Latest / bit of a Rambler / 001 Favorite China Foods Part 1
Transcript
- 1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,800 Hello, my name is Kai and I am a bit of a rambler. 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:10,880 I like to travel, learn and tell stories, and I just realized that because this is a personal 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:17,040 podcast, I can spend however long I want talking about my favorite foods in China. 4 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:21,760 Duh, how was that not my first episode? 5 00:00:21,760 --> 00:00:26,080 How did I not immediately think of this as something I would talk about? 6 00:00:26,080 --> 00:00:32,640 I can't believe it's taken me so long to think, oh, maybe you should talk about all the food 7 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:37,200 you love since that's a huge part of what makes your world go around? 8 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:41,680 In fact, boom, podcast magic, this is now the first episode. 9 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:51,360 So let's start with probably my favorite food, 啤酒烤鸭, which is beer-fried roast duck. 10 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:58,080 No, it is not Beijing Kaoya, which is Beijing roast duck, pecking roast duck, pecking duck. 11 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:02,640 However, you've heard that, the famous one that's on TikTok and all that kind of stuff. 12 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:11,520 That's fine, but it's like minimum $20 for a whole duck and there's a lot of fat under 13 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,120 the skin. 14 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,640 The very crispiest part of the skin has a good flavor. 15 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,680 The sauce is absolutely the best part of that dish for me. 16 00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,360 But it's just underwhelming for my sensibilities. 17 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:30,760 Yeah, it's basically too fatty and the duck flesh meat itself doesn't have a very strong 18 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:31,760 flavor. 19 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,280 So I like pecking duck. 20 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:36,760 I'm not crazy into it. 21 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:43,320 On the other hand, I'm absolutely bonk or bananas about 啤酒烤鸭 22 00:01:43,320 --> 00:01:56,360 Beer-fried roast duck, a perfectly multi-colored fried, air-dried roast duck in its entirety. 23 00:01:56,360 --> 00:02:06,720 With the drumstick ends, thick with congealed flavor and the flavor has seeped into the skin. 24 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:12,640 Then also into the flesh. 25 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:20,000 So there's the savory, salty, beary flavor all throughout the duck. 26 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,800 And if you get the one with the neck and head still attached, you can gnaw the meat off 27 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,920 the neck, which is maybe my favorite part. 28 00:02:26,920 --> 00:02:34,400 But let's get into the process of making this perfect specimen of Chinese cuisine. 29 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:35,400 Okay. 30 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:37,280 So you recognize the duck. 31 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:45,760 The best beer-fried duck is always driven by an old grandpa or rarely a grandma. 32 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:53,160 There's a lot of boiling stuff and manual work of riding the bicycle around, which for 33 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:55,880 some reason they don't use motorized bicycles. 34 00:02:55,880 --> 00:03:00,000 I think because it's a traditional recipe and only old people still make it, so they have 35 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:03,200 an upgraded to the motor scooters. 36 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:09,320 I would definitely buy a PGO Kauya Sanloon Show Guy, a motor scooter. 37 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:15,280 So you'll see this grandpa peddling into a courtyard or something around dinner time. 38 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:23,160 And on the back of his three-wheeled bicycle is a one meter by one meter glass box. 39 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:31,160 And inside there's a rotating hub at the top with maybe eight hooks on it and each hook 40 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:41,800 has a perfectly brown golden roast duck swinging around just continually air drying. 41 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:48,320 So when the vehicle stops and you're not drooling anymore so you don't look like a slavering 42 00:03:48,320 --> 00:04:00,800 maniac, you calmly and coolly walk up and ask for a PGO Kauya and he'll say, "You can speak 43 00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:01,800 Chinese." 44 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,240 And then you act like, "Oh yeah, it's not a big deal." 45 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:11,480 Even though that's one of the like tan words you know of Mandarin, well enough to reliably 46 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:13,240 pronounce. 47 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:21,080 So I asked this grandpa how he makes the duck because it was my favorite duck and it was 48 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:27,760 so much better than even Beijing Kauya and it's only 20 Kauya, which is less than $3. 49 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,760 It's like, it's just about $3. 50 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:37,480 He'll say, "So you get a full roast duck with strong savory, beer, salt, flavor throughout 51 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:41,720 the all of the meat and it's $3." 52 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:47,360 So I got that puppy twice, three times a week when I found out about it. 53 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:51,960 I think I got it once every day actually for the first couple weeks. 54 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,360 And after I ate it 10 times, I asked him, "How do you make this? 55 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:57,840 This is the best thing I've ever had." 56 00:04:57,840 --> 00:05:00,400 Because he told me how he made it. 57 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:05,600 So there's a big metal pen at the bottom of that glass box I was talking about. 