I’m a slightly adventurous person, but not all the time. With fashion, I’m very unadventurous. If I could, buy the same pants or shoes on repeat for years, I would. I know this because I did that with jeans for a while. I found a pair that I liked, and several years later when they wore out, I went back to the same shop and bought exactly the same ones again. I would have kept doing that, but the shop went out of business. Insert brief emotional crisis.
For food, I tend to be the same way. As a child, I ate the same thing for lunch every day for a year. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After a year when I couldn’t bear the thought of peanut butter and jelly, I switched to turkey and cheese. After that year, I switched back. Now I vary my lunch and dinners, but breakfasts are almost always the same. Oatmeal every day, along with some honey and whatever nuts and seeds I happen to buy. Keeping consistency helps to simplify life.
But I have friends and students who allow me to be adventurous. What are some of the crazy snacks that people give me to try?
- 冰糖即食燕窝 Bingtang jishi yanwo; Rock Sugar Instant Edible Bird’s Nest
First, my friend Vivian gave me bird’s nest in a jar. For eating. For those of you who have never tried bird’s nest, let me explain a bit about what it is. Bird’s nest soup (燕窝 yan wo) is a soup made from boiling the nest of a swiftlet (a tropical bird common in Asia) in chicken stock. The nest is actually made from the birds’ hardened saliva, and buying the nest or the soup is quite expensive.
Sometimes, the soup is served in a papaya with a bit of tapioca and coconut milk. I really like this one. Vivian gave me a packaged bird’s nest soup (冰糖即食燕窝 Bingtang jishi yanwo) which literally translates as Rock Sugar Instant Edible Bird’s Nest. It came in a jar.
I was excited to try the soup since I’d had it before in the papaya, but this one was a bit bland. There wasn’t much sugar, but it wasn’t bad. The soup is supposed to be especially healthy for women, so I ate it and enjoyed it.
2. 纯心饼店 (chun xin bing dian) Pure Heart Cake Shop
广州特色点心花生酥 (Guangzhou tese dianxin huasheng su) Guangzhou Specialty Snack Peanut Shortbread
Another snack that I got from a neighbor was a bag of peanut clusters. 林老师 (Lin Laoshi; Teacher Lin) is a retired teacher who used to teach Thai. She lives on our street and has a beautiful garden. At the moment, she has lots of petunias, and I always love enjoying the beauty of her flowers. Kendra became friends with her first, but now I also say hello and sometimes chat for a bit when I see her outside.
A week or two ago, we saw her, and she stopped us as we were heading home. “Wait! I have something for you!” She said and hurried into her home.
When she came out a few minutes later, she carried a bag of peanut balls. “People will go to great lengths to get these—you have to wait in line for a long time sometimes!” She said as she handed us the bag. “They’re really delicious!”
“Wow! Thank you so much!” Kendra and I said.
If 林老师 mentioned where she got the snacks, I missed it, but I was looking forward to trying them.
I was surprised by how good the peanut balls were. They were a little sweet, but not very sweet, and they had a powdered substance all over them. I might have to ask Lin Laoshi again where she got them so I can get some of my own!
3. Koh-Kae
Peanuts Chicken, Flavour Coated
The next snack was one that I was not very excited to try. With a name like, “Peanuts Chicken, Flavour Coated” I had no idea what kind of snack this would be, and it seemed pretty weird. Kendra and I have a friend name Matias who brought them over one day, but we had too many snacks, so we didn’t get to them. I kept taking the Peanuts Chicken to different activities, but there were always too many snacks, so we didn’t open them until one day I had a picnic on the mountain near my house with some friends.
The weather was finally a bit cooler, and it was nice to be outside in the sunshine when it wasn’t too hot. I opened the Peanuts Chicken and was surprised at how much I liked them. I think I just like peanut snacks in general. The peanuts were coated in a crunchy fried coating, and they were pretty tasty.
4. 紫菜; Zi cai; Seaweed
Next, Kaye, one of my colleagues, gave me a bag of seaweed (紫菜, zi cai) and also told me how to make it with eggs in a soup. By the time I got around to making it, I had forgotten her instructions, so I asked DeepSeek (the Chinese AI) to give me a recipe. It explained the process of making seaweed soup pretty well, and it even gave me instructions on when to add corn. I had some corn that I also wanted to use up.
I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the seaweed, but I enjoyed it quite a lot with my egg and corn soup!
5. 薯蓣；Shuyu; Or possibly 山药 Shanyao; Chinese Yam–But this snack is more of a gummy candy, and I’m not sure about the name. If you know, please share!
The last snack I’ll share with you today is one that my students brought one evening. I have students come over most Wednesdays for game nights, and they sometimes bring snacks. Sometimes they bring chocolate (which I always love!) and sometimes they bring snacks from their hometown.
One time, one of the students brought a little snack in a clear package. She said that it was some kind of sweet potato. I always try the snacks that the students bring, so I opened the package and popped it in my mouth. It was like a Twizzler that tasted like sweet potato. And I really liked them! I’m not sure what this one is called, but it’s purple and delicious. I’m hoping that whatever it is, I can find some more of them.
I’m thankful for students and friends who encourage me to be adventurous in my eating, and I hope that you can also try some of these fun Chinese snacks! Let me know how you like them!