I measure out portions like you said, on a separate plate, and log that. It's quite easy to eat too much if you just eat and eat and then estimate. You ALWAYS under-estimate what you have eaten. Once I sat and ate out of the bowl of dumplings. I would have estimated I had 10 dumplings, but in fact I had 18 (my husband had counted the dumplings). Since then I always just put everything I'm going to eat in a separate dish and calculate that. Otherwise it's damn near impossible to guess.

Also, white rice is the devil. It's got very little nutritional value but has a surprising amount of calories, even steamed. It's part of Chinese culture to eat it, but it's really useless as a food. In old times people used it as a filler to make up for lack of meat and vegetables. If you skip the rice, reduce it, or have huang mi (millet) or mixed rice (white rice with huang mi) it's better. Millet has a lot of protein, so at least it's better than plain white rice. Also be careful of mantou - one mantou roll can have upwards of 400 calories and again, not much nutrition.

We started grilling our food BBQ-style at home and it's not only delicious, it's much healthier. We like tofu a lot. We do some amazing grilled firm tofu and some Sichuan-style super-spicy frozen tofu, I mean that stuff has endless possibilities, and it's naturally high in protein and low in fat. Plus cheap as hell.

God, there's nothing like a good Chinese BBQ with beer on a hot summer night, am I right?

Yeah, the beer has also got a lot of empty calories, especially since they're always the big bottles and you don't get as much kick out of it because the percentage is so low, like 2-3% usually. But I always have at least one bottle with BBQ, because you have to!

Guangzhou, eh? You try any of the weirder foods available in your neck of the woods? I'm in Yantai, Shandong Province, right on the ocean. It's famous for seafood, but I'm veg and don't eat fish. Shandong cooking uses a lot of sour-spicy flavors, lots of vinegar marinades, sometimes with chilis, and so on. Though the food here isn't known for being particularly spicy and many people around here don't fancy hot and spicy foods.

My husband, who is Chinese, does the cooking for us and it's pretty healthy as well. But it's so delicious that unless I measure out portions first, I will just eat and eat until I'm stuffed. He's an amazing cook.

I've never been big on broccoli either, in fact I have hated it most of my life, but then I had it stir-fried Sichuan-style and OMGGGGGG. Loaded in garlic and chilis! My husband makes it with frozen tofu and some other vegetables mixed in, stir-fried in chili oil, garlic, whole chilis, spices, and a dash of pure magic apparently because it's amazing. Though it's incredibly spicy!

What is it they say about the Cantonese?
If it's got wings and isn't a plane, they eat it.
If it's got four legs and isn't a table (or chair I presume), they eat it.
If it has two and isn't human, they eat it.

Something along those lines, I think it has been embellished along the way. Guangzhou is ace but I do love the not too far away seaside. We found a great place just about four hours away.

What have I eaten here? Nearly everything; pigeon's head, snake, crocodile, all sorts of bugs and insects. I try not to back down when I know people are offering it to me expecting me to and I have a pretty open mind when it comes to trying new food anyway.

LOL, yeah, that's what I was thinking! Guangdong, famous for all the weird stuff. You're quite adventuresome to try out all the crazy foods!