58 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:11,960 So the first thing he does is fill up a huge pot with like crappy beer. 59 00:05:11,960 --> 00:05:12,960 Any beer is fine. 60 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,480 He used yinjing, the main beer in China. 61 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:20,040 And then he soaks all the ducks in that for a day. 62 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:27,440 And then he cooks it in that beer after it's marinated for a while. 63 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,600 He says for like eight hours. 64 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:37,640 So they heated up and it just kind of stews in there for a long time overnight, he said. 65 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:42,360 And so the flavors all throughout the duck now even down into the bones. 66 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:47,880 The fat is cooked out from under the skin, but then it's in that mixture. 67 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:52,360 So it's getting into all of the muscles and all of the skin. 68 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:57,320 There's just a way strong flavor of duck fat mixed with all that beer. 69 00:05:57,320 --> 00:06:02,200 So after all that's done, he says he fried it and I still don't really understand how he 70 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,080 did it because it's a bunch of full ducks. 71 00:06:06,080 --> 00:06:07,840 But he uses the pan in the middle. 72 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:14,880 He says he puts oil in there and then fries the duck all over pretty quickly after all 73 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:16,960 that day long process is finished. 74 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,640 So he does that in an hour, all of them. 75 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:24,640 And then once they're fried, then he hangs that up on the hooks and then they rotate and 76 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:32,760 he blows a fan over it and they dry out until the skin is very tight on the meat and the 77 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:40,760 dryer, the meat and especially the skin gets the stronger the flavor is because the moisture 78 00:06:40,760 --> 00:06:43,560 is evaporating. 79 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:48,800 And then I wander along and give him three bucks and he gives me a full duck that took 80 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:53,760 him two days to make and I destroy it. 81 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:59,460 In the beginning, I just got like a mess like I was a medieval night sucking the meat off 82 00:06:59,460 --> 00:07:05,420 a turkey bone, but I realized, oh, I should bring those plastic disposable gloves that they 83 00:07:05,420 --> 00:07:10,880 give you with so much food in China because so much of the food is finger food in China. 84 00:07:10,880 --> 00:07:14,800 So it's very common to have a packet of gloves to give you if you're getting something 85 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:19,200 that is easy to eat with your hands, but is very messy. 86 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:24,680 And I started bringing plastic gloves with me and then I just ripped apart these beer-fried 87 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:25,760 ducks. 88 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:32,160 Sometimes I got two in a day when I was like celebrating, which celebrating means you finished 89 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:34,200 work this week. 90 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:35,680 Great job. 91 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:44,040 And if I was very hungry or more than passively inebriated, I would get two ducks if the 92 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,280 desire wasn't sated by the first. 93 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:56,000 So that glorious creation is a beer-fried duck, 啤酒烤鸭, and if you are in China, find 94 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:57,080 it. 95 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:04,120 You know what another interesting thing is is that locals don't know what a 啤酒烤鸭 is. 96 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:08,600 Every Chinese person I asked thought I was talking about a Beijing Kaoya, which is a very 97 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:15,600 differently prepared. 98 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:17,680 The skin is different, the fat stays in, everything is different. 99 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:19,280 So that's a different dish. 100 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:24,640 And these are Beijing people who grew up in Beijing their whole life and they had never 101 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:30,720 seen or had a 啤酒烤鸭 before, a beer-fried duck. 102 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:34,960 And one of them straight up didn't believe me and told me that I was just mixing up the 103 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:41,440 two ducks until I brought her to a 啤酒烤鸭 grandpa, showed her one, bought her one, and 104 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:42,560 we ate it together. 105 00:08:42,560 --> 00:08:44,280 And she was blown away. 106 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:48,080 And the city this is most popular in is in Beijing. 107 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,720 And every time a Beijing friend didn't know what a 啤酒烤鸭 was, a local, I would take 108 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:56,640 them to the 啤酒烤鸭 and share one with them. 109 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,720 And everybody tried it and everybody did like it. 110 00:08:59,720 --> 00:09:04,680 But the flavor was too strong or there wasn't enough fat Chinese people like a lot of 111 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:07,160 fat in their meats. 112 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:11,800 But it is the perfect roast duck for me. 113 00:09:11,800 --> 00:09:18,160 No duck dish and maybe no dish in any country at all compares. 114 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:20,560 It's just perfect. 115 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:22,880 Perfectly suited to my tastes. 