Aelfgifu Travels

Hi Aelf Crew,

As promised, a selection of key takeaways (no pun intended) from my time in China, this time focusing on Kunming.

One huge culture shock to me was how cheap it is to eat out in China. Having spoken to my friend studying in Kunming, he advised me that most international students didn’t even have ovens in their accommodations, as it was actually cheaper to go out for food.

For example, this meal of a bowl of meat dumplings (which meat, I couldn’t tell you I’m afraid) and what I think was a cold mocha was under £1.50.

As I said in my previous post, I struggled with the language barrier and the poor translating skills of Google Translate, so I quite often ended up pointing at a board and hoping for the best.

Unfortunately often this resulted in me just getting a plate of egg fried rice, and other times eating a bowl of meat dumplings which I could worryingly not identify!

Hot pots are extremely popular, and I was lucky enough to be taken to one in Kunming with said friend. It was a vegetarian restaurant, and I chose to have a pot of tomato soup base.

If you’re unfamiliar with this, it is a dish of soup, stock or oil that is kept simmering by a fire on the table and you can choose an array of raw meat or vegetables that you can cook by dipping in the broth.

There was a huge selection of different vegetables, noodles and rice to cook in our chosen base. In addition if your pot was getting low of liquid, waiters would come along and top it up with more soup.

The usual post-club night out food that I am used to is kebabs or burgers from a van on the street at dubiously low prices. However, the street food I encountered in Kunming was quite the opposite!

The choices consisted of insects, oysters and meat on sticks. I enclose a few photos of said options and what my group decided to order.

Tips to Learn from Aelfgifu:

• There is no need to budget heavily for food when travelling in China – I found I spent far less than I expected, at an estimated £4.50 a day (if I was really treating myself). The money saved here can easily go towards pricier train tickets.
• There are options for vegans, vegetarians and those with food allergies BUT as I’ve mentioned in a previous post – if you don’t speak any dialect of Chinese, investigate different translation apps. With the limited translation options available to me, I just ate what I was given – hence the above plate of sad-looking rice.

Let me know below if you’ve ever tried some of these dishes and if you have any other thoughts!

Later skater,

Aelfgifu