Today Tony and I spent 50 cents on both of our lunch! It was a steamed bun concoction called 'bao zi' which can have all manner of things stuffed inside of it. Ours were stuffed with cabbage and noodles, and another with tofu and spinach. We tend to stay away from the meat options of any street food as I am a veggie and we both want to avoid three days of the shits.
This is just one example of how cheaply you can survive in China. I'm also trying to keep some familiarity and nutritive value in our food by cooking at home a lot, using primarily Chinese supermarket stuff. Last night, I made Mexican black beans with my own salsa and sour cream. It was delish and I am a genius.
We have had to say goodbye to a lot of foods we love. They are either unavailable or extortionately priced. The pot of sour cream was the most expensive part of the meal at $5.50, as it's considered an import product. We haven't really had any dairy since we arrived, save for Tony trying every brand of yoghurt on the shelves in order to satiate his weird cravings for the stuff. Milk is a bit dodgy as they do some weird Chinese chemical thing to the cows and 100g imported block of cheese costs more than my daily commute to work, so it's essentially bye-bye dairy. Finding a good loaf of bread is like trying to find a unicorn. Chinese people put sugar in everything. I bought a loaf of bread labeled "Rye with Date Products." I bit into it expecting rye bread with dates, instead it was essentially chocolate cake with dried cranberries and chocolate chips. It was good and I ate it, but it lied to me. I still want whole wheat, toasted, with butter, not costing the price of a new laptop. These are the sacrifices we make. OUR BREAD IS CAKE PEOPLE!
There is a fun side to having a completely different supply of products to choose from at the supermarket. We often buy random fruits, candies, and drinks to see what they are like. Sometimes they are great, and sometimes they look like candy but are actually strips of dried, unidentified meat rolled into shiny foil wrappers with a fun little cartoon man on the side. Tip: In China, you can never judge a food by it's misleading description/appearance. Some things I have tried (these are not my pictures):
A sports drink containing the sweat of the "Pocari", whatever that is.
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This fruit smells like pee. Do not eat, unless you like to eat pee.
This is actually fried wood-ear mushrooms. Very yummy, unfortunate translation.
Candied sweet potato. Really good.
In conclusion, upon traveling to China, or any country abroad, try everything and see if you like it (after risk assessment, if it looks dirty, do not consume). It might end up tasting repulsive, or it might be the most delicious and moderately priced thing you have ever eaten.
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