116 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:28,800 So I was shocked that none of my local Beijing friends knew what it was at all or had ever 117 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:30,600 tried one. 118 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:36,320 So there's this sort of arcane quality to the duck as well that you can enjoy by getting 119 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:41,520 it and then telling people, hey, do you know I had the 啤酒烤鸭 yesterday and they'll 120 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,200 say, oh, the Beijing Kaoya, you're like, no, no, no, no. 121 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:49,560 This is a secret Hutong Chinese cuisine. 122 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:57,560 And then you get to tell this fanciful, legendary myth like I just did detailing the exquisite 123 00:09:57,560 --> 00:10:02,360 nature of this duck dish that the locals have never tried themselves. 124 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,240 I am at a loss how they did not know this. 125 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:07,320 I still do not understand that to this day. 126 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:14,440 But that is the 啤酒烤鸭 and it's unbelievable. 127 00:10:14,440 --> 00:10:20,640 So let's move on to the first dish I ever had and maybe that's why I value it so highly 128 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:26,120 because this is like peasant food and is not held in very high regard. 129 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:31,000 But I do think the flavor is just again exquisite. 130 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,400 It's very simple and perfectly melded together. 131 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,440 It's called 西红柿鸡蛋面. 132 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:39,040 And oh, I said it wrong. 133 00:10:39,040 --> 00:10:40,440 西红柿鸡蛋面. 134 00:10:40,440 --> 00:10:42,200 Yeah, that's it. 135 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:46,960 西红柿鸡蛋面, which means tomato egg. 136 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:54,120 And my preferred preparation and how it is traditionally made is with Da Xiaomian. 137 00:10:54,120 --> 00:11:01,040 So you just have a block of dough basically that you've made and this is how I make my noodles. 138 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:05,320 And then you cut off chunks and slivers of it. 139 00:11:05,320 --> 00:11:12,120 And each sliver you cut off lands in the tomato we soup and becomes a noodle. 140 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,800 You can make noodles very easily with just flower eggs. 141 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:18,880 You mix it up into a dough, cut into pieces, that's noodles. 142 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:20,800 And so yeah, they cut off these pieces. 143 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:26,800 Those are all the noodles in the bowl and then they fry an egg and oil put it in there. 144 00:11:26,800 --> 00:11:30,640 And it's already a tomato soup with a couple pieces of tomato and a little bit of oil 145 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:32,000 in there. 146 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:35,680 And it's a very simple dish, but the tomato is very savory. 147 00:11:35,680 --> 00:11:37,320 They put in some salt. 148 00:11:37,320 --> 00:11:41,800 So it's not too sweet because cooked tomato is so sweet, but you know, the sweetness is 149 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:43,400 still in there. 150 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:52,600 And then they put in a few herbs and the fried egg adds a nice savory counterbalance to the 151 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:58,680 very strong sweet flavor of the tomato. 152 00:11:58,680 --> 00:12:03,760 And it's a good chunk of protein to go with all the carbohydrates of the noodles. 153 00:12:03,760 --> 00:12:10,040 And you can eat it in five minutes or take your time savoring every very strong packs 154 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,280 of punch flavorful bite. 155 00:12:13,280 --> 00:12:18,480 And that might be the first word I learned in China, 西红柿鸡蛋面 156 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:20,400 Mian means noodles. 157 00:12:20,400 --> 00:12:29,640 I knew ER San, 1, 2, 3, and Luce Lanza, Hongsa, green, blue, red, but I didn't know anything 158 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:31,040 else. 159 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:36,400 And I knew those from Rosetta Stone before I went to China, but I think that the first 160 00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:41,720 actual word I learned was 西红柿鸡蛋面 161 00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:46,080 But I ordered it from this restaurant and they were very kind. 162 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:51,280 And when I said 西红柿鸡蛋面, they started just talking to me and I didn't understand 163 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:52,760 anything. 164 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:58,800 But when I left, I did steal one of their menus and I learned every single item on the menu 165 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:02,960 and that became my hub from where I learned other Chinese words. 166 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:08,080 So I have a very fond memory of this dish, not just because of the taste, which I really 167 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:12,160 do love if they make it perfectly, which everyone makes it differently. 168 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:17,080 It's hard to find a perfect one, but boy, when they make it right, they make it right. 169 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:25,360 But it also is sort of the foundation of my Mandarin as a whole, like it started with 170 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,440 a bowl of 西红柿鸡蛋面 171 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:33,800 And then every single day, because this building was right behind our school and it's a mom 172 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:38,560 and pop shop out of nowhere. 173 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:48,520 I would go there, sometimes before and after class and get a bowl of this tomato egg noodle 174 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,000 soup. 175 00:13:50,000 --> 00:13:54,760 And it hit the spot every single time and they consistently cooked it perfectly. 