Today will mainly be a quick post about food, though if you are expecting a guide to the wonders of Yunnan cuisine, you'll be sorely disappointed! I am yet to venture out to any of the hundreds of restaurants in Yuxi, and apart from knowing that the cuisine here has lot's in common with Sichuan, I don't know much more than that. One of the reasons I haven't been tempted to explore the restaurants yet is because the university canteens are so totally amazing. Back at Vic and Lincoln universities in New Zealand, the university cafés were "for profit" outfits, either run by businesses or the Student Unions. So they were basically like any café/caféteria you would find in town, and were priced accordingly. I never (really) experienced the caféterias in a French university, apart from getting the odd hotdog at the Bordeaux CROUS once or twice. I seem to remember it being a bit cheaper than what you would get at a "normal hotdog stand" but not amazingly so. My understanding is it is always pretty basic fare, and for filling the stomach rather than engaging the palate.
So how does it work here? First of all, one needs to understand that a good proportion of the students studying here are also living on campus in dormitories. I would guesstimate somewhere between 50% and 70%. The "foreign students" dormitories/flats have a kitchen but I'm pretty sure the normal dorms don't, at least not individual ones. So many students at the university eat in the caféterias at least once a day, and plenty twice a day. So probably upwards of 6 THOUSAND meals a day :-). There is one main building and a couple of other spaces near to it.
The main building has 3 floors. The first two have reasonably similar food, and the 3rd has the "special" (and slightly more expensive?) stuff. Floors 1 & 2 are the "rice" floors. Basically, you rock on up to the first window and get yourself a big bowl (either plastic for eat-in or cardboard for take-away) with either one or two (or 5 if you are a body-builder :-)) servings of rice. There are usually two kinds of rice on offer, served from adjacent windows. The "good" rice is 0.6 RMB (0.08€) for one serving and 1.1 RMB for two, the "cheap" rice 0.5 RMB for one and 0.9 RMB for two. I must confess in the beginning I didn't realise there was a difference between the two and was a little confused as to why the price was changing... :-). From there you have about 15-20m of window space, with different dishes lining the windows, two dishes deep. That's about 4 dishes per metre, so upwards of 60 different dishes to choose from. Per floor! Some of the dishes are pretty similar (e.g., spicy or plain bok choy) but you can get everything from noodles (if you want noodles with your rice!) to tofu (I think I've eaten 7 differents kinds, and haven't had them all), saveloys to crispy duck to chicken feet :-), spicy sliced carrot to mushrooms to seaweed. And that's just floors 1 & 2 of the main building.
Note that the photos aren't representative of the crowds, I tend to go when there are fewer people...
I'll confess that as they put stuff out on platters, and not everything gets eaten right away, sometimes the food isn't particularly hot. The deliciousness of almost all the dishes means that it's not a big deal though! I have also been spending most of my time on floors 1 & 2 because all you have to do is point and hand over your bowl, and they will heap a serving into it - no complicated language needed :).
The 3rd floor has stuff that is mainly done to order, and is set up in terms of windows - the noodle soup window, Sichuan hotpot window, etc. so you go up and tell the person at the counter what you want and they will cook it for you. You will have to wait 3-10 minutes, depending on what you get. I haven't spent much time there because it requires explaining what you want eat - there will be plenty of time for that as the year goes on - and I am still very far from having settled on what my favourite dishes are on even the first floor!
I must confess that the change in diet, environment and daily rhythms has caught up with me a little though, and my intestinal microbiome has started the expected adjustment period. Going from eating yoghurt twice a day and cheese most days to eating none, and eating spicy food usually twice a day, appears to be taking its toll. Nothing at all worrying but a trifle inconvenient nonetheless! The deliciousness of the food makes up for any of the associated troubles, and I have already stocked up on yoghurt :-).
