Culture: You'll Never Seafood Fresher

The only reason I haven't written about food yet is because I didn't know where to start; so I've started with a very stale pun. The chinese themselves say zhongguo yinshi wenhua boda jingshen (chinese food culture is vast and profound), so I may return to this topic again in future.

Dalian is situated on the coast, and is famous for its seafood. But what is seafood? Fish, oysters, octopus, crab, shrimp, clams... There's not much point trying to make a list, because basically it seems that everything that doesn't taste too repulsive to eat will turn up on display at seafood restaurants in Dalian. For examples, from the Irish folk song Molly Malone I have heard about cockles, but I don't recall ever seeing them until I came here. There are also slender pink pipes, 5 to 10 centimetres long, which obviously must survive by extracting nutrients from the water that passes through their hollow body. I don't know what they're called, but I know they're a little bit chewy. There are little sea-snails only a centimetre or two in diameter which seem to be mainly shell and not much snail—I'm not sure how they are eaten. There are things with shells, and things with spikes, and things which are just smooth and bare.

When you go to a seafood restaurant, these things are all there in tanks and buckets for you to choose from. Most things are still alive. In a restaurant a few days ago I watched one of the staff putting some fat red crustaceans on a plate in order to weigh them before sending them off to the kitchen. As he grabbed them with his hands, some of the ones already on the plate managed to jump back into the tub! My friend and I only ordered a fish on that occasion. The guy serving us scooped it out of the aquarium with a net, and then thwack! struck it against the wall to kill it. He weighed it, and handed it to our waitress in a plastic bag. But she was a bit delicate, and each time the dead fish jerked in the bag she flung it halfway across the room!

Chinese food is far more diverse than than the chicken chow mein and mongolian lamb of chinese restaurants overseas, and varies even from town to town. My guide to Dalian cuisine has been my bus driver friend, Yu Yongguo. He had to instruct me on how to actually go about eating some of the foods, for example how to prise open the shell of the small local crabs and use one of the claws to scoop out the meat. Since most of the university students are from other parts of China, they know as much about the local delicacies as I do. For example, a friend I spoke to recently had never even heard of the wasabi-like dipping sauce which I burnt my mouth on the day after I arrived in China, even though she's studied here for 3 years.

The second time I encountered this green sauce was two days ago, on Yu Yongguo's birthday. He took a few people to a restaurant for lunch. We all browsed the seafood, ordered some dishes (I didn't understand much of what was being said), and when we sat down at the table there was a bowl of this dipping sauce sitting atop a plate, which was covering a large bowl. I didn't know what this tower of crockery was for until the plate was removed to reveal a bowl full of live shrimps. I don't mean raw, I mean live. At least you can be sure that they're fresh. To eat them, simply grab one and rip its head off, then peel it in the usual manner and dip it in the sauce. But they were a little bit too nimble, a few having jumped out of the bowl already, so Yu Yongguo poured some beer into the bowl. This eventually killed them, but caused quite a frenzy at first, and another half dozen escaped before a plate could be found to cover them.

Crispy deep-fried fish was also on the table that day. You can crunch away on the head, tail, and fins. Other than that, a common way of serving fish is whole (perhaps two or three on the plate if they are small) in a rich, dark sauce.

My only concern is the water they swim in. I walked down to the seaside with some students the other day, and we had lunch at one of the small outdoor restaurants overlooking the ocean. As we sat down to a meal of crabs and watermelon, one person remarked that they didn't think the sea was its natural colour, as a result of pollution. I reached for the watermelon.

hmm, the water. I live in a place where there is no water apart from an almost dried up river/river bed. I see people fishing in this river. It's like the most tainted water I have seen in a long time. I really hope the fish they serve here doesn't come from this source. Well I'm sure they dont, but maybe they come from the filthy river of CangZhou....When being served fish I just try not to think of where it came from. Maybe if I ever have kids(which I never want to do ) they'll have like two foreheads or something. ÂóÌØ

matt [homepage] 24.07.2003 , 12:23

Great story about your seafood restaurant adventures Todd. I have to write one up on my site, I swear I'm turning into the traveling food critic! I try not to eat the raw/live stuff but sometimes to save/give face you have to, I'm sure you know what I mean.

Dezza 25.07.2003 , 14:47

mmmmmmmmmmmm crustaceans

Geoff 08.08.2003 , 16:09

Coming into Dalian by boat I had a chance to see the water first hand and there's a definite blue to brown divide about a couple of miles out of the harbour. Fortunately all the fishing vessels we passed were well outside that part of the sea.

Paul [homepage] 31.08.2003 , 12:35

Rereading this now, two years after leaving Dalian, the description of eating live prawns actually makes me cringe slightly, even though I considered it one of Dalian's best dishes at the time. I think it's important to note, though, that their death is quick. On a later occasion I was faced with a fish which had somehow been cooked while it remained partly alive, and I refused to even touch that. I apologise to my vegetarian friends who had to read this, by the way.

Todd 15.02.2006 , 14:19

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