Let's talk Chinese food

I wonder if the Chinese are THE most experimetal and exploratory when it
comes to food??

Roadside stands contain things I wouldn't even want to touch my lips to, LOL, let alone bite. Seahorses, snakes on a stick, lizards, pig intestines, goose liver, silkworms, locusts, starfish, octopus - tentacles and all, baked pigeon - whole (includes the head and feet - all minus the feathers!), etc!

There are open markets EVERYWHERE in this city... every sidestreet, every main street. There is absolutely no end to the shopping possibilities here. One mall we walked into today contained possibly 200 tiny stores! And many of the shops sell food, of course. Live chickens, live turtles, live snakes. Many dried meats, mushrooms, fish, unidentifiable items. Bags of nuts. Wagons offering to strip sugar cane on the spot for little ones with a sweet tooth. Many, many roadside carts offering hot items. And many of the foods are transported to these little markets via bicycle. How the bicyclists survive the insane drivers in this city amaze me!

One day we were passed by a bicycle carrying some 20 live hens tied to a board behind the seat! Another bike had a tub of water strapped on...full of turtles. Others are piled quite high with many bags of items.

We ate (sort of) one night at a full-blown Chinese restaurant. The ordered turtle dish included mostly shell and bones :-}. The stirfry vegetable dish (surely a safe bet, right??) contained all kinds of odd mushrooms, something from the broccoli family, 2 things that may have been seaweed, and some gelatinous item. Not my idea of vegetables! ;-D And the waitress had recommended a bean dish for Joshua. It was fried tofu with a little meat added. He and Ryan both gagged on it ;-D. We left
that restaurant mostly hungry!

But dragon fruit...... YUM! I wish we could get that at home :-).

And Joshua's preferences? We had bad luck giving him milk (said to be one of his faves) until we tried HOT milk. Voila! He LOVES steaming hot milk to drink. :-) And he loves congee... a watery rice cereal dish you can top with various items. And he likes vegetables, fruits and soups. And he REALLY likes cake, LOL. We're learning!

Off to his home town of Dongguan in the morning.