China Meiguo

Like most foreigners living in China, I'm often amused at the strange English translations of things on public signs. On my way to the gym this morning, I noticed one of the best Chinglish examples I've encountered.

Since my recent post about pizza in China seemed to be relatively popular, I decided to continue with an informal review of another China culinary experience. One of the things that's difficult to find in China is decent yogurt. There's plenty of Chinese yogurt, but unlike the Western variety, it tends to be watery stuff that you drink from a small bag or bottle. In addition to not being very good, it's also relatively expensive (a bit higher than what you'd pay in the USA for better quality). Consequently, I generally avoid it and instead buy imported brands from the Xiamen Metro Hypermarket, a German chain which sells many imported as well as Chinese food items. As with most imported products, you pay a premium, but if I'm going to overpay for my yogurt, I might as well overpay for the better imported brands.

Tibetan Yogurt Shop in Jimei with picture of the Potala Palace

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about Tibetan yogurt since I've been to Tibet and one thing I learned is that almost all Tibetan food (only a slight exaggeration) comes from yaks - yak meat, yak milk, salty yak tea, and whatever else the Tibetans can extract from a yak. Having sampled some Yak delicacies, I wasn't overly impressed. However, my limited Tibetan culinary experience didn't include yogurt which apparently has a tradition of over 1000 years. 

Some Yaks in Tibet from my 2010 trip

Me, expertly riding a Yak in Tibet

OK, enough of the yaks, back to the yogurt. I managed to decipher enough of the menu (entirely in Chinese) to order yogurt with fruit which turned out to be some banana and strawberry slices. I'm not sure how Tibetan this yogurt really is, but it was quite good although I could have easily eaten another bowl since my workout had seriously worked up my appetite. The price was also reasonable - 8 yuan (U.S. $1.30), about the same as you pay for a small container of the crappy Chinese yogurt (with no real fruit) available in stores here.

My Tibetan yogurt with fruit

Inside view of the Tibetan yogurt place

Interesting Wifi password sign

Last weekend I went to dinner in Xiamen Island with some friends. As with many things in China, such a seemingly simple experience can often involve some challenge and adventure. I met 2 friends that live in my apartment complex in Jimei (a district of Xiamen, outside of Xiamen Island). We tried to get a taxi, but after waiting for about 40 minutes we got on  a bus instead and took about almost an hour to get to Xiamen Island. 

"Enjoy the colorful fried food in spring"

After getting off the bus, we took a taxi and eventually arrived at the west gate of Xiamen University where we met our friends who had been patiently awaiting us (at least they didn't complain about it) for over an hour. These friends included two French girls studying at Xiamen University who apparently aren't crazy about eating Chinese food all the time. Fortunately, there are lots of Western food choices in the university area and the girls led our group to a pizza restaurant called Salute Pizza that they said was really good.

After perusing the menu (which thankfully pictures as Chinese and poor English descriptions), we all ordered various pizzas. I ordered one with bacon, mushrooms and olive oil, but was told by the waiter "meiyou" on the mushrooms. Meiyou (没有) is one of the most common words you hear in China and means "don't have" (or "we're out" or just plain "no"). However, no major problem since the waiter (who couldn't speak much English) made it clear that all of us whose pizzas were supposed to include shrooms could substitute another topping (I opted for black olives which are not common in China). I also tried to order onion rings which looked really good on the menu picture, but was again met with the dreaded "meiyou" response. One of my friends did manage to successfully order the famous "Panda mashed potatoes" which I sampled after taking the photo below.

My panda potato posed artfully in ketchup

Another slight problem with this restaurant was that they cook the pizzas one at a time (probably only one oven) so it took a while for our group of 8 to all get served. Anyway, our pizzas all eventually arrived (sans mushrooms) and our French friends were correct, they were very good - best pizza I've had in Xiamen (although I don't go searching for pizza all that often). 

One of the benefits of eating in Chinese restaurants in China is the menus which almost invariably entertaining Chinglish descriptions of food and Salute Pizza was no exception.

I like the triangle design on this menu page showing various fried potato options as well as the "meiyou" onion rings

I had to snap a photo of this description of the restaurant. From the English translation, all I can deduce is that the food is supposed to be Italian (a good choice for a pizza.pasta restaurant) and it involves some type of traditional pizza from Naples using the "great hand push technology Ganmian tools." Apparently, this technology has been used to make pizza for "a thousand years" and is "the most orthodox tongue classic." Feel free to keep reading the photo of the sign for more wonderful Chinglish poetic pizza description. Despite the exceptionally poor English and lack of mushrooms and onions, the pizza was very good!