner because it looks suspicious. But they're possibly missing out on a superb culinary experience. 'Have some courage and give it a try!' is what I say.
And my point about Finnish food wasn't really that clear, it seems.
It was about the fact that we, in Finland, eat Chicken, Beef, Pork and Fish. That's it. And of the chicken, beef, pork and fish we eat only the most obvious parts. We don't have anything anyone would regard as exotic... this leads to majority of Finns to be very unadventurous when it comes to food.
It's ok not to like a food. I just don't understand people who make up their minds before giving it even chance (especially if someone is offering it to you).
There are foods in Hong Kong I don't eat. I've made the decision before-hand based on smell or appearance (e.g. 'stinking tofu'), or based on tried experience (e.g. chicken feet).
For what I've heard, stinking tofu is really, really good despite its smell. So, I'll probably try later on. It might be good. I don't know. But if don't try, I will never know. Simple. :)