Food, Fun and Flavour: Timothy shares his food journey from the recent Year 9 China trip
In both Chongqing and Chengdu, we were taken to eat lots of food and do many things. At lunch, we ate at food courts where you would take as much food as you liked, it would be weighed, and you would be charged accordingly. Of course, the food was paid for already, so we could eat as much as we liked without any worry. Most dishes came with rice, vegetables and meat. For dinner, we were often taken to the same restaurants. There were tables of food, where we got to eat as much as we liked. Food like dumplings, noodles, soup and meats were common. Also, one day we got to try Chongqing hotpot. Unfortunately, we were served a watered-down version, as the truly authentic one made even locals cry. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience, as cooking the meat often involved dropping it in on accident and fishing it out 5 minutes later. We even had a nice, sweet dish after. In our last dinner in Chongqing, we ate at a different restaurant where the Sichuan peppercorn was used in the food. We competed to see who could eat the most without drinking anything. Eating it almost numbed your mouth and provided an interesting and unique experience. Similarly, in Chengdu, we also ate good meals. In one restaurant, workers went out with cakes and sang songs in Chinese to celebrate Zac’s birthday. As it was a Chinese tradition, everyone working there did their jobs well and had some fun doing so, lightening everyone’s mood. Overall, the food in our China trip proved to be one of the best parts of the experience.