176 00:13:54,760 --> 00:14:00,120 And over the year, I got better at my Chinese. 177 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:04,200 When I started having long conversations about where this couple was from, they asked me 178 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:08,720 about my family, what the heck I was doing in China. 179 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:16,280 And yeah, it's an amazing memory that evolved over years until six years later, I left 180 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:17,280 China. 181 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,800 And then when I visited again last year, they were gone. 182 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:29,600 But I will always have that dish and the memories of them almost raising me linguistically 183 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:33,080 into Chinese culture. 184 00:14:33,080 --> 00:14:39,800 I poured over the Chinese characters on the sign above their shop and on the menu, just 185 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:47,640 trying to figure out how the stylized script connected to the standard type written script 186 00:14:47,640 --> 00:14:49,560 I could understand. 187 00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:56,600 And it's a fascinating comparison to make like there are standard scripts like cursive, 188 00:14:56,600 --> 00:15:02,160 but there are so many types of cursive when people write it's yeah, it's interesting 189 00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:06,240 to study that written language for sure. 190 00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:14,800 Okay, let's move on from 西红柿鸡蛋面 to a great dish that's simpler but always 191 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,040 hits the spot, 红烧牛肉. 192 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:23,160 Now this is great in Beijing and not great for me in the south. 193 00:15:23,160 --> 00:15:31,220 In the south, they seem to like sweeter meats in China and I do not that only is in like 194 00:15:31,220 --> 00:15:38,600 Foshan Hong Kong very far south in a couple provinces, most provinces in central and northern 195 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:46,980 China like the saltier meat, but 红烧牛肉 is soy sauce braised beef and it can be 196 00:15:46,980 --> 00:15:55,580 红烧牛肉 Tang like in a soup or 红烧牛肉, swan Thai like a stir fried dish with 197 00:15:55,580 --> 00:16:02,580 the braised beef in it and the flavor is again so strong because it's soy sauce and oil 198 00:16:02,580 --> 00:16:10,340 at very high heats so everything is almost caramelized and it's just this beautiful salty perfect 199 00:16:10,340 --> 00:16:11,340 mixture. 200 00:16:11,340 --> 00:16:15,140 It tastes great in a soup, tastes great in a stir fry, it's great everywhere. 201 00:16:15,140 --> 00:16:19,540 You just have to make sure to get it in the northeast, north, central, in the south they 202 00:16:19,540 --> 00:16:27,620 tend to put a lot more sugar into it and it comes out more candied than a savory caramelization 203 00:16:27,620 --> 00:16:30,340 that goes good with other savory ingredients. 204 00:16:30,340 --> 00:16:34,300 Now that's a good everyday beef. 205 00:16:34,300 --> 00:16:43,940 So let's move on to a little more exotic sandwich called 驴肉火烧 which is donkey meat 206 00:16:43,940 --> 00:16:53,300 in a flat bread almost very thin like half a centimeter thin the sides and they cut open 207 00:16:53,300 --> 00:17:05,620 the bread and then put diced donkey meat inside that sandwich with jalapenos and onions 208 00:17:05,620 --> 00:17:10,780 and you can get an egg soup or some kind of soup with it and dip the meat in there. 209 00:17:10,780 --> 00:17:18,860 donkey meat is very salty, savory, strong flavor not game at all it's very tender also it is 210 00:17:18,860 --> 00:17:21,220 a great meat. 211 00:17:21,220 --> 00:17:27,100 You can get the sandwich two ways the normal way is 驴肉火烧 and that's with little 212 00:17:27,100 --> 00:17:31,820 bits of donkey fat still attached to the meat like I said Chinese people really like fat 213 00:17:31,820 --> 00:17:40,340 and appreciate texture in every bite so with the fat on it it just tastes a little bit different. 214 00:17:40,340 --> 00:17:47,380 I never liked the fat very much but I ate it for years for years or something because every 215 00:17:47,380 --> 00:17:54,720 single expat I knew and every single Chinese person I knew told me yeah you have to get fat 216 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:59,860 Chinese people only get food with fat there's no way to ask for just lean meat expats who 217 00:17:59,860 --> 00:18:05,860 had lived there for years and my new Chinese friends all told me you can't get lean meat. 218 00:18:05,860 --> 00:18:10,940 So I resigned myself to lean and fatty meat mixed together which is the normal style of meat 219 00:18:10,940 --> 00:18:16,420 in China and there were two reasons that this was okay for me even though I really prefer 220 00:18:16,420 --> 00:18:18,420 lean meat. 221 00:18:18,420 --> 00:18:24,420 One I was in China and I quickly understood that their preference for different textures 222 00:18:24,420 --> 00:18:30,180 in foods was completely divorced from mine and I was trying to expand my mind so I did 223 00:18:30,180 --> 00:18:36,380 eat a lot more fat in China than I was used to trying to understand that Chinese cultural 224 00:18:36,380 --> 00:18:40,420 appreciation for different textures in food. 225 00:18:40,420 --> 00:18:46,700 Number two I was running a lot of marathons at the time I had so much free time I was constantly 226 00:18:46,700 --> 00:18:53,180 getting into new hobbies so I was wine making and building furniture and just doing all this 227 00:18:53,180 --> 00:18:55,660 stuff with my free time. 228 00:18:55,660 --> 00:19:01,720 Being in English in China is like 20 hours a week job and you have all disposable income. 