Lunch

After a long morning of teaching, I set out from the north gate of the university campus in search of some food but I did not want to eat what I had been getting for every meal for the last two days.  Not that I didn't like it.  On the contrary, I loved it.  It was one of those places where you went up to a big buffet of different raw items such as many types of lettuce leaves, cabbages, tofu, noodles, mushrooms, fungi, seaweed, and fish.  Next, you would pick out what you wanted with tongs and put it into a tray where they would weigh it and then you tell them if you wanted it spicy (there are actually three options for spiciness here, the kind of spicy we know and love in Canada, another kind of spicy that we rarely see in Canada which doesn't do anything except numb the mouth and tastebuds, leaving a sharply reduced sense of taste in the eater's mouth, and finally, no spicy/"clear broth".  Ever since accidentally trying the numbing kind, I have always been very clear with the cooks to tell them I want a clear broth.)
Then, they steam all the veggies and items you bought and they put it into a big bowl of broth that tastes kind of like a combination of peanut sauce and miso (maybe others would disagree).  There are some sauces you can spoon onto your veggies/noodles at each table, one of which is absolutely amazing (kinda tastes like soy sauce).  This stuff is going to be amazing in the winter when I won't to stray far for some heartwarming soup/veggies in the cold (one of my Chinese coworkers says it can get to minus 15 or even 20 here in January at the coldest part of winter).  It's healthy and relatively cheap (I tend to pay around 13 or 14 quai for what I weigh on my tray, which is about $2 Canadian.)
But it is still warm now and I don't need to be eating it every day now anymore.  I wanted to try something new.  I thought about going for some of those donkey meat sandwiches that my supervisors led us to about a week ago but I realized that even if I could find the place I wouldn't have any idea how to order the food I wanted in Chinese.  Furthermore, as delicious as those sandwiches were, I gobbled three of them up at the time and it wasn't quite as satisfying as I had hoped they would be.
A while ago we were all on the prowl for some lunch and we were wandering around that same area where all the food places are (you should see how crowded this area is at noon/lunchtime with students!!) and I peeked into a gate at the beginning and saw a rather large space filled with merchants selling produce, grilling things, and cooking all kinds of treats for hungry students looking for some grubs.
I asked my cohorts if they thought we should give this place a try, but they said "nah, it's probably all street meat and we wouldn't fit in there anyhow with our fancy clothes".  The second point was true, we were ridiculously overdressed and people were staring at us.  I didn't quite want to start exploring there in the heat and I was too hungry anyways.
The first point, however, was far from the truth, it turns out.  "Street meat", a term I had learned on literally the second day I arrived in Weifang, is used to refer to meat that Chinese merchants have raised literally on the street.  Walking along downtown part of Dongfeng Street, you can see chickens, birds, and other animals just chilling in cages, waiting to be gobbled up.  BBQs are in full operation right on the street, with outdoor tables filled with drunk and happy people enjoying their meals.  We did, in fact, eat at one of these places, and I ate street meat without realizing exactly what I was eating.  No, I did not get sick or anything but I'm not sure I'd want to go back there and eat street meat for a while.
Anyway, today I decided to wander into the market by myself with my more conspicuous clothes (the dress code here actually isn't very strict.  I am wearing my bright blue Zara jeans today and a plain black v-neck) and started looking around at the dishes the merchants were cooking up.  Everything looked delicious.  Most merchants were selling some variety of stir-fry or another and I wanted something a bit more authentic.  I realized I didn't have much money on me anyway, so I was counting on something a little less fancy.
Finally, something caught my eye.  A few people were waiting at a station behind me for their food where a man was cooking on a big flat grill.  What really got my attention was a fried egg with some kind of sauce on it.  The man put the egg on a kind of bread (more resembling Indian na'an bread to me) that was resting on the grill and it looked nice and warm and crispy.  He proceeded to put lettuce, some beef, thinly sliced potatoes that were fried up, and some other cooked veggies on top of the bread and egg and painted some sauces and some herbs (tastes like Zatar to me).  It looked mouthwatering to me.  I pointed to the egg on the grill and then I pointed to the meat resting on the side and then to the veggies and said "Daochao?" to him which means "how much?"  He said something back to me but I wasn't quite sure of my numbers yet but I knew it was cheap.  Turns out it was four quai! So inexpensive! And it filled me right up.  I bought an apple for another quai and a boiled corn on the cob that was huge for 2 more quai.  I am feeling very good now.  7 quai for a great lunch.  I'm happy :)