China - Our Fifth Meal

For our fifth meal, Mark cooked us a beautiful Szechuan-style feast from China. I love Szechuan food, so I may be a little biased, but I think this was truly some of the best food we have ever eaten at home. Maybe the best ever. Everything was just so unbelievably flavorful! 

One of my very favorite restaurants is Din Tai Fung, and the wontons Mark made were just like the ones they have there - so mouthwateringly good, wow. (He used wonton wrappers, rather than making the dough by hand, as they do there -- a bit simpler for home-cooking.)

We also tried some baijiu (clear Chinese liquor made from sorghum), which I had never had before. This was definitely an experience - I took a shot of it and nearly lost my dinner... Mark said I gulped way too much, more than a shot, haha, but he poured! Anyway it was a very intense smoky flavor, which I normally like (I love lapsang souchong, for example), but this was just unexpectedly spicy and smoky. I thought it would be like vodka, which it definitely is not. Baijiu is apparently the best-selling liquor in the world (probably because it's popular in most-populous-country-on-Earth China), so it seems a little provincial not to try to develop some taste for it! I will definitely try it again another time. (Mark liked it -- he recommends sipping, rather than taking a shot, as the way to go.)

Dan dan noodles, one of my favorite foods. I thought this was angel hair pasta, but Mark said at H-Mart it is simply called "Chinese noodles." Well okay then!

This was interesting -- the (incredibly delicious) "fish flavored" pork does not have any fish in it, it is called thusly because the sauce for it is traditionally used in fish dishes. I do not normally eat mushrooms (sad, I know), but they were very inoffensive and perhaps even tasty in this dish. I am glad we are taking these meals as a chance to broaden our horizons a little bit.

Mark made his own chili-infused dipping oil, yum! The pickled lotus root slices were very mild, almost like carrots.

During dinner, we watched a walking tour of Chengdu, in Sichuan, China, and listened to this totally awesome compilation of 1960s Chinese pop music.

After dinner, we watched part of Chungking Express (1994), a Hong Kong comedy/drama by Wong Kar-wai, a director Mark loves. I was exhausted and couldn't stay up for the whole thing, so we will have to finish it later, but I enjoyed what I saw - very atmospheric.

Mark and I would absolutely love to visit China and Hong Kong one day.

(By the way, for fans of Szechuan-style food in Seattle, I heartily recommend Lion Head!)

When? July 18, 2020

Who cooked? Mark

What's for dinner? (Recipe links) Fish-flavored shredded pork (Yu Xiang Rou Si), dan dan noodle, spicy wontons in oil

Percent complete: 2.6%

China Stats

• Population: 1,439,323,776 (most populous nation on earth)
• GDP: 23,120 (highest in the world)
• Life Expectancy: 76.7 (59th in the world, although Hong Kong by itself is at 84.7, the highest in the world, even better than Japan's 84.5)
• Founding Date/Age in 2020: 221 BC / 2241 (one of the oldest civilizations on earth)
• Official Language: Mandarin Chinese
• Largest producer of salt, pork, rice, wheat, fish, tea, silk, tobacco, motor vehicles, cement, iron, steel, and much much more 
• Largest police force
• Largest rice consumer
• Largest car market
• Largest population & labor force
• Largest electricity producer & consumer
• Most carbon dioxide emissions
• Largest exporter
• Highest elevation above the sea level (8,848 m/29,029 ft) at Mount Everest; shared with Nepal)
• Most countries bordered (14; 16 if Hong Kong and Macao, the two special administrative regions are counted, the same number as with Russia)
• Largest army by number of active troops
• Highest GDP (PPP)
• Highest rate of execution per year
• Leading surveillance society according to the Privacy International
• Most internet users
• Most mobile cellular phones
• Highest International tourism expenditure
• Longest subway tunnel section
• Tallest dam
• Longest bridge (Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, 164,800 m/540,700 ft)
• Longest building (Great Wall of China, 8,851.8 km)
• Most books published per year (new titles and re-editions)