Tianjin...Snack capital of China

Tianjin is famous for its food. Apparently, all of China knows about Tianjin because of its snacks. In particular the baozi (a kind of dumpling) are extremely sought after, but edibles are a huge reason that Tianjin is on the map. That and the fact that one of the worlds fastest trains currently runs between Tianjin and Beijing. Oh yeah there is also the fact that 42.1 million people live in greater Tianjin municipality....


42,100,000 people.


Anyways, we were there for ultimate, but that didn't stop us from sampling the snacks while we were there.

Breakfast at a street stall that served 25 of us (plus the regular customers) in less than 15 minutes. It was impressive and delicious. The bread thing is a deep fried savoury bread that you dip with the tortilla thing in the soupy thing. The soup is kind of like a wonton soup with delicate dumplings, egg and cilantro. WONDERFUL!!!! I couldn't even try to pronounce what it was called, and I wouldn't have known what to order but the kids helped us get food.

Kristen eating her breakfast of smelly tofu in a bag covered in unidentifiable brown sauce. Needless to say, Paul had a better breakfast and Kristen ate mostly bread.

Got to meet the locals at breakfast. The teachers didn't do much talking but everyone was very friendly to us even though we couldn't say much back.

One of the kids was nice enough to buy everyone popsicles... It was hot (27 or 28 degrees) and so Paul decided to try one. No chance it would actually taste like corn right?

Wrong. Exactly like frozen buttered corn on the cob covered in a cheap styrofoamy tasting cone shell... Not Paul's favourite popsicle ever.

Who coveres delicious fruit in a mayonaisse dressing? Answer: The Chinese in Tianjin. Its a salad so it has to have dressing right? Oh well, at least they put sprinkles on it.

Paul finally decided it was time to try chicken feet... hey all the cool kids are doing it.

Yep thats part of a chicken foot sticking out of Paul's mouth. Not the best thing he has ever tasted, but....  doable.

Kristen on a culinary adventure of her own. Thats jellyfish she is slurping up. Surprisingly crunchy.

The Feast on Saturday after the tournament's first day. the tables were groaning with food (somewhere between fifteen and twenty dishes by the end of the night) so we got to try a bunch of different things.