B'day KFC + Food pt1

Celebrated my b'day by treating myself to kfc for lunch, catch up on all the meat i've been deprived of. This was actually my 2nd visit to kfc, so wasn't as special if i hadn't been before. last time i stuffed up my order and ended up getting small snack sized chicken wings, so this time i ensured i got the proper sized pieces.
Luckily kfc have a little mat sized english menu they can whip out from behind the counter if they see a foreigner. So the first thing i always ask for is the english menu!

Originally it was my intention to try to read and order in chinese, but if it's not too busy at kfc everyone sorta screams out 'huan ying' or 'guang ling(?) ' (welcome) as soon as you enter the door, then when you're trying to stand in the corner trying to be inconspicuous and using your dictionary, all the cashiers line up at the tills raising their hands and saying 'can i serve you sir' or something along those lines. So i feel i can't just stand there for 10 minutes to translate the entire menu and prepare a dialogue! It reminds me of japanese sushi trains where they all scream out welcome when someone enters. I've never been big on this, as i feel they just say it for the sake of saying it rather then feel all warm and cozy when they see a new customer's face. But since almost every single decent sized restaurant does it here in china i guess if the staff didn't say it people might think it's abnormally rude!

Anyway, back to the point. The cashier had to ask a few questions about my order, and i was trying to tell her i'd like 2 hot and spicy and 1 original recipe, when to my horror i found out theres no hot and spicy option! I thought i must be translating wrong, but she told me that they're all the same taste. the ones with the hot and spicy skin were actually just zinger wing or snack size. I was genuinely shocked with this. I wonder if it's different in each region? Surely kfc in sichuan province has hot and spicy. SURELY! p.s. they don't have awesome chips here, it's just fries that taste like maccas fries.

The following are some of the local dishes of xi'an and some old chinese favourites. For those who know, excuse me if i get the names wrong

Chicken feet - I don't know the proper name but direct translation is 'gee zhua zi' Now i'm no stranger to the ole chicken feet, having had it many a time at yum cha back in oz, but my homestay aunty served it to me straight up with the tailnails still attached. And these suckers were massive, much bigger (and more pale) than the ones i've had in the past. Suffice to say, i had to decline the offer. It might've been the mental image of suffocating on a giant chicken toenail that turned me off....

Yang pao rou mo - Lamb noodle soup with bread like pieces (mo). You usually have to tear up the bread pieces yourself. They say the smaller the better, but its alota work!

Jiao zi - i've mentioned the steamed little crimped dumblings in the first few blogs. Here in this part of china they can't get enough of em'. They like to dip em into a mixture of chilli oil and vinegar. The whole country observes the custom of dong zhi - on the day of the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) everyone has to eat jiao zi, or else it is believed your ears will grow longer and you'll freeze even more in the winter cold.

I can't remember the name of this next one. but it's like blocks of soft stuff, made from corn, swimming in some very oily sauce and cucumber?

This next one is just a mixed noodle dish from one of the many small noodle houses. Notice the distinct 'garnishing' of meat! They commonly serve the noodle broth as a drink, poured into little bowls/saucers. Everytime i drink from these saucers i feel like i'm in ancient china.

The last one here is from a meal out at a 'huo guo' hot pot restaurant. It's basically steamboat, where thers the bowl of broth in the middle, and you just chuck in all the vegies, meat and tofu yourself.