“In the late 1970s eating in Guangzhou was different” someone once told me. I want to tell you about \u5b66\u4e94\u996d\u5802. It is one of the canteens at Guangzhou University.
Guangzhou University has several canteens. They include the Plum and the Chrysanthemum. The Orchid canteen is also present. There is a canteen in Guihua campus. Do not forget the Muslin canteen. For faculty there are two canteens. They are the Bamboo and Yueyuan.
These canteens cater to 20000 people. That includes faculty and students. The two campuses are in Guihuagang and the University town. The canteens serve many dishes. They offer local specialties. You can order birthday cakes. Pastries and moon cakes are available too.
Back in the late 70s life was different. People bought food tickets. They spent twelve yuan per month. That was about four mao per day for three meals.
The canteen had no tables. Seven windows sold food. Students lined up with metal or porcelain dishes. Each window had a big wooden bucket. The buckets were full of vegetable soup. Students took a spoonful. They drank while waiting. Some students got to the canteen early. They took vegetables from the bottom of the bucket. That meant more vegetables to eat.
Breakfast sometimes included noodles. They were thin yellow noodles. Northern China had better noodles. Those noodles had flavor. Sometimes breakfast was meat patties. The patties were steamed in buns. Students loved them. Each person got only one. It felt like a treat.
Lunch and dinner were similar. Rice cost one mao. Vegetables cost five fen. Meat also cost five fen. The vegetable lady used a big spoon. She scooped vegetables into bowls. Another lady used a small spoon. She put a few pieces of pork in the bowl. She added some gravy.
Before Guangzhou, some students never had water spinach. They had to eat it. Otherwise they would be hungry. The school’s water spinach was not good. It could not compare to restaurants. The vegetable stems were too old. They were hard to chew.
Students took their food to the dorm. Eight people shared a room. Four bunk beds stood in the room. They sat on the beds. They ate and chatted. They mixed the rice vegetables and meat. They ate it quickly. Nobody wasted food then. Nobody was fat either.
During holidays the canteen served a special dinner. There was roast pork with tofu and taro. Everyone enjoyed it. Local students went home after dinner. Out-of-town students stayed in the dorm.
One student had a kerosene stove. The school was near a farmers market. They bought small snails. They feared parasites. So they cooked the snails on the stove. They added soy sauce and ginger. They only needed white rice from the canteen. The snail soup soaked into the rice. It was their own special meal.
Once they went to the market. The fish was already going bad. The seller lowered the price. They cleaned the fish at the dorm’s water station. It smelled bad. They cooked it with spices. They even drank the fish soup.
Some classmates came from farms. Their special meals were different. They went to the fields. After the harvest they looked for something. They burned rice grass. One classmate blew smoke into a hole. Another waited at a hole nearby. Soon a fat field mouse ran out. They caught it. They caught another one too.
They cleaned the mice at the water station. They removed the organs. They kept the livers. They scraped the fur off. They chopped the mouse into pieces. They fried it with the livers. They added spices. They offered some to their friend. He could not eat it. After eating the mouse they made soup with the leftovers.
Sometimes they went to a restaurant. They ate morning tea. One restaurant was by a river. They sat by the open window. The river was right outside. Servers pushed carts with dim sum. Each plate had a different price. They took what they wanted. The server added up the plates. They did not have much money. They wanted to save money. Some students threw plates into the river. They did it when nobody was watching. They felt guilty about it later.
Today \u5b66\u4e94\u996d\u5802 probably looks different. But remember those who ate here long ago. They had simpler meals and a strong sense of community.