Aelfgifu Travels

Hi Aelf Crew,

Today I grace your inbox with a selection of the food I encountered when in China. This post specifically focusing on Beijing and Shanghai. 

Unsurprisingly, Beijing was home to the most incredible Peking Duck. Everywhere I looked, ducks hung in restaurant windows across the city.

Unlike the crispy duck commonly found in England, Beijing’s version was much sweeter—made even more so by the traditional way of eating it – let me explain. You were supplied with a duck breast (or half, depending on how hungry you were), served alongside pancakes, cucumber, spring onion, white sugar, sweet gelatin, and a rich sweet bean sauce.

See photos for yourself, but honestly if I were to ever go back to China, Peking Duck would be on the top of my list to eat again.

One overarching theme I had throughout China was my complete inability to speak or read any form of Chinese. I will always make an effort to learn the basic phrases, but learning the language within 5 weeks or so of between booking my trip and departing felt ambitious to say the least!

So I did heavily rely on Google Translate, which has a helpful picture translation feature. However, Google Translate (at my time of travelling) only had the option for ‘Chinese (Simplified)’, which I cannot pretend was the most accurate of translators. 

As a result, I would say confidently that 85% of the time I had no idea what I was eating. At least with the duck, I could see it hanging up in the window so could simply point at it!

I did join an organised food tour in central Shanghai in English, where I got to try some absolutely incredible food. Tip to learn from Aelfgifu: if you do a walking food tour, don’t eat for a day before so that you can enjoy it to the best of your ability!

See below a selection of some of the amazing (and not so amazing) food that I tried on this:

Tips to learn from Aelfgifu:

• I would definitely advise organised walking tours so that you can see where the real locals go and learn about all the different types of food options available. I found them easily on websites like Viator.
• If you don’t speak any dialect of Chinese, investigate different translation apps. I tried Google Translate and Pleco, both of which I found inaccurate or difficult to use (especially given my calligraphy skills).

Let me know below if you’ve ever tried traditional Peking Duck and if you have any other thoughts!

Smooth sailing,

Aelfgifu