Mexican Food in China

Finding food, particularly Western food, in Shenzhen is a challenge. It's a huge city of 10 million people, but unlike Shanghai, Beijing, or Hong Kong, Shenzhen has grown so fast and has so many transplants from all over China, that it hasn't quite established much of a cosmopolitan culture. Most of the restaurants cater to more rural Chinese tastes since most transplants to this sprawling city come from smaller countryside towns. Food at the local restaurants ranges from strange to unidentifiable, one restaurant that smelled good was later identified by my Chinese co-workers as exclusively serving soft-shell turtle dishes. Upon closer examination of the inside of the restaurant, I could see rows of tanks, each containing a swimming turtle.

Sundays are the days to go over to the expatriate part of Shenzhen called Shekou. Westerners also know it as Sea World and it's known for an ocean liner called the Minghua that's been decommissioned and set in cement. Of interest to me is the fact that there is a Mexican restaurant and once I heard about it, I spent the rest of the week thinking about having a burrito. I was made aware of its existence by a Texan who is working here implementing SAP at a nuclear power plant. He said that it pretty good. When a Texan from San Antonio basically recommends a Mexican restaurant, you know that it has to be good.

Looks pretty good from here, if only it wasn't a third the size of a "normal" burrito

Even though the "Smothered Burrito" was smaller than what I'd normally get in California, it was still very good, a very close approximation of the kind of Mexican food I've been craving since I left. Instead of satisfying my need for good Mexican food, instead I found myself more homesick than ever. It's going to be another round of reverse culture shock coming back to California, and like the first time I returned from Mongolia, I fear that I'll be spending hours and hundreds of dollars at my supermarket the first week I'm back. I'll also be gaining the weight I've lost while here in China along with a couple more pounds from indulging myself after being away for 10 weeks.