Instant Noodles

If I see one more package of Ramen Instant Noodles, I'm going to scream.

John poured the crushed contents of the package into my bowl and added more hot water. "This one's different, Janet. This one has a picture of a little chef in the corner."

The variety of instant noodles in China is astounding. Entire aisles of grocery stores are devoted to this cuisine. The packages all look different, the contents all tastes the same. The Chinese gobble them up. (The country side alas must gobble up the remains - styrofoam bowls, plastic spoons, noodle wrappers and tiny oily packets of brown goo.)

The Chinese I can only conclude walk around in a state of MSG high. We throw away those little mystery packettes and add fresh vegetables. Still a bowl of instant noodles can only be disquised so much.

"No, this isn't exactly what we ate for lunch yesterday," John assured me. "Yesterday we had zucchini and red pepper, today we are having red pepper and cilantro. Today I broke the noodles up, yesterday I left them whole. This is a completely different dish."

Nowhere else in the world have I seen such mass consumption of such a nutrition-less food. But then that description might be used for any food found in a Chinese grocery, despite package claims of "healthful, nutritious, best for you food". Have I missed something? Have sugar, oil and starch recently worked their way down the food pryamid? Cookies here are labeled a "Healthy natural food". Their ingredient list ends in: "additives, preservatives, and so on..."

Sugar is in everything here. The average Chinese mouth - full of brown teeth and dental decay are proof enough. Breads are white and sweet, crackers are sweet, soy milk and yogurts are ladened with sugar. Sugar is added to pizza, to fried vegetables, even to mint tea. I pushed aside my bowl of egg-drop soup this morning. It too was sweet. The pre-packaged instant hot breakfast cereals that we've tried made my tongue sing. "For best taste, add sugar" the package recommends. Alas, our experiementation with grocery store food has yielded little we can eat. It has though yielded much in the way of over-packaging waste.

The fruit and vegetable markets, on the other hand, are wonderful. They are full of so many perfect-looking vegetables, tofu cubes, fresh hand-made noodles and fruits that John has to hold me back. "Janet, there is no way that all this food is going to fit in our tiny camp pot!"

We try to cook at least one meal a day. Eating out has become dull. Outside of Beijing, we have been hard pressed to find good Chinese food. Things seem to be over-sauced, over-cooked, over-oiled, and of course sweetened. First we try the local spots (although we avoid places called 'Dog Meat Restaurant' and "Bacon, Chicken Foot Hotpot') then when we've had our fill of starches and sugars, we head to the four-star hotels. Even at a Ritz-look-alike we only rack up a $3.00 bill to be stuffed (and that's before the rice is even served).

In China, if you want your rice 'with' the meal, you have to say so. Rice is a filler to be eaten at the end. Although from our obsrvations the Chinese don't need fillers. They order one of almost everything on the menu - food seems to stream to their tables.

Perhaps I'm just negatively-biased because we have spent so long in a city where food is so poor. This is day four in Zhongdian. We have been waiting for the 25th to arrive, and our 2 1/2 hour flight to Lhasa.

"Janet, listen to this!" John said. He read from the Tibet guide book. "In Lhasa they have museli."

I can only hope that it isn't pre-sweetened. But even with sugar, anything that promises a whole grain ingredient would be welcome right about now. "Hey John, can you pass me another cracker? I think my sugar level is dropping."