Culinary delights in Kaifeng

Saturday, April 13, 2013
Kaifeng, Henan, China
Kaifeng (pronounced Kai-foong) was both a pleasure and a disappointment. Two things drew us to Kaifeng – the night market and the Jewish Cultural Centre.

I found it very interesting that Jews settled to Kaifeng hundreds of years ago and then more recently as refugees after the war . That's what I read in the Lonely Planet’s guide to China. And that, I’m afraid, is all I still know because the writer of that chapter in the Lonely Planet seems to know something that no-one in Kaifeng does. The Jewish Cultural Centre was apparently in a 'scenic park’ which is Chinese for theme park – a horrible, Chinese version of Sovereign Hill where people pay to dress up in period costumes and parade themselves around tacky replicas of Qing and Ming dynasty buildings, watching re-enactments of historic events and spend ridiculous amounts of money on cheap souvenirs. We paid the (relatively) high price for entry into this park with the promise of something really interesting… and it wasn’t there. None of the staff spoke English so we resorted to our picture book, pointing to the synagogue, hoping to get some speck of recognition… but nothing. Even our hostel manager who’s English was very good admitted she didn’t know of such a Centre. So that was disappointing.

The night market on the other hand was incredible and I’d go back to Kaifeng again just to go there. It was half a kilometre of food stalls, everything fresh, cooked in front of you. Familiar and yummy mingled with weird and unidentifiable. There were dumplings and steamed buns, people making your noodles fresh to order; 50,000 different things on a stick including half a dozen different types of greens, mushrooms, preparations of tofu as well as lamb, squid, chicken (avoided for all those freaking out about H1N1), rabbit, frog, lotus root and a fragrant type of tuber . You take a basket, make your selection of skewers and they’re cooked in front of you and spiced. There was also a type of spring onion-filled bread/pancake (delicious), and a bread pocket filled with a slow-cooked spiced lamb (unbelievably good). There was virtually every food you could imagine, skewered and ready to be selected and cooked. A type of bug was up for grabs too – maybe a cicada? – but I wasn’t game enough to try. Trotters, duck, pork, you name it, it was on offer. You could spend you entire evening just hanging out here, snacking and drinking your night away. But not when you’ve got a distractible baby – then you eat early and leave early.

It was good to see a smaller city too. Shanghai is a very modern, multicultural city (for China) and heavily influenced by the West. Kaifeng on the other hand is (as was suggested to us) less sophisticated but a little more charming because of it. People are a bit more suspicious of you at first (we must have been 2 of 5 white people in the whole city) but as always, Aadi is a great ice-breaker. I found women here to be very concerned about how underdressed they thought my baby was. It was 23 degrees Celcius and Aadi had 2 pairs of pants on, socks, shoes, a singlet, a long sleeve top and a hoodie and hat and that wasn’t enough. The concern was kind of nice at first but it wore thin, fast. Babies in China get dressed like little Michelin-men. They wear suits so thickly padded, they’d be appropriate for skiing in . So thickly padded the poor things can’t move! But all with the bum cut out of the pants for easy peeing. And pee anywhere they will. Yesterday we saw a boy peeing in the bin in the supermarket held up by his mother and motioned to the bin by a staff member; today, a mother holding her daughter between the carriages of the train.

Back to the charming people. As we left our hostel this morning, an elderly man noticed us and came our way. He was wearing a tracksuit, as most do at that hour of the morning (before 9am, streets are filled with people out on their daily walk, tai chi/kung fu/line dancing session), and carrying a radio in his pocket which was screeching out some lively Chinese tune. He was moving down the street with a lively walk – kind of a ‘bop’ in his step, his arms all floppy. He said something to Darren in Chinese. Darren laughed awkwardly and shrugged but the old guy persisted. Darren took a gamble and offered our destination as a response which appeared a satisfactory answer but the old guy wanted more. He checked our train tickets, he told us which number bus to catch (we already knew), all the while bopping away, oblivious to the fact that we understood nothing of what he said. Then he turned to me and Aadi. My ear has become attuned to 2 questions in Chinese – I couldn’t repeat them but I can recognise "boy or girl?" and “how old is she?” because I hear them at least a dozen times a day. This man was asking me neither of those questions . By this stage there’s a crowd of maybe 5 people in front of us and another 5 lingering further away. When I shrug and say I don’t speak Chinese, the 5 appear to say amongst themselves “I don’t think she speaks Chinese”. Then one of the women asks me in English “where are you from?” to which the old man seems delighted by and almost mocks the woman for knowing a few words. He then hails our bus and yells something to the driver as we board, never missing a bop. I can’t imagine what it was that he said. The train station was only 6 stops away and the end of the bus route.

And yesterday, on our way back from the disappointing theme park experience, Aadi got her usual dose of attention on the bus. But this time we were sitting down facing in towards the bus. An old woman was sitting opposite us, her skin wrinkled and leathery, the teeth she had, chipped and yellow, her grey hair short and covered by a thick, navy knitted beanie. She must have just been to the market as she held a very thick bunch of spring onions in her hand which she began waving around in front of Aadi to get her attention. I giggled but Aadi seemed puzzled.

Aadi news: Shes not been well the last couple of days with a cold and this morning she cut a new tooth so I’m hoping she’ll be feeling much better very soon. I think the cold may have something to do with the number of people who touch her hands every day. Seriously, 50 people a day would come up to her to just hold her hand and then she sticks her hands in her mouth… It’s hard to say ‘no’ to people. I don’t want to offend and sometimes it’s just impossible to stop people. So anyway, she’s on the mend.

We reached Xi’an this afternoon and will leave for Pingyao in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

XXX

Comments

Kay
2013-04-15

Lovely to hear news of your adventures in China., reading it with great interest.
Babus read your first blog and thinks you a a granddaughter of journalists!
I will show her yor new blogs

kate mcgregor
2013-04-15

Wow, what a surprise to hear from you in China???Is this a holiday or work related trip ? But your blog has been fascinating reading and so I look forward to the next instalment. Enjoy....Just one query...why does Aadi need so much clothing on in 23 degree Celcius?That is warmer than we have hear today. I'm always at a total loss about the seasons in places like China, being so eurocentric that i can only cope with seasons in Europe....pathetic isn't it?So i assume from your blog that it is cold in China at this time ....
love Kate

Caroline
2013-04-15

Hey chick, that market sounds like my kind of place! I am moving back to France in 3 weeks, so if you are going that way, let me know :) Enjoy the rest of your trip!!

janagorski
2013-04-15

Just to remind everyone, there's 2 earlier blogs from this trip. Scroll down to the bottom of the page where you'll find their links. Until now, I was not able to upload all my contacts into my address book for use by this site. My blogs from my trip 2 yrs ago were posted to FB but it won't do that from China. So please read the others when you get time.
Kate; 23 degrees for us Cairnsinians (is that even a word??) is rather cool and that was the top temperature for the day. But I am a bit concerned about the littluns in China overheating. Every time I see one cry I think to myself "try undressing him a little". I've had quite an interesting time traveling here with a baby. I will write a blog wholly dedicated to traveling China with an infant.
Love to you all.
XXX

2025-02-11

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