School Lunch: China, Malaysia

School Lunch China 1: Eggs and tomato, mapo dofu, cauliflower and chilies, plenty of rice

School Lunch China 2: Baby bok choy, pork and mushrooms, yuxiang pork, steamed bread, soup

This month's issue of Afar features a mosaic of photographs of school lunches from around the world. Dave contributed shots taken in China and Malaysia.

We're both several decades beyond cafeteria lunches so it was interesting to revisit the concept, especially on foreign soil. And we think about food all the time, Asian food especially, yet we've never given much thought to what school kids here eat.

Dave took his China images at a college cafeteria in Chengdu. It was school holidays and the campus was nearly deserted, but the cafeteria appeared fully operational. And we were astounded to find at least 30 items -- not including mantou (steamed bread) and rice -- on offer. 

Fifteen yuan (a little over two US dollars) bought us the two meals above. With rice and mantou it was far more than we could eat. Mantou (which got hard as soon as it began to lose its heat in the unheated cafeteria) excepted the dishes were all quite good, delicious even. The stir-fried egg and tomato -- slightly sweet and very flavorful -- cauliflower (perfectly crisp-tender and touched with chili heat) and the baby bok choy (also perfectly done, tangled with tender strips of pork) were the stand-outs.

If I were in Chengdu and keeping to a very strict budget I'd be frequenting university dining halls. Think of it -- a day's worth of well-prepared and decently healthy meals for about U$3.

 

School Lunch Malaysia 1: roti, daal, curry, candy bar, sweet drink

 

School Lunch Malaysia 2: Asam laksa

To get his Malaysia photographs Dave talked his way into the cafeteria at an elementary school in Brickfields, more popularly known as one of Kuala Lumpur's Little Indias. I didn't accompany him on this adventure, and Dave didn't taste the food; he remembers each lunch costing around 2 ringgit, or about 60 US cents.

The meals look decent enough, though the roti -- which Dave notes wasn't freshly made (he did arrive close to the end of lunch hour) may be a bit tired. A bowl of asam laksa makes for a fairly well-rounded meal ... but candy bars and super-sweet pink drinks?

Both of these lunches say much about what figures large in the local cuisine. In Sichuan, as we found at humble restaurants in Chengdu, rice (or other starch) is still an important part of the meal, and is eaten in great quantities. Vegetables too -- not just because they're cheap, but because Sichuanese love them (and do wonderful things with them). Chilies are present in decent quantities in two out of four dishes, and when there's meat it's pork.

In Malaysia eating chilies from an early age is a given, and strong flavors too (but not alot of vegetables). How many American kids would opt to eat a spicy, fish-based noodle soup if they had a choice? And the Malaysian palate, viewed through these two randomly chosen school lunches at least, is truly multi-cultural -- a southern Indian bread and a noodle soup with Malay and Chinese culinary roots.

Comments

[Migration Mark]

I'm hoping my kids in the future will be eating lunch, China number 1. I will definitely be starting them on vegetables and chilies from an early age so they build a palette for fine cuisine.

[Britinbangkok]

I used to teach here in Thailand at a private school and, even though the school lunches were quite healthy (lots of veggies, fish, soups etc.) they too always had sugary drinks available and ice cream and candy bars to buy at breaks.

I have noticed in my almost eight years in Thailand though how much bigger a lot of kids get as they move away from purely Thai meals to lots of western-style junk.

Love your blog by the way, and the photos are lovely. :)

[Sasa]

Great idea for an article, I wonder if they sell Afar in Austria...I remember school lunches at my school in Japan were great, there was a good mix of noodles, rice and bread over the week, vegetables and usually a dessert too. We used to all take turns being the lunch monitor which involved fetching the trolley and doling it out (we ate in the classroom).

[Amie Chan]

I am so surprised to see the images of Chengdu's school food!
I went to college in Chengdu,and the photo reminds me of my college life. It is just the same as what i ate at that time!It seems to be never changed!
I really enjoy reading your blog a lot!
I admire your idea of comparing the food in China and Malaysia.
I am a Sichuanese who currently lives in Guangzhou. Hope you can come to Guangzhou one day and write something about the food here. I am sure you will have lots of ideas to come:-)

[Digital Frame]

Wow I would have loved to have eaten anything like this at my school.

[david]

American lunches were God awful in school in the midwest. I remember I hated pees and green beans. My grandfather tasted it and spit it out immediately as well. From then on, he would pack my lunches. Eggs/tomatoes, rice, small bowls of Pho, Chinese green beans sauted with pork, Shanghainese dumplings, etc. At first kids teased my lunches, until they tried it. After that, people wanted to trade my lunches for their crappy P&J sandwhiches and the crap they had to eat.

[Susan Lee]

When I school girl at Penang Chinese Girls' High School. We often look forward for the recess time, every day there many stall selling different food; economic rice with 20 over dishes to choose from, nasi lemak, hokkien mee, curry mee, laksa, and all the nyonya kuih! That's what I call real food! There is no match even university days at Priceton with boring cafeteria food, salad bar etc! Cafeteria became a profit making place for most American schools, my son's private school still serve frozen, prepared, lots of fried chicken cutlet, overseasoned frozen fish and veggies, greasy fries and so called salad bar only the health conscious girls would consume! Most American kids need to be more adventurous with their palate, and its all begin at home!

[Robyn]

Hah, David -- I grew up in the midwest and I remember those awful lunches!

Susan you are so right about what US kids will and will not eat. Adventurousness must begin at home, I think.

[Ally]

I just want to comment a few things about food in Malaysia. Firstly, that is not a candy. It is a type of chocolate cake which is, um, soft.
The next thing is the super sweet drink you mentioned is known as the Syrup Drink. And yes, indeed, it is very sweet.

I live in Malaysia and am still attending primary school, though a Chinese School. There's laksa, fried rice and noodles, Wan Tan Mi and all sorts of food available here. And I only drink syrup for, like, once a year. I don't know about others though.

Just so you know. I don't mean to offen anybody. :D

[Robyn]

Hi Ally -- thanks for commenting, and you haven't offended anyone. Great to hear from a student eating school lunches in Malaysia. Thanks for reading!
Robyn

[Davey]

Absolutely fantastic looking grub I am all of a sudden starting to get hungry :)

[Fadly A. Rahman]

Luckily, my school serve better than just roti and dhal for lunch. That was usually a menu for breakfast. For lunch, we often have white rice with meat or fish, some veges and a fruit. All for RM2 in my days.

For me, the food for non-boarding school is not bad. But for boarding school, it's another story. In some of this borading school, the food is quite bad especially for the students that live in a dormitory.