Food

Now, I enjoy 'dirty towels'

By Wang Hao (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-01 08:25

BYLINE  WANG HAO

The way to a man's heart is certainly through his stomach. I don't know about women, but if a city wants to keep her man, she needs to feed him well.

This story goes back 28 years when I moved from Jiangsu province as an 18-year-old youth to study at a Beijing college.

Rice or buns? That was the first tough question I encountered at a time when grain was rationed across the country.

Rice, you see, is the staple in southern provinces like Jiangsu.

For the canteen, we were given meal tickets - brown for wheat products, yellow for "minor" cereals (such as corn or millet) and white for rice.

My choice was obviously rice, but my monthly white coupons lasted only a week. So southerners like me started exchanging meal tickets with northerners, who preferred buns and pancakes made of wheat.

Luckily, in about two years, matters improved and I could eat as much rice as I wanted. Eight years later, in 1993, the government abolished the grain rationing system because the country had more than enough to feed its population. And grain coupons became a collector's item.

I got a job with this newspaper after graduating from university and staying on in Beijing. So food did not play that great a role in keeping me in the capital. After all, a person does not live to eat...

But I, too, felt that northern food was coarse and rough, especially compared with the rich varieties and fine flavors of dishes in my hometown, a city known for its cuisine for centuries. My parents were more than eager than I to study in a Beijing university and pushed me to do so, but when it came to food they prepared me well saying the capital can only offer "cabbages, turnips and potatoes".

Beijing food, however, was not as bad as it was made out to be. But I confess to have spat out when I first tasted some of the dishes and, forgive me, threw away a whole bowl of grayish sesame-jam noodles from the college canteen.

I used to shun Beijing snacks like "instant-boiled sheep stomach", which I called "dirty towels".

Old habits die hard; but they do die - sort of. My dietary habits have changed along with the changing profile of Beijing, which today is a food paradise where gourmands from across the world can find their favorite dishes.

Back in 1990, when China Daily moved to its present address, there was only one restaurant called Julong nearby and I still remember the "train passenger chairs" in its dimly-lit surroundings.

A fresh graduate like me, earning 98 yuan a month plus an 18-yuan nightshift allowance, had to make a big decision to venture in.

Over the years, our salaries increased and so did the number and variety of restaurants in the neighborhood. Today, there are scores of restaurants around the area serving dishes not only from almost every corner of China but also Korean, Japanese and Western food.

I, and my palate, too, have changed.

Today, I am more than comfortable with five pepper dishes on the table. And sesame-jam noodles and instant-boiled sheep stomach are two of my favorites.

Sometimes I cannot figure out what has changed. The city, its food or I?

But I must admit I did not completely fall in love with Beijing until I loved her from the bottom of my stomach.

Wang Hao is member of the editorial board of China Daily.

(China Daily 06/01/2011 page50)