Dalian - Day 6: Xin Xin Huo Yang

Day 5 was spent at home, chowing and snacking on fresh seafood and the kind of home cooking that would make Michelin stars lose their shine.

Still, it's our last day in Dalian, and we have to venture for one last food adventure. 

Lamb Soup. Savor-packed broth with a side of seasoning; salt, pepper, and MSG that you add to suit your taste. The one with regular lamb is rich and meaty, but the one with lamb scraps has bits of everything.  You get a mix of every texture, a colorful range from iron liver, firm but gelatinous blood, and chewy bits of digestive tract. The meat is great, but offal isn't awful, and the scraps are far more interesting.

Bread/pancake on the side. Bland but absorbent, oil and grease. 

A light mix of cucumber and red onion in soy and vinegar provides a contrast to the heavier bread and soup. 

A pile of shredded potatoes is China's answer to wedge salads except they actually taste good.

My personal favorite is the stir-fried Lamb Cheek. Tender and fatty, sliced thin with a variation of veggies. Salty with soy, sweeter on the finish. 

The other lamb soup place is better, but we weren't near the right highway at the time. Still, I love this place. It's more of a sweet-simplicity, peasant-dish vibe, and it's different from the other one but it's just a different kind of delicious. 

Dalian - Day 4: Cong Hua Da Yuan

These are the outskirts of the city, close to where the roads turn rural. 

The scenery is one of contented peace, and we start with a walk where my family intends to retire. 

The lake is pretty and so is the bay, but this kind of walking and wind will work up an appetite.

This restaurant has been around for decades. Known for nonexistent portion control and a menu that covers all cooking from both sides of China, they crank out some solid classics like Dalian’s Ba Yu Dumplings. These are fishy and delicious but an acquired taste for those who prefer their dumplings with pork.

There’s plenty of pork filling in these pancakes. They make the inside juicy and sweet, and msg is magic. 

They even make soup dumplings, though their version is crude. The soup isn’t half bad, but the wrappers are thicker than bread.

The Green Beans are simple but they taste pretty great. 

They make a better soup outside the dumpling. This stew of rice noodles and pork belly is cold-day comfort.

Tripe in sesame sauce is a change of pace. This cold dish has a nice mix of texture and forward flavor.

The Conch with Cucumber is a mistake. Not enough conch, too much cucumber, not enough of anything to make this better than blah. 

A peasant dish, this Tofu Skin with green onion. I like it better with just a smear of black bean paste. The meat here carries the paste well though it’s a little bit salty.

Strips of fried pork because they don’t make sweet n’ sour. The dipping sauce is an unadorned seasoned salt, a surprisingly solid pairing.

The dish I always order, Sweet Potato with a hard sugar crust. They do an impressive job with the sugar strands - this many strands spin thinner than a spider is legit skill.

Good food in a part of the city I rarely see. A meal well enjoyed with so many people who matter, a meal well-eaten in a day well-spent.

Dalian Day 2 - Tian Sun Yu Gang - Dalian, Liaoning, China

We're having dinner with the uncles. The ones who are not really uncles but of the not-blood-thicker-than-blood variety. They pick a nice one, and we even get the private room with the lazy Susan.  

There's a Fruit Platter to start, and it's all about the presentation. The usual items; seasonals like strawberries and slices of apples in an aesthestic array. It's not Chinese until there's watermelon, and juicy plum tomatoes are another sanguine staple.

Sweet and Sour Pork is a regional essential, and it appears on almost every table. It plays hand in hand with Shredded Potatoes, almost as an entree and palate cleanser, respectively. 

Tofu Skin and Sprouts serves that purpose as well. Light and refreshing a simultaneous protein and fiber.

Whole Fish is crucial at a fancy dinner. This one was alive right until it was braised in a gingery brown sauce. You don't need much dressing for something like this. Its freshness speaks for itself. 

Like this fish, all the food here is made with the best/priciest ingredients money can buy, but their skills are legit as well. They have some cold classics, like this salad of cabbage and jellyfish julienne, the shreds are the finest I've seen, and the delicate crunch is exquisite. 

Okra, wood ears, mountain yam. Crunchy fungi to contrast the soft and the slighly slimy. The best veggies in the world exist in this singular country.

Fresh Shrimp, super-tenderly steamed, all the juices held inside by a coat of starch. A vinegar dip sharpens the succulence, so simple yet a bit complex. 

Abalone and fried tofu are a powerful combination. The textures mix and mesh, and the tofu soaks up sauce to amp up the abalone.

Conch with veggies and wood ears, almost a salad but so much better. Cold and refreshing, it makes a breathy bite.

Peanuts and tiny anchovies. The fishy flavor is not for the faint of heart, but this salty dish is surprisingly delicious.

Sea Cucumber with Peppers, a rich flavor you couldn't expect. The brown sauce is a deep soy-based gravy, and flows into every crevice between the grains of rice for a saturating savor. 

The Red Clams are served as is, steamed and salted, briny like the sea. They're chewy and minimally sandy, and their flavor is one the sweetest and purest of all the varieties. 

They make a signature stuffed pancake, a thin and chewy outer bing filled with mixed veggies. I can't stand celery, but the Chinese celery is lighter, and it combines with the others for a delectable dish. 