229 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:06,500 So at the time I had finally gotten into podcasts which I hadn't really missed the boat on I 230 00:19:06,500 --> 00:19:15,540 just hadn't gotten on the boat and train missed the train on but I finally got into podcasts 231 00:19:15,540 --> 00:19:21,820 and they're so long form that I started jogging longer while I was listening to them and 232 00:19:21,820 --> 00:19:27,940 then one day I had jogged for four hours and I suddenly wondered how long am I jogging 233 00:19:27,940 --> 00:19:34,620 for every day or rather how far and so I got an app and the next day I saw that I was jogging 234 00:19:34,620 --> 00:19:41,540 a half marathon a day regularly when I jogged for a couple hours a day and then so I was 235 00:19:41,540 --> 00:19:46,780 like well if you do a half marathon and you jogged four hours the other day so I just started jogging 236 00:19:46,780 --> 00:19:53,180 marathons and it was pretty funny because I had just whatever basic app there is to track 237 00:19:53,180 --> 00:20:05,620 so every you know six miles a female robot voice would go six miles hour long pause halfway 238 00:20:05,620 --> 00:20:16,460 hour long pass almost there hour long pause congratulations and that was how I ran several 239 00:20:16,460 --> 00:20:23,100 marathons while I was living in this little town north of Beijing listening to any manner of 240 00:20:23,100 --> 00:20:31,660 podcast or albums I jogged along which is all to say don't worry there is a point I swear yeah you 241 00:20:31,660 --> 00:20:37,100 I'm talking about food now so you're in for the long haul I would always end at my same place my 242 00:20:37,100 --> 00:20:42,700 favorite luro hush hour restaurant that donkey burger the donkey sandwich I was talking about now 243 00:20:43,500 --> 00:20:49,580 very tender meat everybody told me there was no way to get lean meat only so I walk into the restaurant 244 00:20:49,580 --> 00:20:55,580 one day and I was talking to the owner of it because it's usually just me it's a small town so when I 245 00:20:55,580 --> 00:21:01,980 roll up he's like oh boy that crazy American who runs four hours every day is gonna come eat like six 246 00:21:01,980 --> 00:21:10,140 of these again where like one is plenty usually for a normal human and I got four and I told him 247 00:21:10,140 --> 00:21:14,780 you know you do have the best sandwiches I've been coming here for months like obviously I love 248 00:21:14,780 --> 00:21:23,420 your sandwiches I just wish that I could get only lean meat because the fatty meat it's just not 249 00:21:23,420 --> 00:21:30,540 my favorite texture in Mandarin and he responded oh but the fatty meats the best part like everyone 250 00:21:30,540 --> 00:21:35,900 likes the fatty meat I have to give them the fatty meat if you just want the lean meat I could just 251 00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:42,620 give you lean meat it's called show row I didn't even answer the guy for like a minute straight my my 252 00:21:42,620 --> 00:21:48,140 brain was just like how did none of the natives know how to say lean meat did you explain it wrong 253 00:21:48,140 --> 00:21:53,820 how to none of the expats who have lived up to 20 years here not know how to say lean meat why did 254 00:21:53,820 --> 00:21:59,580 everyone tell you you can't get lean meat here and also just an overwhelming rush of gratitude to 255 00:21:59,580 --> 00:22:08,060 this store owner and his teachings and that after three years of something something like that living in 256 00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:14,220 China was the first time someone had told me how to say lean meat I had looked up in the dictionary I 257 00:22:14,220 --> 00:22:19,660 tried to say it a bunch of times the dictionary offered no hints at the time anyway maybe they're 258 00:22:19,660 --> 00:22:26,620 better now show row is like saying skinny meat so if you say that you can get only lean meat 259 00:22:26,620 --> 00:22:33,500 and they'll take off a lot of the fat for you and from that day on lura hush al became my favorite sandwich 260 00:22:33,500 --> 00:22:39,020 in China actually there is another contender for that title in the next episode now I didn't have 261 00:22:39,020 --> 00:22:44,540 to contend with the very chewy fat which to me doesn't have a lot of flavor compared to the fats 262 00:22:44,540 --> 00:22:52,220 of other meats I just had lean salty savory meat with some jalapenos onions you can dip it in your 263 00:22:52,220 --> 00:23:00,540 soup if you want in this great sandwich you know for 60 cents or whatever it was and until I stop living 264 00:23:00,540 --> 00:23:09,100 that town I went to that dudes shop almost every single time I finished jogging for the day he was my 265 00:23:09,100 --> 00:23:17,020 language teacher and my sustenance provider and I just love getting like four of them and packing 266 00:23:17,020 --> 00:23:23,420 all of the calories that I just spent you know 16% of the day working off and it was fun we would 267 00:23:23,420 --> 00:23:30,700 just chat about dumb town crap I see the bridge yeah they're like building something someone was 268 00:23:30,700 --> 00:23:38,300 fishing he got a fish they're a fisherman like every day oh yeah yeah big fish that's like half the 269 00:23:38,300 --> 00:23:46,780 conversations we had the other half the conversations were where did you go today by jutewan oh far 270 00:23:47,500 --> 00:23:54,460 yeah oh and then walk off shaking his head and meanwhile I'm just enjoying my 271 00:23:54,460 --> 00:24:00,700 spice oh that's right they provide you with a bunch of condiments so you can put on soy sauce or 272 00:24:00,700 --> 00:24:08,140 vinegar or a spicy a spice mix of mala which is like numb spicy so there's such a one pepper corn 273 00:24:08,140 --> 00:24:13,180 which has a numbing effect and then lajia which is like ground up red pepper and chili oil 274 00:24:13,740 --> 00:24:17,820 and you can put the chili oil on top so you can get a lot of flavor on this sandwich from the 275 00:24:17,820 --> 00:24:23,580 condiments as well but just the sandwich itself I would eat that by itself with just a little bit 276 00:24:23,580 --> 00:24:31,580 of those hall of pain of peppers and onions mixed in also so great snack great refueling sandwich I 277 00:24:31,580 --> 00:24:36,060 highly recommend people try it oh and I wanted to talk about this since we're bringing up the 278 00:24:36,060 --> 00:24:43,340 lura hushow every lura hushow place has a menu pasted on the wall and everyone gets the lura hushow 279 00:24:43,340 --> 00:24:50,940 the sandwich and some kind of soup but they have like 20 items on the menu that are slightly 280 00:24:50,940 --> 00:24:57,420 less common you can get the donkey meat just by itself you can get it fried in a thing you can 281 00:24:57,420 --> 00:25:04,700 get some in a soup and always listed last was the if I remember correctly uro chienro 282 00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:12,460 which was the donkey penis and you could get that served as like a sandwich or just slices of meat 283 00:25:12,460 --> 00:25:19,980 on a plate and I think that's the only thing in china I never tried and I'm saying it here 284 00:25:19,980 --> 00:25:28,860 when I go back to china I am going to try that can't leave something on the eaten they also sell 285 00:25:28,860 --> 00:25:35,740 donkey balls for you to eat just to close this section out on an appetizing note all right let's 286 00:25:35,740 --> 00:25:44,700 move on from the genuinely delicious donkey meat sandwiches and we can move on to la ro restaurants 287 00:25:44,700 --> 00:25:52,700 which are how do I