China – Street Food in Dalian

I thought I was done writing about Chinese food after my visit 2 years ago. I was wrong. Foolishly wrong. In a civilization with a tradition as old as time, a philosophy as wise as a sage, and a history older than the son of God, summing up its entire cuisine in two weeks and a handful of blog-posts is like scaling the Great Wall…in a single day. And not unlike the Great Wall, China’s menus really are that long, and each dish is so out of this world, I can probably see it from space…but only because I squint.

Fortunately, there’s no need to squint for good food in Dalian. I need go no farther than my grandmother’s backyard for a mini-market of outdoor stalls selling everything from live scallops by the bag to soy milk by the gallon…to soy sauce Quail Eggs by the pound. They’re little and they’re cute, but never underestimate the power of a smaller, cuter egg. Use one correctly and you’ll get a flavor bomb without a flaw.

The best part about eating quail eggs is that you can eat them with no guilt. Eggs have all the protein, and mini eggs have half the yolk. But street food isn’t street food without a few deep-fried dips, and Tang Yuan are a good place to start. As if boiled balls of chewy glutinous rice flour with a sweet-as-sugar center of sesame and nuts weren’t titillating to your taste buds, try them even chewier with a golden-brown coat of guilty grease.

As good as they are, quail eggs and tang yuan are nothing special in Dalian, and they line every street of every corner of China. But one thing you won’t find in any corner of China except the Northeast and maybe nowhere but Dalian is MenZi, a snack-turned-meal of flour from a potato-esque vegetable, pan-fried to perfection and drizzled in a sesame sauce with gobs of garlic. There’s nothing like it anywhere, and it’s almost worth going to Dalian for this dish alone.