I threw caution to the wind concerning warnings about street food. No regrets.
First, let's address the fruit. It's everywhere! Stands and carts and baskets. Apples, pears, melons, mangoes, bananas, grapes, blueberries, watermelon, cherries, apricots, dragon fruit, pineapple...all dependent on the season of course. They are all fabulous and now make up a large part of my diet. You just have to make sure to wash everything before eating, of course. Price varies depending on weight, but to give you an idea - one guy charges me about 2 kuai for 2 bananas - about 30 cents.
Qingdao is also a seaside city, so seafood is abundant. I eat a lot in restaurants, and I have never bought the stuff to cook myself. 1) I don't know how to cook seafood and 2) raw/live sea creatures look strange.
These particular pictures don’t actually show street food, as this is a large open barbeque restaurant. But you can get barbeque from the roadside very easily as well. Pick your raw food of choice, they skewer it up and cook it. Pretty tasty as far as I'm concerned, but that depends on what you get, of course. Lots of smoky flavors, which I like.
Food sold by vendors near my building:
Fried rice and/or noodles. This guy is really nice, I think he gets a kick out of foreigners. Super tasty - with eggs, oil, cabbage, bean sprouts, carrots, pepper, some spicy red sauce, salt - and MSG. 9 kuai, or $1.45
Just look for the guy with a giant square butcher knife. He uses this to chop a beef and egg stew up very finely with peppers and onions. He then slices a bun/roll thing in half, puts the chopped goodies inside - and there you have it. DELICIOUS. 8 kuai, or $1.29 for two.
There are lots of different kinds of wraps available. This one is a tortilla of sorts, fried with egg and oil. A couple of sauces are spread on top - one of them spicy - and some spices, most likely including MSG. Then some onions, peppers, a lot of lettuce, and a thinly fried slice of pork. 4.5 kuai, or about 72 cents, for one.
THE SWEET POTATO LADY. She was an angel straight from the heavens. She left our area towards the end of April for whatever reason and the loss was heavily felt by all. The magic was sold from a large iron thing with a fire inside keeping them baked. She would weigh your choice, and it came to about 3-6 kuai, or 48-96 cents, depending on the weight. These things were warm, soft, and slightly sweet in the most delicious way imaginable.