On a related food note, I spent yesterday evening hanging out with the "other Kiwi dude", Dan, and his wife at their new flat. He sent me his address (not far from the Walmart) and I set off late afternoon to spend an evening getting the low down on Yuxi and catching up on all affairs Kiwi. The new 26-storey block of flats he is living in was built on the site of an old timber warehouse, encircled by other (much smaller) blocks of flats and various shops and offices. When I say encircled, I mean that I went round the entire complex twice looking for the entrance, and only found it the second time. The inside building towers over the surrounds so this was quite frustrating! I ended up asking a couple of people - the first guy understood what I wanted and pointed me in the right direction but the woman and child a few metres before the entrance simply didn't understand what I was asking... After finally finding the entrance (just a driveway and small covered walkway), I then went round the entire building looking for the entrance to the building proper... I ended up contacting Dan on WeChat and he came down to meet me at the lift on the ground floor. We headed up to his flat, I was introduced to his wife and he quickly followed with - "Ya wanna pie, mate?". "A pie?", I enquired. "Yeah, a pie. Mince and Cheese or Steak and Cheese. An Irvine's pie". It took me a while to understand what he was offering me and I answered with a hesitant "Yes?". Dan loves pies, so when they go back to NZ they swing past the supermarket on the way to the airport, stock up, and then put them in the freezer as soon as they arrive back in Yuxi. LOL, no really, LOL :-).
After enjoyably shooting the breeze and watching delayed coverage of my birth nation give my adopted nation yet another demoralising lesson with the oval-shaped ball, I left shortly before 22h30 to walk back to the dorm. Dan was a bit surprised I was going to walk - not that it's dangerous, just that why would you want to. I like walking, and I *really* like walking in cities at night. I would often walk back to my flat in Paris when out with friends on the Rive Droite, even at 02h00, even if it took me an hour. Cities are different at night, and can have a very different vibe.
One of the mildly annoying things about the uni complex here is that the gates are locked up at 22h30, and you have to get a guard to open it for you if you arrive after that time. In addition to that, the guards aren't at the gate close to my dorm, so I'd have to spend an extra 15 minutes and possibly have a long and annoying gesticulation session with the guard to assure him that it's not a big deal to come back from town at 23h... Or, I could just take a 10 minute detour and come in to the uni through the park at the back, where they are yet to erect a fence. For some reason I preferred the idea of trying to explain things to a potential police presence in the park than a uni security guard. Neither were necessary - the park is poorly lit at night but apart from a young couple walking arm-in-arm, I didn't encounter a soul and was back home quickly. So the closing of the gates presents only a very mild inconvenience, at least until the build a fence! :-).
So how does it work here? First of all, one needs to understand that a good proportion of the students studying here are also living on campus in dormitories. I would guesstimate somewhere between 50% and 70%. The "foreign students" dormitories/flats have a kitchen but I'm pretty sure the normal dorms don't, at least not individual ones. So many students at the university eat in the caféterias at least once a day, and plenty twice a day. So probably upwards of 6 THOUSAND meals a day :-). There is one main building and a couple of other spaces near to it.
The main building has 3 floors. The first two have reasonably similar food, and the 3rd has the "special" (and slightly more expensive?) stuff. Floors 1 & 2 are the "rice" floors. Basically, you rock on up to the first window and get yourself a big bowl (either plastic for eat-in or cardboard for take-away) with either one or two (or 5 if you are a body-builder :-)) servings of rice. There are usually two kinds of rice on offer, served from adjacent windows. The "good" rice is 0.6 RMB (0.08€) for one serving and 1.1 RMB for two, the "cheap" rice 0.5 RMB for one and 0.9 RMB for two. I must confess in the beginning I didn't realise there was a difference between the two and was a little confused as to why the price was changing... :-). From there you have about 15-20m of window space, with different dishes lining the windows, two dishes deep. That's about 4 dishes per metre, so upwards of 60 different dishes to choose from. Per floor! Some of the dishes are pretty similar (e.g., spicy or plain bok choy) but you can get everything from noodles (if you want noodles with your rice!) to tofu (I think I've eaten 7 differents kinds, and haven't had them all), saveloys to crispy duck to chicken feet :-), spicy sliced carrot to mushrooms to seaweed. And that's just floors 1 & 2 of the main building.
