Day 10 - China. It's amazing what passes for Chinese food outside of China. Undeniably, there are some outstanding culinary accomplishments by chefs in the diaspora; but too often the food is suited to the particular tastes of the host country. Sometimes, the resulting fusion isn't all that bad. In India, the entire country seems to be fascinated by hakka Chinese which emerged from the combination of chili and traditional Chinese recipes. In Southeast Asia, the blend of spices and influences has altered the old world dishes beyond recognition. But on one day not long ago in New York, we were seated at a Chinese restaurant in midtown Midhattan that did injustice to the country at large. The food was both sweet and tasteless. The noodles: slurpy and rubbery. The brown sauce: a combination of salt, soy, vinegar, salt, MSG, and salt. And the vegetables were limp and overcooked, with the texture of a plastic sandal. Without mentioning the name of the establishment, suffice it to say that Ee Ching's rule holds, "Try to avoid a restaurant with a two-word English name where one word is "dragon", "moon", "jade", "China", "panda", or most egregiously, any combination of two thereof. (This is a clue.) Ironically, she translated the Chinese sign next to the English name, "A multitude of lanterns by the night sky," and admitted, "Hmmph. Quite poetic."