Food high in protein in China?

[twinmatrix]

What are some cheap high protein sources available in China? All the things I eat back in Europe are either not available at all or extremely overpriced.

What I eat at home: Cottage cheese, Lentils, seitan, canned tuna, Greek yogurt, mozzarella, cheap frozen salmon filet or turkey breast, tempeh

I've been looking around supermarkets with my friend but most of the food is unlabeled and he thinks rice and noodles are "the highest in protein" so I need some advice from you guys Haha. Right now I'm just eating a lot of eggs but it's getting kinda gross and repetitive.

If it's relevant, I'm in chongqing.

[ChTTay]

Chicken, Beef, Pork, Mutton are all widely available. Including the different cuts you would find at home as well as some less popular ones (with more fat or bones). In Beijing you can now buy types of free range or organic meat in certain supermarkets (like BHG). You can buy bacon but it tends to be heavily processed and fatty.

 

Tofu. You can get many different kinds of tofu in China and this is often a food vegetarians eat for its protein. Personally, I prefer the dried tofu (dou gan) or the tofu skin to the soft tofu that is common in the west.

 

Beans and pulses. These are widely available dried but aren't the ones we usually eat back 'in the west' necessarily. You can find things like chick peas and kidney beans though, dried at certain markets and in cans at certain supermarkets. BHG and Carrefour in Beijing both have tinned beans and pulses fairly cheaply.

 

Chinese fish. I don't buy fish much but there is a lot available.

 

You can buy yogurt here but a lot of it tends to be quite sweet. There are threads on this forum about it. One good yogurt available in Beijing at least is 'He Run' yogurt. If you're big into your yogurt you could make it yourself. From reading about it It doesn't look hard at all. Equally, I think making 'soft cheese' like cottage cheese is pretty simple too, at least compared to other hard cheeses.

 

Chongqing is a vast city. I'm sure that there are western/import supermarkets there... at the very least a Carrefour with an import section OR a BHG, if not an actual import supermarket (of which there are a fair few in BJ.). It's likely cheese, salmon etc will be expensive but you will probably find things like lentils there and different pulses/beans that won't be too expensive. If there is an IKEA there, they have 3 or 4 frozen Salmon fillets for about 100rmb. Probably the best price i've seen.

[imron]

From reading about it It doesn't look hard at all

It's not!

[eliaso]

Chicken breast cuts, usually less than 10 kuai / jin.

Tofu, very cheap.

马哈鱼 (a type of salmon), usually also around 5 kuai / jin.

[kdavid]

You can also get 10 pound bags of Optimum Nutrition whey protein (ordered from the States) via Taobao.