I’ve decided that I’d like to write about Chinese food, mainly because nobody else seems to be. People from the UK sometimes ask me if I “eat Chinese food all the time.” Well, yes, most of the time, but what I eat has nothing to do with either the bizarre fake Chinese food we get in the west or the expensive show-off stuff you get on proper websites over here. It’s just normal 家常菜, “home cooking” – only it’s great and nobody knows about it, save one-and-a-half billion Chinese.
Next week I’ll write about some of the more interesting street food, but for now I’m just going to leave a picture of a normal Chinese diet – well, my diet to be precise, not eaten by a Chinese person then, but pretty typical nonetheless. I took a photo of everything I ate for a week (not drunk, that way lies madness), got some funny looks, especially from V’s family. At times I couldn’t remember why exactly I was doing it, but having set a task I had to complete it.
A few notes: breakfast is western, I just don’t like Chinese breakfast, sorry China. Lunch is the big meal here, dinner is smaller – but since I have lunch at work and dinner at home we often have the big meal in the evening anyway. Evening meals are shared between everyone, you just have your own bowl of rice, so I didn’t eat all that you can see here.

Monday

Breakfast: muffin, sticky rice in vine leaf.
Lunch: aubergine with soybeans, fried egg and tomato, beef pancake, green bean congee.
Dinner: red amaranth, fried egg and tomato, tofu skin with kelp, bass with tomato and chilli, cauliflower, rice.

Tuesday

Breakfast: muffin, sticky rice in vine leaf, banana
Lunch: asparagus lettuce, roast duck, rice. Sticky rice ball with ice cream inside.
Dinner: Chinese flowering cabbage, fried aubergine, onion & cowpea, Sichuan sausage, fried tofu skin with pork and vegetables, millet congee.

Wednesday

Breakfast: raisin bran with bananas, toast with marmalade.
Lunch: aubergine with soybeans, fried egg and tomato, pumpkin congee.
Afternoon: apple, sushi roll.
Late dinner: courgette, mashed soybeans, red braised aubergine, tofu skin with Sichuan sausage, boiled peanuts, rice (not in photo).

Thursday

Breakfast: raisin bran, toast with peanut butter.
Lunch: noodle soup with pickled vegetables, tofu, sausage. Apple.
Dinner: red braised aubergine, egg custard with shrimp, fried pork and green chillies, roast chicken, cauliflower, rice (not in photo).

Friday

Breakfast: raisin bran, toast with terrible home-made apricot jam.
Lunch: Leftovers from Thursday’s dinner.
Dinner: tuna and salad sandwich.

Saturday

Breakfast: toast with peanut butter, cinnamon pop-tart.
Lunch: chicken and tomato curry, side salad.
Afternoon snack: fermented (“stinky”) tofu.
Dinner: egg & tomato soup, red amaranth, red braised aubergine, tofu skin with kelp, mashed soybeans with egg, fried port, carrot & green chillies, rice (not in photo).

Sunday

Breakfast: raisin bran
Lunch: stewed pork & mushrooms, fried lettuce, pork and ginger soup, rice, plain jelly with blackberry sauce.
Dinner: spaghetti with pesto and cheese.

any questions?