The Bring-Your-Own-Food Restuarant

The French have a well-deserved reputation for food.  Your average Frenchman has an understanding and appreciation of food that leaves the average American in the dust.

The Chinese also have a high food IQ, perhaps as high or higher than the French.  That may be hard to believe if you've only experienced Chinese food from American take-out places.  But trust me, the food here can be very good.  And believe me, the Chinese people can be just as demanding for quality, freshness, and flavor as any people in the world.

This is the story of a group dinner one evening in Sanya.   The top photo shows the group--from left to right are Fred, Theresa, Fred's mother, Fred's father, Fred's mother-in-law, Andy, and Tony.

 Hainan has a reputation for having good seafood - the best seafood in China.  It also has a reputation for having expensive restaurants and some shady operators that take advantage of the tourists.  So, the solution to this problem is to go to the fish market yourself, buy your own food, and then get someone to fix it for you.

The entry to the fish market is a long street crowded with vendors selling everything from vegetables to jewelry.  There are also the people there who run the BYOF restaurants.  They do or say something to indicate that they are available to cook your food for you.  (Don't ask me what cause I don't know.)  The objective is to hook up with one you trust and then take them to the fish market with you. 

 The fish market we went to in Sanya is huge - too huge and packed with people for these photos to capture.  Inside the market, the game is played like this:  You go from stall to stall looking for stuff you like to eat.  When you find something, you ask the cook if they can do anything with it.  If the cook says yes, then you haggle with the fishmonger until you get a good price.

This experience proved to me that the Chinese are foodies.   I saw stuff in that fish market that I've never seen before, nor could even imagine in my best dreams or worst nightmares.  The Chinese could not only name every single item, but they could also tell you five different ways to prepare it.  And it was all alive.  The Chinese love fresh seafood....and in their culture, if it isn't alive then it isn't fresh.

 Once we'd finished in the market, we took all the purchases over to the restaurant.  The outside steps were where the final negotiations took place over how the items should be prepared and how much would be charged as a preparation fee.  Every price in China is negotiable.  And when the final price was agreed, Fred followed the cook into the kitchen to make sure that a dead fish wasn't swapped for one of the live ones that we'd brought. 

The end result was one very good meal....as good as any seafood dinner I've had anywhere in the world.  The traditional Chinese meal is family style...many different dishes placed on a lazy susan where they can be shared by all.  Our purchases were cooked up to become about 10 or so dishes.  (I lost count of the actual number.)  Each one of the dishes was perfectly prepared with seasonings such as garlic and ginger and scallions and chiles and other fresh vegetables.  All were served up with cold Tsing Tao beer for the men and fresh made melon juice for the women.

Final cost for all this....just under $20 per person.