If any of you guys travel around China get hungry, it might be a good idea to bring along a bag of instant mashed potato powder. I recently purchased a can off of Taobao, and have been digging in ever since. Yes, I know this is not truly as good as the homemade stuff, but it sure as heck fills the void if you are on the fly. The seller I bought from is:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=18203541279All you need is salt and some hot water while you are out and about, which should be found everywhere you go (boiling water is pretty much in every building of Hefei that you go to). If you are at home, you can add some butter and other seasoning to it as you would when making the homemade stuff. If you have access to a supermarket while you are out and about, what you can do for a quick meal is:
Instant mashed potatoes (Carbs)
Meat sticks that you see wrapped in red packaging (I prefer the blue packaged ones the most) (Protein)
Pre-cut or washed veggies that wilt/soften easy, which you can find in at least one supermarket that I know of, Joy Market (He Jia Fu) (Veggies)
Onions (the grassy looking one, in Chinese it's called Xiao Cong) (Quasi-seasoning)
Salt (which can be found everywhere, so it shouldn't be a problem, even if you are in a pinch somewhere, for food)
And there you go. Don't just think instant noodles for a quickie while you are here. There are options, like this one.
