City Food -vs- Village Food

One thing we did very well on the trip was eat.
Outstanding meals are often a very memorable part of any trip and we have plenty of eating memories.
Traveling means most of our meals are taken in restaurants but since our trip involved visiting villages, we had some "sorta home cooked" memorable meals there.

Shenzhen: Dim Sum. Just like back home. We snuck in a few pictures, even though they didn't want us taking pictures. When they realized we were celebrating a birthday, they said OK, just a few. So we snapped away. I guess they were afraid we'd steal some of their secrets.

Shenzhen.
Appetizer: roast duck and barbecue pork.

Celery with mushrooms and Ginko nuts.

Free range chicken. A bit tough and scrawny if you're used to Foster Farms but very good anyway.
We had this dish almost every day throughout our trip in China.

Shenzhen:

Crab. If you're used to Dungeness Crabs, you'll be disappointed in China, and probably everywhere else outside of California.

Good though, but forget about finding anything under the crab shell.

Our meal at the Cultural Park in Shenzhen.

Dishes were a bit more "local" but still very good.

Bamboo sticky rice.

Shenzhen:

Roast Duck, or Goose, I couldn't tell after awhile. Just like back home, little meat, mostly skin, and served with pancakes instead of buns.

Steamed Sand Dab.

No fighting for the fish head. There's plenty to go around.
Actually quite meaty and tasty. Just try getting these at R & G Lounge.

Stewed Pork in clay pot.

Sai Fun.

Just about every dish was served with some kind of sauce. Don't know why. Didn't try most of them.

Grass Shrimp.
Another dish that was served at almost every dinner meal we had.

Veggies.

Then there was this dish served with cones. You just filled them up and ate.

It's a savory dish, although that green stuff on top was a bit on the sweet side. Mostly minced celery, bits of meat, and pine nuts.

Long table or round table. For 15 people, I think we all agreed that we preferred round.

And now to the the Village food.

This is the spread at the Lew Village.

We went to the Lew Village after checking into our hotel in Tai Shan. We had a big breakfast that morning in Shenzhen and did not stop for lunch before we arrived in the village shortly before 3 pm (an hour past our scheduled arrival time).

The food was all good. There were a few flies but that didn't keep us all from eating. At least I think we all ate.

The next day was the big celebration and feast at the Chin Village.

Giant Wok in the kitchen.

Roast Goose and Boiled Chicken laid out ready for serving.
There were around a thousand people to feed, most ate in the main room of the new building.

We sat upstairs, and were told that not everyone was even allowed to go upstairs.

The overflow sat around tables set up outside.

The big lunch at the Chin Village turned out to be more than we could eat. Or maybe not. We left for the Moy Village after we had our fill, and we did eat plenty. The food continued to come as we made our way out.

It was all very good and no flies in sight. Some of the food was prepared off-site but many dishes were cooked in the huge kitchen adjoining the new building and arrived piping hot (well, maybe very warm).

Particularly good was the stewed lamb dish.

Our last meal in the Village.
Even though it seemed like we had been eating all day, we returned from a visit to the Moy Village and shared one last meal with our relatives in the village. Pretty much the same dishes as lunch a few hours earlier.

We ate pretty good throughout our trip in China. It's generally hard not to with a group ordering a variety of dishes. I think my most enjoyable meal was the one at the big celebration in the Chin Village.