explain this there like cured okay you know how there was like that bacon 288 00:25:52,700 --> 00:26:00,380 craze in the United States and everyone is like oh if you just ate bacon with bacon on it then 289 00:26:00,380 --> 00:26:06,460 you could sweat bacon and like bacon was a huge thing so in china thousands of years ago they were 290 00:26:06,460 --> 00:26:14,460 like yeah bacon's obviously the best so they take the belly you know the bacon part of the pig 291 00:26:14,460 --> 00:26:22,060 and they cure it with salt and spices and then you get this very tough pork belly with a 292 00:26:22,060 --> 00:26:29,580 rind of fat on the outside of it and it's an extremely flavorful meat maybe the most flavorful 293 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:37,420 meat in china just as the meat itself a base ingredient and so there are entire restaurants 294 00:26:37,420 --> 00:26:43,500 that have la ro so on Thai and see 红烧牛肉 and every kind of dish they can make with this 295 00:26:43,500 --> 00:26:49,020 la roe because it's the centerpiece of anything you make with it it's so strong it's so overpowering 296 00:26:49,020 --> 00:26:54,860 in a way that I love that you can get with anything now there's another overwhelming flavor in 297 00:26:54,860 --> 00:27:02,460 Sichuan as more of a method of cooking called malah numbing spicy which I mentioned earlier 298 00:27:02,460 --> 00:27:09,740 and those are usually separate you don't get two super strong flavors together like that 299 00:27:09,740 --> 00:27:17,660 but there is such thing as malah swan tai la roe and other malah la roe dishes so you get this 300 00:27:17,660 --> 00:27:27,580 super strong numbing spicy Sichuan peppercorn sauce cooked in in a stir fry with the la roe and the 301 00:27:27,580 --> 00:27:33,340 accompanying whatever else you like actually they don't offer whatever else they offer very few 302 00:27:33,340 --> 00:27:39,820 things because chinese cuisine is like this goes with this and we don't break tradition so in this 303 00:27:40,780 --> 00:27:48,620 dish the one that I like swan tai la roe it's the la roe that malah and garlic scapes that's the swan 304 00:27:48,620 --> 00:27:55,900 tai which are like that white part of the garlic stock and it does add a great garlicy flavor to the 305 00:27:55,900 --> 00:28:02,460 whole thing with a little bit of crunch and there's nothing like unlike the other ones there's not a lot 306 00:28:03,500 --> 00:28:12,620 particularly special about this it's just that the meat is the best meat the sauce is my favorite sauce 307 00:28:12,620 --> 00:28:18,940 and then the texture is perfect because there's not a lot of fat there's just lean best meat 308 00:28:18,940 --> 00:28:24,300 and then the garlic scapes so it's just a whole bunch of great flavors feeding into each other 309 00:28:24,300 --> 00:28:30,780 perfectly but I went to the same restaurant to get it because there are not a lot of la roe places 310 00:28:33,100 --> 00:28:41,580 it's a traditional dish but it's not a lauded dish it's like the normal people common people's dish 311 00:28:41,580 --> 00:28:48,780 which aren't revered very much in china china likes to pay more attention to more innovative 312 00:28:48,780 --> 00:28:56,300 stuff ironically even though they are very stuck in the past so there's just aren't many la roe 313 00:28:56,300 --> 00:29:02,780 restaurants and not many la roe dishes in general around the city so I went to the same one 314 00:29:03,180 --> 00:29:11,820 that was around the corner from one of my schools in bishartiao Beijing and I went there almost 315 00:29:11,820 --> 00:29:17,340 every day I got it all the time because it's you know on this list it's one of my favorite dishes 316 00:29:17,340 --> 00:29:23,900 it was right next to me and I was just like something this good cannot be here forever 317 00:29:23,900 --> 00:29:29,740 and it eventually did close down or was shut down with all the Beijing shut downs 318 00:29:30,540 --> 00:29:38,300 but I do have a funny story I kept going there and so the mala which is extremely spicy and extremely 319 00:29:38,300 --> 00:29:44,940 numbing like physiologically numbing your tongue gets a little numb I just kept asking for more and more 320 00:29:44,940 --> 00:29:50,540 and more spice until one day I went to the restaurant and they were like "ah it's that foreigner 321 00:29:50,540 --> 00:29:57,820 who loves the mala flavor" and I was like "yeah yeah give me as mala as you can get it that's my 322 00:29:57,820 --> 00:30:03,900 favorite" and the cook was like "are you sure you want maximum we don't give it to anybody" like 323 00:30:03,900 --> 00:30:13,820 it's dangerous and I was like "yeah yeah" and I got it and it was divine it tasted so good it 324 00:30:13,820 --> 00:30:19,820 knocked me right in the face and I was so happy and I scarfed it down and just enjoying every bite 325 00:30:19,820 --> 00:30:25,340 and then all of a sudden I was like "oh that's weird" I can't like breathe real good 326 00:30:25,900 --> 00:30:32,460 and I physically felt my throat closing up and I'm not allergic to anything which 327 00:30:32,460 --> 00:30:40,140 physiologically means that you aren't very allergic to most things there's nobody who's not allergic 328 00:30:40,140 --> 00:30:47,020 to anything like everyone's allergic to alcohol it causes inflammation it's just that like most people 329 00:30:47,020 --> 00:30:54,940 are not very allergic to many things I am not allergic in most cases to pretty much anything I can 330 00:30:54,940 --> 00:31:01,420 eat as much as I want of anything without having any sort of physiological reaction it just happens 331 00:31:01,420 --> 00:31:08,860 that if I eat this many situon peppercorns and this much lagoa in such a concentrated amount 332 00:31:08,860 --> 00:31:18,700 my throat and esophagus and everything starts to swell and it wasn't swelling so quickly that 333 00:31:18,700 --> 00:31:23,900 I was like I think my breath is gonna be cut off but it was swelling quick enough that my 334 00:31:24,460 --> 00:31:33,980 throat was slightly obstructed I was having trouble drawing in breath so I stopped eating I had like 335 00:31:33,980 --> 00:31:40,940 five pieces left I had eaten the whole giant hub capsized plate of meat and sauce already because 336 00:31:40,940 --> 00:31:48,300 my favorite dish and I was just scarfin it so I put my chopsticks down and I just didn't freak out 337 00:31:48,300 --> 00:31:55,500 and I breathed slower and I was like okay that's enough breath so if this is as bad as it gets 338 00:31:55,500 --> 00:32:00,940 and then got a little bit worse and I was like okay that's still enough breath if this is all it 339 00:32:00,940 --> 00:32:06,700 gets and if I had breathed in quickly you would have heard a whistling sound because my throat was 340 00:32:06,700 --> 00:32:16,460 closing so