TRAVEL DIARIES PART 2: JINGZHOU, Exploring like a local

Food gets me every. time. No matter where I go, what always intrigues me is the cuisine. It's always a funky time when trying out different foods, especially where you can't get the food in your own country. Eating like a local, exploring like a local, I reckon is one of the best parts of the travelling experience. 

It was on this particular morning that I decided to wake up early. On the first few days I had arrived at my grandparent's place, I always woke up to the unfamiliar, yet delicious and comforting smell of breakfast. Maybe it would be a rice porridge/congee (xifan) with some lightly sautéed fresh Chinese vegetables, or some succulent, yet juicy soup dumplings (hundun) in tangy comforting soup. Other days it would be noodle soups - variations of thick rice or wheat noodles, where the chef had skilfully cut that very morning. Once, a family friend had also brought in some type of crispy stuffed pancakes (guokuai) and they were so. GOOD. 

Not to mention all the secret, small hidden 'restaurants' around town (and I don't mean the big fancy ones) that only the locals know of - the good ones of course - served as if it was homemade. And cheap too - a bowl of noodles would usually be roughly around 10 yuan! (that's roughly $2 Aus!). When I visited another city - Chengdu - my auntie also took us to a dumpling (jiaozi) place where she bought us 3 large plates of dumplings - about 40 dumplings altogether, and way more than we could consume - for 26 yuan ($5 Aus - and that amount that could feed a family!). 

Anyway - on that particular morning I had woken early enough so that the food was not magically on the table. It was right then that my Grandma was about to leave. She had her red shoes on at the ready, and asked me if I wanted to come buy some moon cakes with her - and I did (the moon-festival was upcoming and we got some delicious, light green bean, red bean and other flavoured...whatever bean moon cakes that tasted so good from local bakeries). I remember scrambling around for a crumpled shorts and t-shirt, before quickly grabbing my camera and leaping out the door after her. 

The travel diaries continues...and in photo-journalist style. Enjoy.