Dessert is simple sugars, poached pear and a desiccated plum. It washes down all the dinner, and you leave feeling a little lighter than you should. It's more of an enabler than a finisher. 

These are the meals you hear about in China, the lavish family-style dishes to be shared with family and friends who are close enough. Sit around a table like this and play lazy Susan roulette. If they weren't your friends already, they will be after this. So eat fish, drink like a fish, and try to take this warmth with you whenever and wherever you go.

Shuang Sheng Yuan - Dalian, Liaoning, China

A small local chain, owned by a Dalian native, this cozy corner restaurant could do no wrong. My father loves this place - its a throwback to the old Dalian, he says.

Well the food is fantastic, thank god, or I'd have to pretend to like it until they closed. Random higher-end Chinese restaurants are pretty interchangeable, but this chef has some spunk. They make all the classics like our favorite Conch and Cabbage, but they do add their own touch to bring out the flavors a little more. This dish is usually just salt, but they infuse a smoky finish to give a punch to the conch.

The smokiness sits nicely with a sip some local beer. We request the strongest flavors, but they all taste like water compared to the craft IPA's I'm used to. They are refreshing and easy to drink, though...I could get used to day-drinking this stuff.

More dishes that go with beer: Jellyfish meshes with veggie shreds. It’s crisp and refreshing, and I love the chewy strings splashed with garlic and vinegar.

Comfort comes in a regional-special Oyster Stew. The oysters add the brine while Chinese sauerkraut softens the sting. Fried tofu absorbs it all its pores, and each bite bursts with hot and seafood soup.

There's a Sweet n’ Sour Pork in case you're missing the meat. They deep fry these delicate, fatty strips to a perfect crisp, and they manage to spread the sauce in a perfectly even coat. 

Yu Choy is flavored with pork belly and garlic...like every vegetable ever cooked in China. The stems are crisp, and the dish is light and uplifting.

This cold dish of Okra and Clams is like nothing I’ve never seen, and it's probably my favorite. The sauce is a viscous oyster with plenty of garlic and briny strips of clam to spice things up.

Even my uni-hater husband loves the Pork and Uni Dumplings and the three of us had no problem clearing all 18. The pork provides a savory backdrop for the sweet n' salty dots of orange roe.

The Chive and Shellfish Dumplings are a more traditional filling, with fluffy egg bits acting as glue. They make them well, but there's no point if you already got the uni dumplings.

My father isn't wrong. The Dalianese know their food. They have the freshest seafood at their disposal, and they cook with a distinct lightness and freshness, and the simple style of sautée leaves room for full flavors to form. I haven't had a meal in Dalian that I didn't like, but this one remains more memorable than most. 

Dalian Institute of Technology - Dalian, Liaoning, China

My parents’ alma mater, and somehow it's my first time here. I jokingly call it China’s MIT, but in my parents’ time, the acceptance rates of universities made med school seem like a guarantee. 

I'm following my father past this path of trees, and nostalgia of that which I've never witnessed is hitting me hard. I imagine my parents on this campus, so many years ago. My mother held her head high, the first woman in this province to go to college. She was a chemical engineer, one of three female science majors in the entire school. I got her work ethic, and I hope I inherited her fierceness.

My father had less gray hair back then, but I can't imagine why. He was growing his food in the fields, forced to the farms for reeducation during the culture revolution. He stood up all night to study so he wouldn't fall asleep and aced his entrance exams. 

The reason is this guy. The campus has one of few remaining statues of Chairman Mao. He stands tall in front of their main building, the center of their campus, the center of their world.

I can't believe I didn't come here sooner. It's a glimpse into the past, the same nostalgia mixed with excitement that I get when I see Duke's chapel in the distance. I still can't imagine what life was like for my parents back then, but I'm glad I got a peek.

Venice - Dalian, China - Day 1

When in Venice... Dalian. Yes, you read correctly, Dalian. My home city couldn’t go to Venice, so they built their own. 

The signs say “Oriental Venice.” At least they own their copycatting.

It's a bizarre thing to create in the business district of Dalian, but it sure is beautiful. There’s a picturesque boardwalk along the ocean, and the sea air is refreshing compared to the city smog. Take a walk or rent a bike when it's warm. They even sell spam to feed the seagulls if you don’t share my disgust for swimming, flying rats.

Venice is an under-construction, work-in-progress right now, but these winter months will turn into a fun-filled summer. The canals run dry right now, but soon they'll be filled with floating gondolas and tourists enjoying the ride.

I haven't seen Venice in a decade, but the architecture is impressive. 

It's gorgeously Italian, though some of the European subtlety is lost amidst the backdrop of skyscrapers of Dalian’s wealthiest district.

There’s a coffee shop planning to open and restaurants full of promise. A museum of music has much to unveil, and the only open door right now is a shop with artisans carving wood and working leather, full of gorgeous souvenirs and a ton of potential.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Venice, and the construction here is crude, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love what they’re trying to do. Dalian's Venice is full of calm, sophisticated energy, and a stroll through the streets reveals a stunning array of Italian architecture. It's never going to be the original Venice, but Venice's magic is not lost here.