This is Chris McConnell writing on Thomas McKee’s account because I’m experiencing technical issues with my account. The following is my entry for the China Study Away blog.

To all my food lovers back home reading this, be ready for something totally new. China is not just full of odd new kinds of fruits and veggies, but totally new everything. New spices, herbs, cooking methods, oils, and drinks. There are new fruits to buy and try such as: durian fruit, dragon fruit, and ugly oranges. Fruit is cheap if you know where to go, it’s also fresh and juicy. Cheap meals can be found on every street and at nearly all hours. Be ready for rice! There isn’t just rice, but it is a common filler in the bottom of most take away meals. Nearly all meat is oily because of the way it is cooked, it tastes good, but it can get old fast. As far as drinks go, prepare for something completely new. Milk tea (which taste like light chocolate milk) is the common place drink in drink shops. Also, bubble tea is a very popular thing. Bubble tea is where they put chewy spheres in the bottom of your drink and they give a really wide straw to suck them up with, to eat, while you are drinking your drink. There’s tons of cheap drinks to try (right now I’m drinking a tiramisu drink) and there are plenty of drink shops around campus. This is just a taste of what new confections await in China, but believe me there is way more than what can be said in a single blog post. If you love new flavors then you will love China’s wonderful tastes.