For over half my life, my diet has been heavily influenced by Taiwanese eating habits. That means eating a lot of fresh, leafy greens. Even when living in the US, we kept up the practice of eating a lot of vegetables. Sometimes that meant we had some interesting new combinations. One does not typically think about inside of stirfried broccoli with your spaghetti, for example. But even with interesting combinations like that, we felt that we were eating healthy. And I think we were.
Here in the northeast of China, things are different. I’ve only been here a few months, so maybe I just am not yet familiar enough with the local diet, but it seems that vegetables, especially fresh vegetables, play a much smaller role in the diet of the local people. Eating the amount of fresh vegetables that I have been accustomed to has been a challenge.
An effort to get as many vegetables as I can, I have begun to alter my eating habits. For example, the breakfast buffet in the hotel where I live has Western and Chinese options. The Chinese options include some sautéed vegetables. So, instead of enjoying a bowl of cornflakes in the morning, I have taken to eating a Chinese style breakfast, complete with vegetables.
My wife will be proud of me. Am I right, honey?
