Foodie finds: Street Food

The travel doctor provided stern warnings against eating street food while we were abroad. Now, as a foodie and fan of carbohydrates in general, I had absolutely no real intensions of following the kind doctor's orders. So I asked him, "And if I was to eat something, your advice would be...?" to which he just laughed aloud and gave me a genuine smile. Nodding he said, he understood, and he had lived in China for a period of time as well, and he knew it would be tempting. His advice? If you're gonna eat something, make sure it is extremely hot (well cooked) and go to the stall with the longest line; after all if the locals think it is the best, you might too.

Street food in China is a whole new aspect of life unknown to Americans. Not even in the streets of NYC with its food pedaling carts can you experience how here quite literally is in every alleyway and byway around has food to offer. The foods are definitely not what I figured we would see. We are over twenty days into our trip and I have yet to see an egg roll! Most street food is carbohydrate/bread based. Noodles are huge here. We have yet to have the "famous Wuhan hot and dry" noodles. Frequently vendors are selling duck necks, tofu-ish shaped stuff, and random bird parts. We have yet to try those vittles.

This guy is set up every night from 4-?? p.m. I have yet to see anyone
purchase one of his "scary squares" or duck necks. 

To refer to the areas where the food is prepared as "garages" is probably a glamourization of both the cleanliness and size of the cooking area. The word "stall" is more suitable for there typically is a stray four legged animal near the cook's feet and it captures the general odor of the place. Not that what is made in these stalls is fodder for anything less than humans though. We have had some terrific things so far.

But alas, there is a wrench in my Chinese street food synchronicity. I have two incredibly picky eaters for children. Hudson is way to obsessed with spiciness to succeed in this area of China where heat is inherent in every dish. Wuhan has more Cantonese influence in its food and so most dishes are la (spicy). Tucker does not like noodles, rice, bread, and generally anything that you might find outside the Golden Arches. His intake of street food at this point is still null. I hope with time-- and general hunger-- the boys will find that mama and dada would not lead them astray. For now, here are our favorites:

TOP FIVE FAVORITES:
1. Pan fried pancake
There is nothing about this bread that is sweet, regardless it is referred to as pancake by the expats. You can find it being made in stalls around the vegetable markets. The cost is 10 RMB (~$1.50) for a bag full; probably close to a pound. The process of making this is a one man operation. The same guy kneads it, cooks it, cuts it, and sells it. His stall is very clean (comparatively).

The foreigners call this pancake. It is wonderful.

He weighs the portion and sends you on your way.

2. Garbage Can Bread/Trash Can Bread

Hello, Baby.

This has to be the overall coolest food find-- simply for how it is prepared. In our section of town, a man at a workstation rolls out the dough and covers it with spices. Then, that same man takes the raw dough and throws it onto the side of a 55 gallon drum where a fire is burning in the bottom. It is a ridiculously hot venture. Even standing near the drum is hot. I have pictures of the guy with his face right over the opening.

For real. Cooked along the sides of the drum.

Once the bread is ready his co-worker plucks it off the side of the drum with her tongs. She throws it onto her cart and if you so desire for some additional terrific flavor, she will brush it with spices. (This is where we learned la or bu la. Spicy versus not spicy) With her tongs she will then fold it in half and drop it into a brown paper sack of sorts. It is crazy hot to carry. After a couple minutes you can't help yourself and start eating and promptly burn your tongue. Not that I have done that every time or anything... It is a lot of bread! The cost is 4 RMB (less than $1).

3. Spicy Potatoes

Christos introduced us to the potato lady and, for that, I will always be grateful. These, too, are sold in the alleyway about 7 minutes from our place, around the corner from the bread people above. 
There is not much about these that makes these Chinese other than the woman making them or the fact that I buy them in a dirty, crowded alley in the middle of Wuhan, China!

Heaven. 

I adore this woman. Look at those pearls and lipstick.
She's the Chinese Martha Stewart/Paula Deen.

4. Baozi
These steamed buns can be found all over China (from what I have been told) and are traditional stuffed with meat of some kind. They are not that complicated or flavorful, but I bet they take a bit of time to make! In my opinion, the best part is you can take a small bowl and mix up some chili sauce and chopped green onion and brown vinegar of some kind (maybe rice?) and create a sauce to dip them in. They usually have these items available where you buy them. 
If you are like us, and eating them as you walk, you might just pour the sauce all over the top. With chopsticks you grab one and open wide!
The price point on these is varied. We have paid as much as 10 RMB ($1.50) for 8. Insanely cheap considering the labor-intensiveness of the product.

 5. Jaozi
A cup of jaozi, or dumplings, served with broth are also traditional Chinese cuisine and something I think we will find from Beijing to Shanghai.  These saucer shaped noodles are filled with vegetables or ground meat or a combination of the two. 
Again, the price point would be dependent on where you were buying them and what was inside. You can find these boiled or steamed or pan fried. I am a bigger fan of the dry ones. The fried ones (which I featured with a picture on one of the first China blogposts) are amazing, just as most fried food should be.

Jaozi to go. 

One final interesting note about food here: breakfast is not really any different in content than other meals. There are not "breakfast foods". This is evident even in our international accommodations. Each morning we have a buffet breakfast downstairs and it consists of fried char and noodles, fried rice, vegetables, salad, and the like. The items like Rice Krispies cereal and porridge and boiled eggs are those items they have added for the foreign visitors. The key difference here is that breakfast is traditional served on the go. So all of the above are foods that people grab on their way walking/biking/scootering/riding the bus to work. There is an actual street north of us in Hankou (another part of Wuhan) called Breakfast Street, but I think it is just much of the above.

One loser:
1.Tangyuan
Not my thing. Think the texture of eyeballs. The flavor of sugared rice. With hot broth. Try not to think of embryos or hockers. Then swallow.