Good Morning Tai Chi with Master Hu

Life sure doesn't suck here on Hainan Island, what with the weather, the tropical fruits, the beautiful pools... 

...and the Shaolin Master teaching us Tai Chi and Qi Cong every morning. 

Dinner at Hotel Zhang

We headed to Hotel Zhang for a Lonely Planet-recommended dinner. It turned out to be among our favorite real Chinese meals of the trip. 

Before I get to the food, lemme spend a few seconds on the typical table setting. You may think you're looking at a soup bowl and spoon, a bread plate and a soy sauce dish with chopsticks. No, you're not. 

You put whatever you're eating in the soup bowl, and feel free to balance it in the soup spoon while eating it with the chopsticks. After you're done gnawing, use the plate to discard the bare bones/scales/fur/hard bits. At least, I think that's how you do it. 

You are right about the soy sauce dish, though it could also be for black vinegar or hot chili paste, too. 

Also, here's a menu pic. On the bottom left, there's a dish called "The Eggplant is Boiled," which we ordered. Clearly, we had no real clue what we were getting. Just because there's an English menu doesn't mean you know a damn thing about what you're eating. You gotta just roll them bones. 

To keep this craps analogy going, we just kept hitting the point tonight. The chicken (with artfully displayed head to the upper right) was rich and moist, with a wonderful soy-and-garlic-based sauce for dipping. The crispy fish was sauced with a sweet-and-sour-bbq, and fried perfectly. It was also served on fire (see video below). "The Eggplant is Boiled" was tender and coated in a rich, sweet, hoisin-type glaze. 

The crab, though, the crab was the highlight. It was cooked fast in a hot wok, with fat slices of ginger and a few hot chilis. Sure, Chinese people pretty much kicked our ass all trip as far as eating all the edible bits of any given meal, but we held our own on crabs. They were sweeter, with thicker shells and the meat wasn't nearly as dense, but other than that it was just like we'd picked 'em up on Maine Avenue. 

They set the fish on fire just as they set it down. It's not that this presentation was so staggering or outrageous, it's just that when you have no idea that something is going to be served on fire, and then it gets lit on fire, well, it takes you back. Also, you know, setting things on fire is cool. 

I generally cringe a little when we walk away from a table, because we tend to leave a lot of food behind. Not tonight. 

The #1 Agricultural Market on Hainan Island

This was the most impressive food market we went to in China. The covered market provides local families, restaurants, businesses and even hotels with produce, fish, meat and sundries. Outside the market, all manner of small goods are sold. 

Here are some crustaceans -- two types of crabs and two types of lobster.

All sorts of mollusks -- the first one is something I've never seen before, but then we have squid, several types of clams, and what looked like quahogs to me. 

An incredible variety of fish. I can't begin to guess where these are from (they do fly in a fair amount of seafood), let alone what they're called. 

Turtles, frogs, sea urchins, and unidentifieds. Seriously. No idea what that last pic is showing. 

There were all manner of veggies, and a nice woman selling some of them that wanted her picture taken. The peppers were beautiful, and the chopped peppers were so spicy I could smell them from ten feet away. The vegetables also just looked fantastic. 

I think this is all bamboo, but I'm just not sure. 

Here are some of the different types of tofu and noodles.

Black chicken! Black chicken! I think it's been smoked, but I am not sure. 

These poultry ladies were happy to pose. 

As was the pork guy. 

The prepared food section was not as big as the other sections of the market, but it kinda curled around the outside of the building, and served plenty of people off the street. 

The market, of course, didn't stop outside once you left the covered confines of the official "#1 Agricultural Market," as it read on above the entrance. Outside piles of ginger and garlic, more fruits (even durian, check out the inside) , nuts, vegetables, quail eggs, water chestnuts  and some seemingly mud-covered eggs that were pretty freaky. All in all, this was a pretty outstanding afternoon. 

Our only complaint was that we didn't have anyone to help us buy food and have it cooked at a market. Happily, we were able to solve that problem before we came back.