Dining in Dalian (For My Sister, Shannon)

My sister has been asking me forever to post some pictures of what I'm eating in Dalian so this will be heavy on pictures and light on words.

These are donkey meat dumplings.  Before I came to Dalian I read that donkey was commonly eaten here so I really wanted to try it.  Since the meat was ground it tasted very similar to a pork dumpling which means it was tasty.  Still, I'd like to try a donkey steak or kebab at some point to really get an idea of its taste and texture .

This is called suan la tu dou si which translates to something like "sour spicy fried potatoes".  It also includes green and red peppers, leeks, and is served on rice.  It's a staple of my diet here (only 13RMB).

Christmas dinner was at Teppanyaki.  It was probably the most meat I've ever eaten at a meal.  The plate in front is salmon, tuna, and white tuna sashimi (the white tuna may have replaced salmon as my favourite raw fish).  The plate in the back contains thinly sliced, raw horse meat.  Yes, horse.  I ate it.  It was OK.  Don't hate.

Our cook/performer at Teppanyaki.

The two pictures above are from the same place.  I ordered the kimchi soup in the second picture (think sauerkraut soup, but with a kick!) and received all that other stuff as well (pickled carrots, pickled beets, watermelon, salad, and some sort of beef/rice/tofu roll).

You can also get really good foreign food here.  This is chicken pesto penne with feta and pine nuts.

Spicy Chinese French Fries

Calamari with a sweet and sour sauce

Yu Xiang Rou Si (It literally means "fish smelling pork", but tastes much better than it sounds.)

I always need to try the random special burgers that come out at McD's here.  My favourite was the mashed potato burger that I had in Wuhan.  This, however, is one of the most disgusting things I've ever had.  There were two mushy, fatty sausage patties, along with another patty of some mystery meat and a goopy, tasteless sauce.  I'd include a picture of what it looks like unwrapped, but it might make you sick.

This is pork and mushrooms in a sauce with a ton of chilies and Sichuan pepeprcorns (tongue numbers as I prefer to call them).

More fried potatoes with chilies and tongue numbers.

Gou bao rou (kind of like sweet and sour pork).  It's not normally this bland looking.  In fact, the gou bao rou at this place was fairly underwhelming.

You can also get Indian food here.  This is potato and eggplant green curry with a cheese naan.

Listening to: Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited