First morning in Zhangjiajie in the Wulingyuan area. My mom and I were already jetlagged and was awake by 3-4am. We went out onto the streets by 730am, excited to start the day.. see what good food is out there. Even in the super early and dark morning, there were already street vendors out and about, selling fresh hot tofu and chopping up ribs of pig..

It was misting a little so we borrowed provides umbrellas from our hotel.

We saw this first restaurant we went to, which had an old couple slurping on bowls of noodle soup. A lot of old people were going in and out paying for takeout orders for dumplings. We decided to go in here and eat. Ordering was a challenge because the menu had no pics!! We eventually managed to order two bowls that were exactly the same as the old couples eating because we gave up and just pointed to their bowls. They do not serve water and no soup spoons. You slurp slurp slurp from the bowl itself and don’t drink water I guess. Haha.

So it looks like some thin hand-pulled noodles, some mildly spicy pork/beef broth, small pieces of beef, dried black fungi, and green onions. There are also little round seeds in the broth that make up the seasoning for the broth. It was pretty good and the broth is definitely different from the 626. It’s similar concept but different seasonings and spices. It’s just different somehow! This was 7 yen per bowl, which turns out to be about $1. Super cheap! I’m loving it!

Here is a picture of my mom enjoying her first food in China!

Then my mom and I roamed the streets a bit. We didn’t have to walk far to find a smaller street with crowded vendors of fresh tofu and pig. My mom got so excited over the tofu. Literally huge slabs of fresh hot tofu slapped onto a large table and being sliced and packaged into bags for the instant selling to the customers waiting in short lines. My mom wanted to buy some too so we can walk and eat. This one vendor had one tofu done many ways. My mom chose two different ones (the round fried ones and the rectangular large ones). The people were very nice too. They were surprisingly patient with our language barrier and a lady next to us took out her phone to use her app to communicate with us.

Then we bought some snacks from a grocery store and bakery for our day’s hike ahead in the Zhangjiajie National Park. We got some yogurt milk, a bag of chips, seaweed for my mom for the fiber and an Asian pizza bread and sweet custard bread. The bread ended up being very cold to eat in the freezing mountain BTW. It was 30 degrees out. Did I forgot to mention that? Haha.

No pictures or words can describe the breathtaking beauty of Zhangjiajie’s taller pillars of stone, rock and mountains as it is to see it in person. I won’t even try. It is the Avatar Mountain after all.

After we came back from walking along the Golden Whip Stream and cable carring up the Yellow Stone Mountain, we went to the famous noodle place the locals kept recommending to us. Comparing to the first place we went in the morning, this one was more busy with the younger people. It is also a joint boba milk tea place!!! OMG YAY!!!! They had a written paper that had translations in English matching with Chinese so ordering here was slightly easier.

The milk tea was just 7 yen, which is $1USD each and the bowls were like $2 (14 yen each). The milk teas were very good. My mom got coconut milk tea and I got red bean milk tea. The teas were more rich in tea and milk. I like it more here! Gonna get myself another one tomorrow hahaha.

And the noodles here were bomb! They were crock pot noodles served with luncheon meat, spicy beef, enoki mushrooms, two quail eggs, daisy leaves.. the meats had to be ordered separately. We actually didn’t know it didn’t come with the noodles so we went back to the cashier to order it haha. #languagebarrier

Noodles were soft and firm at the same time wish silky texture. Broth was rich in flavor yet light to be able to stomach a bowl full. The spicy essence was on par. I can see why everyone likes noodle soup here. There’s just something in the seasoning or earth in the origin country that makes it different from what is reproduced in America.

Then we went back to the same bakery from this morning to get two egg tarts as dessert. C’mon! I cannot be in China and not try their Dan tats! That’ll be crazy!

The egg tarts were so fluffy! The crust was crispy like a croissant. The egg tart in the inside was different. I don’t even know how to explain the difference but the flavors were different. It has a different sweetness and maybe a bit creamier than compared to in America. Maybe more egg? I don’t know!! But it was goooood!

Can’t wait for more food for tomorrow 🙂 my mom and I have already decided what we’re going to get based off of our exploring today!