tightly swelling I should say and but I kept calm and I just kept breathing slowly 341 00:32:17,420 --> 00:32:24,460 and slowly and after about 10 minutes my throat started to relax and my face didn't feel so flushed 342 00:32:24,460 --> 00:32:36,380 and I was better so I finished the meal I ate the rest of the plate and then I bounced and that is 343 00:32:36,380 --> 00:32:42,540 my only experience with an allergic reaction I think in my entire life and it was shocking and 344 00:32:42,540 --> 00:32:49,660 scary for a moment and didn't teach me a thing because I finished the plate after it went away 345 00:32:49,660 --> 00:32:55,660 and I'm very glad I went away after a few minutes I was like okay if it gets to the point where I 346 00:32:55,660 --> 00:33:02,780 start making a whistling noise we can call the hospital but it didn't and I was fine and that is 347 00:33:02,780 --> 00:33:13,740 how much I love Mahalaswanthailaro or any Mahalalalaro dish it could have killed me and when it didn't 348 00:33:13,740 --> 00:33:23,500 I kept eating it without a doubt while I was almost choking I was just looking at the remainder of 349 00:33:23,500 --> 00:33:32,140 the dish thinking I'm gonna finish that real soon as soon as my throat stops swelling up that's 350 00:33:32,140 --> 00:33:41,020 going down into my belly I not a doubt I knew I was gonna finish that meal so swan thailaro or 351 00:33:41,020 --> 00:33:47,340 any la roe dish fantastic stuff you know what that reminds me I was curious about the allergic reaction 352 00:33:47,340 --> 00:33:53,420 so I bought a bag of Sichuan peppercorn to do like an experiment that's the spice that is inside 353 00:33:53,420 --> 00:34:00,140 that Mahalasas and I put a whole bunch like as much as I ate that day in a dish I was cooking 354 00:34:01,020 --> 00:34:07,100 and I ate it and my throat swelled up just a little bit and as soon as it started I was like okay so if 355 00:34:07,100 --> 00:34:14,220 you eat an absurd amount of this you'll start to get an allergic reaction the more you know 356 00:34:14,220 --> 00:34:22,620 next how I discovered I love frog now I feel like every American grows up knowing 357 00:34:22,620 --> 00:34:28,620 French people eat frog legs and I don't know how true that is but it's the only thing that 358 00:34:28,620 --> 00:34:35,500 Americans actually know about French culture and by actually know I mean could easily not be true 359 00:34:35,500 --> 00:34:43,500 but is portrayed in so much viewable media that we just assume it's true but I had never tried them 360 00:34:43,500 --> 00:34:49,260 except at a buffet where the frogs legs were breaded and fried which is a method of cooking I 361 00:34:49,260 --> 00:34:55,420 really don't like in almost any iteration I don't like breaded and fried stuff 362 00:34:56,300 --> 00:35:03,980 so I thought I hated frog legs then my friend Chinese people love to take foreigners to foods 363 00:35:03,980 --> 00:35:10,940 they think is weird and make them eat the weird food I will have a companion episode to this about 364 00:35:10,940 --> 00:35:19,580 the weird or gross foods that I have eaten in China that I don't recommend except you know try it but 365 00:35:19,580 --> 00:35:25,260 if you don't eat that and frog is on that list for a lot of Chinese people 366 00:35:26,060 --> 00:35:31,260 it's also another thing that Chinese kind of looked down on as a peasants food so not a lot of them 367 00:35:31,260 --> 00:35:38,220 eat it and my friend gleefully took me to a hot pot restaurant where he was like get the frog get 368 00:35:38,220 --> 00:35:44,300 old get four orders of frog and he didn't tell me he was going to order frog but when they brought it 369 00:35:44,300 --> 00:35:51,100 I tried most things and the frog just looked like meat on a stick it looked like a tiny chicken wing 370 00:35:51,100 --> 00:35:58,620 so it wasn't I already am a sort of adventurous eater so when I saw a tiny stick of meat and there 371 00:35:58,620 --> 00:36:05,260 was an amazing bowl of hot pot soup in front of me and he wasn't telling me what it was and I 372 00:36:05,260 --> 00:36:10,700 actually didn't recognize that I just thought tiny chicken wing whatever so he threw most of the first 373 00:36:10,700 --> 00:36:16,060 plate in right away to start them cooking in the hot pot and then he was like okay it's cooked 374 00:36:16,620 --> 00:36:20,460 and I was asking him what it was and he was like we're not going to tell you eat it 375 00:36:20,460 --> 00:36:27,340 and then I ate it it's great it's a definitely a new type of meat he's like it's frog 376 00:36:27,340 --> 00:36:33,900 and he thought I was going to be grossed out and I was at pleased I was like oh great now I know 377 00:36:33,900 --> 00:36:44,220 what my new favorite meat is this is fantastic it's a it's a tougher uh sleeker chicken type meat 378 00:36:44,780 --> 00:36:51,100 softened texture but with a good bite frog has more bite than that um and more flavor I think 379 00:36:51,100 --> 00:36:57,820 crocodiles maybe my favorite meat now but at that moment before I tried crocodile after I tried 380 00:36:57,820 --> 00:37:05,420 frog I was like oh this is fantastic and I ate huge buckets of the stuff at our hot pot 381 00:37:05,420 --> 00:37:13,020 and my friend terri was just staring at me in shock like a 90 sitcom reaction shot as I ate pretty 382 00:37:13,020 --> 00:37:17,340 much the entire thing because he doesn't really like frog he just wanted me to eat it and then we 383 00:37:17,340 --> 00:37:24,780 could laugh about it and leave and I devoured it and anytime I got the chance to order frog either 384 00:37:24,780 --> 00:37:31,980 malafrog right that spicy numbing sauce that I like stir fried or in a hot pot I would always get it 385 00:37:31,980 --> 00:37:41,500 it's it's a great meat and it yeah it's a great meat and very lean but still juicy the lean meat 386 00:37:41,500 --> 00:37:52,380 itself has a soft texture as if as if all the fat in a chicken wing could be mixed into the dark meat 387 00:37:52,380 --> 00:38:00,940 that's what a frog leg is like it's great yeah dark meat on a chicken leg or turkey leg is very similar 388 00:38:00,940 --> 00:38:06,860 to the texture of frog legs actually that's a good comparison and the last time I was in China 389 00:38:07,580 --> 00:38:14,060 there was this huge food court set out with 50 plus um soundloon shell like people with these mobile 390 00:38:14,060 --> 00:38:19,660 carts that they cook food inside and there was a frog one and I tried all the different frog ones I 391 00:38:19,660 --> 00:38:25,500 found the best one and I went there constantly I went there two or three times a week and would just 392 00:38:25,500 --> 00:38:31,820 get big plates of frog because I hadn't had in so long and it was a new flavor because it was in 393 00:38:31,820 --> 00:38:38,620 the south