An Authentic Chinese Fare

Nothing compares to the hospitality I experienced this weekend. My colleague Zhihuan (assisted by Li) invited our lab people over for an authentic chinese dinner at his new apartment. I was really looking forward to it because all the Chinese food I had eaten was either American fare or our Indianized version. And wow was I blown away or what! So the first thing that came to my mind as I was driving back home was that you can eat great food at a very fancy expensive restaurant and and you'll say "Hey that was nice". But if someone labors and makes you a really delicious meal and serves you with much love and hospitality you'll feel moved beyond your taste buds: it'll truely touch your heart. Zhihuan had clearly gone out of his way to make sure we enjoyed our meal and was such a caring host. I am so thankful for this wonderful evening. Thanks so much Zhihuan!

O.k so getting down to business:


The menu.
Zhihuan's hot chilly fish soup


Stir fried chicken wings


Black fungi and tofu


Mapo pork


Egg and tomato


Pork ribs and bamboo stew


Shrimp dumplings (i made those)

Pork egg rolls


Kung pao chicken

Wheat and milk buns

Steamed rice


My best dish was the hot chilly fish soup. It was catfish and bean sprout soup seasoned with a hot chilly oil. Simply delicious! I also especially enjoyed the chicken wings. They were stir fried with some greens, anise and chinese pepper corns.
The egg and tomato was like a scrambled egg with tomatoes in it: surprisingly good with rice. I wasn't too crazy about the black fungi. They had a different kind of texture which I might need getting used to. The pork ribs stew was a simmering pot of bamboo shoots and pork ribs with mild flavors and brothy. The Mapo pork was ground pork with stir fried tofu made in some kind of sauce which was very tasty. The Kung Pao chicken had dry red peppers and green peppers and was on the hot side. All in all you can see how much food we had. I couldn't even fit it all in one picture. I think I have never eaten so much in a really long time. Everything on the table tasted good and I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures and getting to know food from a real chinese kitchen.