Food and Snowy Mountains

Hello! Today, we will have some photographs of things other than flowers! I know, it sounds crazy, but it is true. In addition to flowers, I like to take photos of all the different foods I come across and inevitably consume. With all the great food in China, it is often hard to decide which to try out. Here's a few from this trip:

Five mushroom noodle soup

This noodle soup may look boring at first glance, but it actually contained a flavorful mix of five different mushrooms and Chinese wolfberry (the orange stuff). The soup was light and slightly sweet and the whole ensemble was tasty enough that I had it multiple times during my trip. While I am open trying to new foods, I must admit to having a tendency to return to ones I really like.

Spicy pork with hot peppers

Above, we have a delicious spicy pork dish that was one of the best dishes I had during the trip. In contrast to American Chinese food, "real" Chinese food is lightly sauced as this was. I love spicy food so naturally, the sight of hot peppers made me even hungrier. Below, is a dish with Chinese bacon in addition to pork and scallions. The bacon was different than what I am used to Stateside, being slightly leaner but equally packed with flavor.

Pork and scallions with Chinese bacon

My next two photos are from...wait for it...Pizza Hut! Yes, I admit to dining in Pizza Hut while in China. Not only that, I also ate in Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonalds! When I saw my first Chinese Pizza Hut, I was astonished at its grandeur. In stark contrast to the franchises in the U.S., their Chinese counterparts are establishments of fine dining (the other two restaurants were of the same concept as the U.S versions). The atmosphere was that of a higher-class restaurant and always busy, with a constant stream of hungry customers.

Crispy pork rolls

While the menus at these American restaurants maintain their core offerings, the taste has been tweaked for the Chinese palate. Pizza Hut offers toppings that will probably never be seen in the U.S. and even the pizza design is unique. Like everything foreign, American food is generally considered a novelty and maybe even, dare I say, a delicacy! Whatever it is, it is certainly not any cheaper than what I pay at home, with a medium-sized pie commanding around 70RMB (~$10USD)

Pizza Hut popcorn shrimp pizza

While my adventure on the ground in Shenzhen wrapped up the next day, I still had more photographs to take. My flight took off from Hong Kong northerly and a few hours later, I was over Beijing taking in the sights from the sky. During my first trip, I was actually able to see the Great Wall from the plane! This time around, I saw beautiful snow-covered mountains and mountainous river valleys.

View from the skies over Beijing

My first couple of pictures were ruined by the dirty airplane windows but I soon worked around it by properly focusing the camera on my real subjects. The "airplane" mode on my DMC-ZS3 was quite nifty and also assisted me. These photograph,s like all of the ones I have posted here, have been minimally post-processed in Picasa (contrast, brightness, shadows, and highlights) and I think they turned out quite well. While the noise level is higher than I like, I think it gives the photos a "painted" look.

Fractal-like patterns

Well, these photos conclude this series of photographs from my latest trip to China. Given the freezing weather of late, I sometimes wish I was back walking on palm tree-lined streets and eating spicy foods to my content. Alas, all good things must come to an end but I will be back there another day. There are just too many things to see, too many places to visit, and too many foods to eat!