of China but they still had a spicy version of it for crazy people like me from the north I 394 00:38:38,620 --> 00:38:47,100 guess and it was fantastic great dish great meat so frog legs can be prepared in a ton of different ways 395 00:38:47,100 --> 00:38:55,580 and I recommend all of them there it's just a good meat and it's so versatile so frog fantastic 396 00:38:56,380 --> 00:39:03,500 the next one is more of a snack but I ate this maybe more than any other dish I don't know I eat 397 00:39:03,500 --> 00:39:10,700 this constantly it's called Liang Tai and it's all cold Liang means cold and Tai means vegetables so 398 00:39:10,700 --> 00:39:16,620 there are tons of stores and stalls all over China that just say cold vegetables on them 399 00:39:16,620 --> 00:39:22,380 which I can see does not sound particularly appetizing but they have a lot of different sauces 400 00:39:22,380 --> 00:39:31,100 you can get I of course always get the spiciest one mala and I always get lotus roots high dices which 401 00:39:31,100 --> 00:39:38,140 is fresh sliced kelp the young pea which is fermented bean curd the skin of that which is sort of 402 00:39:38,140 --> 00:39:49,100 like a thicker layer of tofu noodle and the piste resistance duck duck neck specifically I get 403 00:39:49,100 --> 00:39:56,220 the vegetables because they taste good there are good accompaniment to the duck neck so the duck 404 00:39:56,220 --> 00:40:06,860 neck is cooked and then they pour this the mala sauce over it and the neck bones themselves have 405 00:40:06,860 --> 00:40:12,860 been cooked long enough that they're soft enough you can eat them the meat itself has been cooked long 406 00:40:12,860 --> 00:40:18,700 enough I don't know if you ever cook foul neck like chicken or turkey neck or anything it's very 407 00:40:18,700 --> 00:40:25,580 very very tough but if you steam it or cook it for an hour or so it becomes incredibly tender 408 00:40:25,580 --> 00:40:34,860 and is my favorite part of any animal when I was talking about this pgg oh kow yah I loved the pgg oh kow yah 409 00:40:34,860 --> 00:40:45,340 neck so very often at the end of a long day or any other day I would find the best Leon Tai because 410 00:40:45,340 --> 00:40:49,900 they all have slightly different sauces they usually make it in house and I would go to one of my 411 00:40:49,900 --> 00:40:56,220 favorite ones get three or four duck neck because pgg oh kow yah that's one whole duck only has one 412 00:40:56,220 --> 00:41:02,300 neck these places have as many duck necks as you can eat so I'll get yeah four I think I've got six 413 00:41:02,300 --> 00:41:09,020 before at one time and it'll be late at night midnight 2 a.m. or something I'll have a backpack with 414 00:41:09,020 --> 00:41:16,620 a few beers in it and I'll just hang out sip some beers watch a funny thing or listen to a podcast 415 00:41:16,620 --> 00:41:25,740 and eat these perfectly cooked seasoned duck necks with the malas sauce on them the meat itself may 416 00:41:25,740 --> 00:41:36,060 not be as transcendent all of the time like the pgg oh kow yah or the um la ro but it is intensely 417 00:41:36,060 --> 00:41:45,100 satisfying and you can get as much as you want of it for a great price late at night it's the yeah 418 00:41:45,100 --> 00:41:51,180 it's the drunk food you know like after you've had a great night out instead of getting waffle fries 419 00:41:51,180 --> 00:41:57,580 or whatever the heck get the Leon Tai with this duck neck with a strong sauce on it oh hits the spot 420 00:41:57,580 --> 00:42:03,820 or you know before lunch or anytime in the afternoon or any other time of the day it's a fantastic 421 00:42:04,460 --> 00:42:12,460 little meal well we're at like 40 minutes or something already and I still have not touched 422 00:42:12,460 --> 00:42:19,900 Shao Kow the barbecue or hot pot or a couple other dishes that are my also favorite dishes in China 423 00:42:19,900 --> 00:42:27,100 so I'm gonna sign off now I'm gonna give you a few names of cities to go to to get these foods 424 00:42:27,100 --> 00:42:33,340 and then I'm gonna continue this in part two so you can get most of these foods 425 00:42:33,340 --> 00:42:39,260 around everywhere while some are more popular than others in certain cities down some hutong 426 00:42:39,260 --> 00:42:44,460 and every city someone is cooking one of these foods that I talked about and you can find it if you 427 00:42:44,460 --> 00:42:51,660 look hard enough and it's worth looking and also I'd like to point out that any city you land in 428 00:42:51,660 --> 00:42:57,020 in in China there is a train connecting it to all of these other cities and dozens hundred 429 00:42:57,020 --> 00:43:02,620 thousands of cities and towns and villages in between these are just uh what's your whistle for 430 00:43:02,620 --> 00:43:09,420 traveling so you can get to Shanghai tomorrow for 350 bucks you can get to 431 00:43:09,420 --> 00:43:22,780 Wenzhou for 423 Guangzhou 424 Hongzhou 431 Beijing 434 Xi'an 474 Qingdao 500 bucks you can 432 00:43:22,780 --> 00:43:29,660 jump on a plane go over there and even if you pay like with you know like I said tomorrow 433 00:43:29,660 --> 00:43:34,940 500 dollars and you get a crappy ticket price like that it should be closer to 370 if you're planning 434 00:43:34,940 --> 00:43:42,940 ahead at all when you get there when you're living there your cost of living goes down 80% minimum 435 00:43:42,940 --> 00:43:50,620 immediately so if you did spend 500 to get over there you're not gonna spend more than 500 436 00:43:50,620 --> 00:43:58,140 getting an apartment and eating for the entire month so you're still spending a thousand that first 437 00:43:58,140 --> 00:44:04,620 month and then the next month there's no flight ticket so you spend 500 again I mean it's 438 00:44:04,620 --> 00:44:12,140 you can go there have a whole food tour and it's gonna cost you way less over two or three months 439 00:44:12,140 --> 00:44:19,820 than you would have spent in one month staying in the United States not eating all of this amazing 440 00:44:19,820 --> 00:44:25,500 food all over the country also I don't know if you heard it there's a wind storm going on today 441 00:44:25,500 --> 00:44:33,100 so if you heard any eerie whistling or howling that's not a banshee or a creepy haunting white 442 00:44:33,100 --> 00:44:40,380 crawling through my window the wind is absolutely nut bonkers outside I hope you have a great time 443 00:44:40,380 --> 00:44:45,740 on a food tour through China just the food it's worth going because once you get there you'll like 444 00:44:45,740 --> 00:44:52,620 a whole bunch of other cool stuff if you have any questions let me know at bidverampler@gmail.com 445 00:44:52,620 --> 00:45:01,100 and I'll try to get back to you have a great rest of your day or night or evening or afternoon or morning