Cafeteria Food

Chinese universities are notoriously known for their bad food. I've had friends who've studied at these universities and completely avoided their schools' cafeterias either because the food was bland (Qingdao Daxue) or made you sick to your stomach (Shanghai's SISU). The only option was to eat at the local eateries near campus, which were not always completely safe options in themselves. The university that I'm staying at, BLCU, was also once known for its bad food, serving slightly warm to room temperature food that made you slightly queasy just eating the stuff.

That's all changed recently for the better. BLCU just opened a 5 story dining structure just last year, and it's like night and day. The food is so good that some of my CSULB classmates here say that if only that building could be moved to our campus, they would be in heaven. Indeed, the building would not look out of place on any American college campus. The food, of course, is still very much Chinese; well, at least for the bottom three stories. The first two levels are much like what you'd find in any Chinese univesity; cafeteria style, point to something, and they give you a scoop of food, or you just take how many individual portions, already placed in small plates or bowls, that you want. The food, in contrast to all other Chinese universities, is of decent quality, and the important thing is -- it doesn't make you sick.

However, it gets really better on the third floor. Up there, there are separate stalls for all types of Chinese cuisine: one for Cantonese food, one for Beijing food, one for Chengdu food, etc. They even have a whole Beijing duck avaliable for only 36 kuai, plus a hot pot area where everyone has their own individual little boiling pot! The food options are almost limitless: regular noodle, rice noodle, white rice, steamed buns, fried breads, dumplings, deep fried foods, fish or fowl, meat or tofu, vegetarian, even sliced fruit. For many of the noodle dishes, you first order your dish then they make it for you right then and there: stirfry noodles, thick or thin noodles, even thin vermicelli noodles, and so on. There are pictures for almost everything, so you don't even need to speak Chinese.

Many of the "tradtional country dishes" are really similar to Vietnamese home cooking with thịt kho, cá kho, cang, khổ qua, etc. There are also rice noodle soups similar to hủ tiếu. There's no phở, but you can't have everything. However, that's only the third floor; on the fourth floor there are individual little restaurants, not owned by the university. On that floor there are three restaurants: a Korean restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, and a South-East Asian restaurant. My friends have eaten at the Korean and Japanese restaurants because the whole floor currently has specials ranging from 20% to 50% off your entire meal! I'll probably try the SE Asian restaurant with one of my classmates soon.

The 5th floor is a formal restaurant for VIPs, which I probably won't ever visit. Oh, and the prices for these meals? Two to three dollar US at the most and you'll be stuffed. Oh yeah, there's also a Muslim restaurant on the first floor, that has a separate entrance: great for kebabs and other roast lamb and beef dishes; we tried that place once too; one Chinese student told me he thinks that's the best food on campus! (It's a little more pricy though). With all these food options, maybe I won't lose any weight this trip, like usual. I might even be gaining weight with all the cheap ice cream everywhere. Ha!

P.S. I went to the S.E. Asian restaurant to just check out the menu; it seemed to be more of a Thai restaurant, but ... they had phở on the menu! A "seafood" version and a beef version. Guess I might have to check it out.