The Chinese Breakfast Buffet

Some people may say that I should completely embrace every aspect of Chinese culture while I am here. Don’t miss out on a single opportunity, they may preach. But they are probably back home getting to eat whatever they want for breakfast. Breakfast is not the time to challenge your stomach.

The hotel buffet it beautifully presented, colorful, and… well… weird in a lot of ways. They do have some very nice scrambled eggs and some cheese to slice. These have been my main stay. There is also some bread to toast (although Greg said three times through the toaster barely warmed it) and butter. The little triangular hash browns were probably from a box in the freezer, but they were decent. Cold sugary cereals were set out, but I have to wonder if they were decoration, like the crackers and bread that Greg considered eating. The crackers were a damp soft and the bread was stale from sitting out.

I do like some of the fresh fruit. There was some yummy watermelon the first day. The orange juice is watery, but good; and I’ve become a morning tea drinker because they don’t have water available there. (bottled water is in the rooms)

However, the freshest and prettiest offerings might as well be pictures in a magazine because all I am going to do is look at them! The entrance to the hotel restaurant is also pretty a a picture, though hiding away on the 11th floor, so here it is –

Then we see this –

A quietly friendly server takes us to a table (and on this morning offered to take a picture of both of us when she saw the camera out) –

in the next few photos I will let the labels on the food speak for themselves. (if you click on the photos they should enlarge)

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Below is a sauce that even Greg said he wasn’t willing to try. If he won’t try it, I not going to! He wasn’t wanting different things for breakfast, either.

These poached eggs fooled him once. They are actually chilled and sitting in soy sauce –

I don’ know what is on the two plates on the right –

I thought this was a clever way to keep boiled eggs warm, but since I didn’t have one, I can’t tell you for sure that they are ‘regular’ boiled eggs. Maybe I’ll give it a try tomorrow?

One Chinese food I DO really like are the steamed buns filled with sweet bean paste. The ones this morning had a purple tint to their bread, probably meaning a little of a certain type of potato around here was added for coloring.

Greg’s plate was more exciting than mine. He likes some of the less exotic dumplings.

Since there is food such that we can eat enough to feel ready for the day, we can appreciate looking at the rest, even if they don’t serve anything chocolate. I can sample a variety of things for lunch and dinner, but give me things I’m used to for breakfast, please.

(orchid near entrance to our room)