Strange flavours, better flavours...

After several days of trying different places and foods, I must say the city is definitely a mixed bag. I've had some really good food, lots of very oily food, and tried some new flavours of Western classics. Chips are pretty popular are here, at least amongst the students, and they have some very weird flavours. So far, I've tried Lay's Lime, Kiwi, and French chicken flavours (3 different flavours, not a combination hahaha). Yeah, Lime...Kiwi...the people here definitely have some strange tastes. You're expecting some hint of salt when you eat a potato chip, but you get hit with a sweet/tangy flavour. Our Mandarin teacher mentioned that people in Shanghai like their food a little sweeter compared to other places in China. The chips here are also a lot thinner here and less oily than the chips in North America...go figure, considering they like all their other foods super oily.

On the other hand, some of the other stuff here is great compared to Canada. The "tapioca pearls" here are miles better here compared to the ones in Toronto. They're actually just the right chewiness, not too hard, not too soft, and not too sticky. The different dumplings here are also a lot better, steamed or fried, even if they're not the specialty in Shanghai. And of course, way cheaper here! "Fried pork/leek dumplings" (as they're known in English are only $1 CDN here for 4! The curry fishballs/meatballs here are even better here from the food court restaurants compared to the ones you get from regular restaurants in Toronto...you get 16 pieces here for about $1.66 CDN! (I think it costs about $1 CDN in Toronto for 4-6 pieces?)

I've tried some of the local foods here too. There's this one "snack" that many local students here eat for lunch that's only 33 cents CDN! My local friend warned me not to eat it too often, I can see why because it's not very healthy (well obviously when it's so cheap). I've only tried it once, but I'm planning on buying it one more time so I can snap a few pictures of it getting made. It was pretty tasty though, I can see why so many local students like it.

I'm definitely going to keep trying different foods, part of the travel are the food adventures. This is just a quick update though to pass the time as it keeps raining...

UPDATE:

Lime flavoured chips.


French chicken flavoured chips (I'm not sure what made it French).


Kiwi flavoured chips.


I forgot to mention it above, but sweet and sour tomato flavour...tasted like ketchup chips, wasn't too exciting haha.


Finally, pictures of the "snack"! With pictures, it's a lot easier to describe. It starts off with a dough being spread on a flat hot iron, then an egg is cracked and slightly scrambled on top. Then some dried pork, green onions, and if you want, parsley, is tossed on. Then some sauce is spread on (I think it's oyster sauce) and some spicy sauce if you want, and then some fried crispy dough (I can only assume it's dough) is placed on, and the whole thing is folded up. The original dough turns out to be perfectly toasted on the outside.