On our anniversary trip to Xitang we ate some pretty good food.  Here's a sampling of lunch and dinner on the first day:

From top to bottom: absolutely delicious thick-skinned wonton in a meaty duck broth; wok-fried 马兰头, a leafy green vegetable particular to the area; bite-sized dumplings of rice and fatty pork steamed in bamboo-leaf wrappers.  Missing from this picture is another dish of nondescript meat chopped finely with vegetables, wrapped up and fried in a thin Vietnamese spring-roll-like wrapper.  This meal was eaten on the deck of a small double-decker boat permanently moored in a Xitang canal.  At the table next to us a young girl went around the table several times repeatedly and with gusto 干杯ing (toasting) everybody in her extended family.



Clockwise from the top-left: salt and pepper fried pumpkin pieces, probably the best dish in this so-so meal; cucumber slices in vinegar; chunks of water chestnut wok-fried with soy beans; rice, of course; and small river shrimp fried in oil and soy sauce.  Not shown in this photo was the green mung bean "soup" that Jodi got as a dessert, which was yummy.  This dinner was eaten outdoors at a restaurant dining area on the edge of the main Xitang canal, lit up by Chinese lanterns and serenaded by an old couple singing folk songs in the local dialect.