Since someone said the food at school isn’t good, and some people are seen as having strong tastes, here’s a list of the Yanyuan food I eat most often:

Breakfast

  • Xueyi: doufu nao (tofu pudding, with brine sauce or DIY white sugar), beef pancake, corn
  • Xuewu: wontons, sesame-paste flatbread
  • Nongyuan: Shaxian-style noodles with pork wontons and mung bean soup
  • Xuewu Heliwu: spicy ramen
  • Dorm: cereal with milk or soy milk, mixed with dark chocolate cranberries etc. (only good for one bowl)

Lunch

  • Shaoyi: poached tilapia slices from the deli counter, shredded white radish from the budget dishes counter, Xiamen shacha noodles
  • Shao’er: hot-wok stir-fry “less oil, less salt, no spice,” Zhejiang-style radish and rib soup; had the yellow braised chicken once — very tasty, but felt like it wasn’t the healthiest, seemed to use pre-made sauce packets
  • Xuewu: large-plate chicken noodles (a little spicy), tomato beef noodles, egg-stuffed flatbread; the best malatang on campus
  • Jiayi: everything in the self-serve section is good (all hometown-style dishes)
  • Jiasan: dry-fried spring chicken (missed it so much in spring 2020), mushroom rice, braised pork rice, mala hot-pot rice (better than actual malaxiangguo!), guobaorou (sweet-and-sour pork, inconsistent quality), mushroom soup (has a bit of an earthy smell)
  • Nongyi: bitter melon and tofu-shrimp soup from the East Wing self-serve, wotou (corn buns) (any dish that looks rich and dark red tastes like a middle-school cafeteria); the chaoshou (wontons) from the West Wing self-serve (get the ones with clear broth), and reganmian (hot dry noodles). (Avoid the malatang here.)
  • Nong’er: large-plate chicken noodles (not spicy); lotus root soup from the Zhejiang stall, spicy chicken; Shaxian-style pork wontons, fried dumplings, marinated duck gizzards; the malatang-style stew at the corner; the iron-plate and clay-pot dishes in the East Wing (good in winter); mutton noodle soup (worth it even without a line); clay-pot soup
  • Yannan: chicken breast, various vegetables from the cold-dish section (green beans etc.); squirrel-shaped fish
  • Xueyi: honestly I’ve eaten way too much here already
  • The old Yannan basement: wine-fragrant braised pork, mala hot-wok, sweet-and-sour chicken strips (not healthy!), Shandong-style braised vegetables, potato-braised chicken thigh, cumin lamb (later moved to Yiyuan — probably still findable at Yannan now)
  • The clear-broth malatang at any canteen
  • The stir-fried broccoli at any canteen

Dinner

  • Tongyuan: fermented black bean lamb chop rice, lamb skewers, lamb hand-pulled rice, clear-broth malatang (beef and lamb)