Overall I was a bit disappointed by the food in China.  I had been warned by my friend Sally’s mum, who told me that the dim sum at Royal China in London was the best in the world, but I did hope she would be proven wrong.

Although the food was pretty good I think I’ve probably been spoilt by some great Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants in London and Paris - or it could also be that the Chinese food here is just more suited to my taste?

I think that initially Mandy and I were also a bit guilty of relying solely on guidebook recommendations in Hong Kong, something I normally don’t bother with.  Unfortunately this may have also meant that we were the victims of the guidebook phenomena (you know a restaurant gets recommended and then just stops trying.)  Sometimes we couldn’t even find the restaurants that the guidebooks recommended (things change here pretty fast) and sometimes a recommendation for one Rainbow Seafood on Lamma Island meant that now every restaurant had been renamed Rainbow Seafood.

The food got better the further north I travelled (or I just got hungrier) and generally the best food that I ate was in the hotels.  I know it goes against the advice offered by many guidebooks, but eating in your hotel in China (and indeed, shock horror, ordering room service) is often the cheapest, healthiest and tastiest option.  (Of course this does depend on your hotel!)

One absolutely essential thing to know about food in China is that, like France, they have excellent, excellent bakeries.  Even the smallest one horse town (Tunxi, near Huangshan) had the most elegant, sophisticated bakery.  They didn’t even look up when I came in, they were too busy dealing with various orders for seven tier spectacular creations.  There’s also a very good bakery at Hong Kong airport where we discovered the bakery equivalent of the sticky pork bun - carry these with you at all times.  Sadly sometimes they don’t label in English, so sometimes you just need to fill up a tray with everything (they usually cost between 20-75p for a bun or cake) and give it a go (hope you’re not allergic to anything.)  In Beijing they do a sort of pizza bun, very, very tasty and great when you can’t find a restaurant.

I made the mistake several times of thinking “I’ll grab something at the airport”.  Don’t.  Even Shanghai airport was disappointing, especially after the good start of finding a Costa and a Starbucks in the main entrance.  Once I’d gone through security the food options dried up, and the cafe where I got a Coke even tried to sell me an Evian for 30 yuan (£3) when you can buy them in the ground floor concessions for 2 yuan (20p).  This is where those trekking bars really come in handy - especially when flights get delayed.

Above all, rather than trusting a guidebook (or even my recommendations) trust your eyes and your nose.  The common advice is to eat where there are Chinese people eating (not European tourists) which of course is where we went wrong in Yangshuo.  Also don’t worry about saving face - yours or anyone else’s, if it smells bad, leave.  If you taste something wrong or off, spit it out surreptitiously in your napkin or blame those allergies.  Or you might just find yourself spending a lot of time in the bathroom over the next few days.

One very important point about Chinese food, pay attention to your waiter or waitress - as the Chinese say “food is medicine”.  They will often recommend a different dish or accompaniment - and they usually know what they are talking about.  (Bless the waitress who told me I needed rice the day before I went up the mountain - she was spot on!)  It could be that they are advising on what other English guests have liked, or what is fresh in, or something to do with your chi, but please listen to them.  Sometimes I quite like pointing out a couple of dishes and shrugging (even patting my stomach if I’m feeling a bit off) and asking their opinion - it’s how I got my best meal in China.  The same is true of tea, whereas you might fancy green tea, sometimes a spot of ginger tea is just what the doctor ordered.

And don’t worry about being boring and ordering spring rolls or sweet and sour chicken - these were recommended to me by my waitress and were completely different to anything I’ve had in the UK, and yes, were much, much tastier!  Also it’s worth trying things that you may not have liked in the UK - I’ve never been a fan of black bean desserts, but got addicted to the black bean stuffed buns at my hotel in Beijing - seriously good.

Oh yes, and about the rice.  Don’t be surprised if you order rice and it never arrives.  Although it is a staple, when eating out the Chinese rarely eat rice, it’s considered to be something you have at the end of the meal to fill up any little gap left.  You may even get a lovely lady from the kitchen waving a bowl of rice at you, just to check you don’t need anything to fill you up.  It’s actually a very sensible way of doing things, as opposed to the rather silly European custom of sticking a bowl of bread on the table that you always end up eating before a meal and then being annoyed that you don’t have enough space to finish your dinner (or is that just me?)

Chopsticks - learn to use them before you go.  Or carry your own spork.  And don’t ever leave them standing up in your food - it’s bad luck.

Elbows on the table - this is how it’s done in China, which is just as well as I had to rest my head on the table between mouthfuls in Huangshan.

Chicken is often served with all the little bones still inside, so sometimes it’s better to choose the “deboned” option.  Likewise prawns or shrimps are often served with the shells on.  I felt sometimes that they like to make you work for your dinner!

Oh yes, and as we were visiting in September at the time of the mid-Autumn, or Harvest Festival we were surrounded by traditional moon cakes.  These are given by everyone to everyone during this holiday, and the boxes and packaging are just sumptuous (apparently it’s also traditional to drop a little bribe in there to influence people.)  Thanks to my sterling research on China I did know a little something about moon cakes.  These are often very long life - a bit like Christmas puddings - but this is China, which means that sometimes really yucky stuff gets chucked in the moon cakes - and... sometimes last year’s really yucky moon cakes get reused.  Which means that it’s not uncommon for there to be moon cake deaths each year (not joking here).  I even overheard people talking about the fact that the two most deadly strains of bacteria found in food had been found in moon cakes this year.  Do I need to tell you that it’s a bad idea to eat the moon cakes?  If you must, try some of the fresh baked “moon cakes” in the bakeries, and leave the prepackaged stuff for those with stronger stomachs (or garbage disposal.)

There are, of course, Western fast food options in some towns and cities.  I’m always a bit sniffy about these, and was really disappointed to see MacDonalds and KFC in West Street, Yangshuo - but how much I wished I’d settled for a Big Mac later that night!!  And if you see the Haagen Dazs sign and your body takes you there without even consulting your brain in Beijing, don’t be too hard on yourself - you are only human after all (and they also have some freaky moon cake or green tea options if you want to keep experiencing Eastern cuisine.)

Oh and one more thing - I made the mistake of throwing away a drink (after I’d carried it all the way up Moon Hill), because I thought it was past its sell by date.  In fact in China they actually print the date of production rather than the sell by date on food and drink - or sometimes both are included.