Noodles.

Let's face it, I haven't had a meal without a carb since I've been here. This goes directly against the advice of my grandma (Po-Po). I called her a week and a half ago to tell her I was safely ensconced in my apartment here in Shanghai, and she replied, "Good. Don't eat so many carbs while you're there. You know, noodles, rice." I told her I wouldn't. Nine days later, it's practically all I've eaten.

The food here is fantastic. I've eaten mostly low budget food but unlike in some places, low budget does not mean low taste or quality. The street food is unbelievable. I'm currently addicted to baoze, or steamed buns with delicious fillings like pork or, my new favorite, veggies and tofu. Yum.

For about a month before I left for Shanghai, I was a pescetarian. I was mostly vegetarian and would eat fish and shellfish sometimes. It was delicious, humane, and fairly easy, because over a period of about three months I was thinking about it and edging into it. I read labels, I educated myself, and it worked.

On the plane here, though, there were no vegetarian options and instead of communicating to them that I didn't eat meat, I kind of ate around the meat in my bowl of noodles. Then, two days later, at my first dim sum here, I gave in and ate a xiao lung bao, a specialty here. It's a dumpling with pork and soup inside. So good. After that, there was no going back.

Until I got sick. I was really not feeling well for the better part of a week. It may have had a lot to do with the sketchy food I ate from the university cafeteria, or maybe more from the massive amounts of meat I was suddenly eating. Not exactly massive, but in comparison to my former habits, definitely an unhealthy increase.

So a few days ago I made the shift back to more of a vegetarian diet. I do eat the occasional dumpling. I don't raise hell if there's a tiny sprinkling of pork on my tofu. (Chinese waiters seem to not understand me when I say "wo bu yao ro," or "I don't want meat. Or, rather, the cooks tend not to know how to make substitutions. Any kind of substitution. You want chicken instead of pork in your noodles? Too bad. You want no meat? What? What?!?) But I try to make my meals more vegetable-based and, when possible, I order completely vegetarian. And guess what? I feel so much better. My digestive system is back to working the way it did for the past twenty years of my life, and I don't get as much stomach pain as I did a few days ago. This could be just psychological, or more likely, just my own body acclimating to this hostile environment more than five thousand miles from my home. But I do think not eating meat has something to do with it.

So I stick with my vegetable noodles, or my bok choy, mushrooms and rice. Believe me, in Shanghai everything tastes better. And for about 10 kuai a meal (that translates to about $1.25), I couldn't be happier.