Note that the photos aren't representative of the crowds, I tend to go when there are fewer people...
The first floor
I'll confess that as they put stuff out on platters, and not everything gets eaten right away, sometimes the food isn't particularly hot. The deliciousness of almost all the dishes means that it's not a big deal though! I have also been spending most of my time on floors 1 & 2 because all you have to do is point and hand over your bowl, and they will heap a serving into it - no complicated language needed :).
The 3rd floor has stuff that is mainly done to order, and is set up in terms of windows - the noodle soup window, Sichuan hotpot window, etc. so you go up and tell the person at the counter what you want and they will cook it for you. You will have to wait 3-10 minutes, depending on what you get. I haven't spent much time there because it requires explaining what you want eat - there will be plenty of time for that as the year goes on - and I am still very far from having settled on what my favourite dishes are on even the first floor!
The 3rd floor
Freshly squeezed juice and smoothies
The Muslim canteen. I also hear the call to prayer off in the distance from the dorm, particularly in the morning.
The outside eating area and food windows
I must confess that the change in diet, environment and daily rhythms has caught up with me a little though, and my intestinal microbiome has started the expected adjustment period. Going from eating yoghurt twice a day and cheese most days to eating none, and eating spicy food usually twice a day, appears to be taking its toll. Nothing at all worrying but a trifle inconvenient nonetheless! The deliciousness of the food makes up for any of the associated troubles, and I have already stocked up on yoghurt :-).
On a related food note, I spent yesterday evening hanging out with the "other Kiwi dude", Dan, and his wife at their new flat. He sent me his address (not far from the Walmart) and I set off late afternoon to spend an evening getting the low down on Yuxi and catching up on all affairs Kiwi. The new 26-storey block of flats he is living in was built on the site of an old timber warehouse, encircled by other (much smaller) blocks of flats and various shops and offices. When I say encircled, I mean that I went round the entire complex twice looking for the entrance, and only found it the second time. The inside building towers over the surrounds so this was quite frustrating! I ended up asking a couple of people - the first guy understood what I wanted and pointed me in the right direction but the woman and child a few metres before the entrance simply didn't understand what I was asking... After finally finding the entrance (just a driveway and small covered walkway), I then went round the entire building looking for the entrance to the building proper... I ended up contacting Dan on WeChat and he came down to meet me at the lift on the ground floor. We headed up to his flat, I was introduced to his wife and he quickly followed with - "Ya wanna pie, mate?". "A pie?", I enquired. "Yeah, a pie. Mince and Cheese or Steak and Cheese. An Irvine's pie". It took me a while to understand what he was offering me and I answered with a hesitant "Yes?". Dan loves pies, so when they go back to NZ they swing past the supermarket on the way to the airport, stock up, and then put them in the freezer as soon as they arrive back in Yuxi. LOL, no really, LOL :-).
After enjoyably shooting the breeze and watching delayed coverage of my birth nation give my adopted nation yet another demoralising lesson with the oval-shaped ball, I left shortly before 22h30 to walk back to the dorm. Dan was a bit surprised I was going to walk - not that it's dangerous, just that why would you want to. I like walking, and I *really* like walking in cities at night. I would often walk back to my flat in Paris when out with friends on the Rive Droite, even at 02h00, even if it took me an hour. Cities are different at night, and can have a very different vibe.
One of the mildly annoying things about the uni complex here is that the gates are locked up at 22h30, and you have to get a guard to open it for you if you arrive after that time. In addition to that, the guards aren't at the gate close to my dorm, so I'd have to spend an extra 15 minutes and possibly have a long and annoying gesticulation session with the guard to assure him that it's not a big deal to come back from town at 23h... Or, I could just take a 10 minute detour and come in to the uni through the park at the back, where they are yet to erect a fence. For some reason I preferred the idea of trying to explain things to a potential police presence in the park than a uni security guard. Neither were necessary - the park is poorly lit at night but apart from a young couple walking arm-in-arm, I didn't encounter a soul and was back home quickly. So the closing of the gates presents only a very mild inconvenience, at least until the build a fence! :-).
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