Food (Latifa)

你们好！ This month’s blog is about food.

China’s cuisine is by far one of my favourites! It’s so diverse, which means there’s a lot of food to try. Tianjin is known for having bold flavours and unique spices- there hasn’t been a single dish from Tianjin that I’ve disliked!

When I have time for breakfast, I head to the 2nd canteen on campus to get 煎饼（Jianbing）, which is a Chinese breakfast crepe. It’s very cheap- the one I usually get costs around 7 元 ( roughly 76p). It’s delicious and very filling, you can also customise the fillings! If I don’t want to get 煎饼, I will go to the fruit shop and get a tub of assorted fruits. The fruit in China is extremely good quality, so I definitely recommend having some if you come over.

For lunch, I usually get something else from the canteen, for example, rice or dumplings. There’s so much choice in the canteen, so I’ve been trying to try something from every stall to find my favourite. Today, I had dumplings and topped it with some chilli oil- it was amazing.

For dinner, I try to go off campus if I’m not too busy. So far, I’ve tried sushi, hotpot, street food, Korean food, noodles, and much more. Food off-campus is generally cheap, costing anywhere from 16-35 元 depending on where you eat. Hotpot is my favourite food at the moment, it’s a great place to go with friends and try a wide range of meats. Me, Hana, Erin, Arwen and Kates went to hotpot in HepingLu to celebrate finishing midterms- we got a lot of different meats like pork and chicken feet with two soup bases, vegetables and dipping sauce for around 30元 per person. We will definitely be going back there in the future.

Overall, China has so many different cuisines, so you are sure to find something that will suit your tastebuds. If you ever do come to China, I would recommend being as open to trying new foods as possible, because there’s so many things that I wouldn’t think that I would like until I tried them! Indulging in Chinese cuisine is a great way to learn more about Chinese culture, so eat as much as possible when you visit! -Latifa :)

Food (Katie)

China has a rich variety of food, with each region, like in the canteen 2 there is loads of options to choose from. What I usually eat in the canteen is noodles and dumplings. Personally, the noodles are the best.

The canteens on campus also serve a mix of meat and vegetable dishes, often served with steamed rice. It’s also a really good place to eat with your chinese friends. But most of all it’s a great please to practice for you chinese. They have gotten used to my little hand gestures if i want to eat in or out !

I haven’t tried canteen 1 yet, but I’ve heard from my chinese friends that canteen 1 has more local foods from China. Canteen 2 is a mix of all foods from around Asia, that’s why canteen 2 is really popular.