(One year ago this month, Pa and I made the trek to China to adopt our sweet Sister Susie. I am going to take the first seventeen TWENTY-THREE days of February 2008 to revisit that trip. Hop in for the ride!)
Being the wild-n-crazy type of folk, Pa and I teamed up with some pals and headed out to eat.
Before stuffing our bellies, we stuffed ourselves into an itty-bitty taxi-mobile. After a lively discussion using both "sign language" and Chinglish, we were off for some grub:
Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up.
Here I am, at the entrance to the restaurant:
Where we were quickly seated, but not-so-quickly served. After several minutes of the waitresses mulling around, we finally flagged one down and signed for a "menu."
This should have been my first clue to run:
But alas, we were hungry. I tried placing an order for pork (using the Point At The Pictures In The Menu Method), but was answered with animated Chinese--telling me I had chosen the wrong thing. I don't know what I ordered after that--I just aimed and pointed at a picture of an animal without the head attached.
NOT the ones on this page, for instance:
Crocodile, anyone?
Meanwhile, a small bowl of appetizers was placed at our table--our friends daring me to try them. And to this day, I do not know what animal or what body part I was eating--but I would venture to say it was a "knuckle" from possibly a "squid." It had just the right amount of crunch and a total void of flavor to be anything else.
Well, the food came. And this picture of our pals just makes me laugh:
But then the fish joined the party:
You see, our pals were NOT afraid of this (previously) head-bearing delight:
Truthfully, we all devoured that tasty thing, even though its eye begged us not to.
A bit disconcerting, that it was.
Pa and I ended up with pork, complete with the skin and fat attached. I was just glad I didn't have to pluck any hairs.
As we headed out, we noticed a little "market" right beside the restaurant, complete with live fish and snips and snails and puppy dog tails.
THE LIGHT WENT ON.
(DUMB AMERICANS.)
We were supposed to enter the market, select our meat, and THEN be seated to eat.
But you know? There's a part of me that's glad we missed this little boat. Here's a glimpse:
I got dibs on the croc!
Or maybe some geoduck (GOOey duck):
Year Of The Pig, yum yum:
And looky there! This fish comes with a salad. Pre-chewed:
What an adventure. Crunchy white knuckles and all.
(Read the whole China story.)
Being the wild-n-crazy type of folk, Pa and I teamed up with some pals and headed out to eat.
Before stuffing our bellies, we stuffed ourselves into an itty-bitty taxi-mobile. After a lively discussion using both "sign language" and Chinglish, we were off for some grub:
Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's back up.
Here I am, at the entrance to the restaurant:
Where we were quickly seated, but not-so-quickly served. After several minutes of the waitresses mulling around, we finally flagged one down and signed for a "menu."
This should have been my first clue to run:
But alas, we were hungry. I tried placing an order for pork (using the Point At The Pictures In The Menu Method), but was answered with animated Chinese--telling me I had chosen the wrong thing. I don't know what I ordered after that--I just aimed and pointed at a picture of an animal without the head attached.
NOT the ones on this page, for instance:
Crocodile, anyone?
Meanwhile, a small bowl of appetizers was placed at our table--our friends daring me to try them. And to this day, I do not know what animal or what body part I was eating--but I would venture to say it was a "knuckle" from possibly a "squid." It had just the right amount of crunch and a total void of flavor to be anything else.
Well, the food came. And this picture of our pals just makes me laugh:
But then the fish joined the party:
You see, our pals were NOT afraid of this (previously) head-bearing delight:
Truthfully, we all devoured that tasty thing, even though its eye begged us not to.
A bit disconcerting, that it was.
Pa and I ended up with pork, complete with the skin and fat attached. I was just glad I didn't have to pluck any hairs.
As we headed out, we noticed a little "market" right beside the restaurant, complete with live fish and snips and snails and puppy dog tails.
THE LIGHT WENT ON.
(DUMB AMERICANS.)
We were supposed to enter the market, select our meat, and THEN be seated to eat.
But you know? There's a part of me that's glad we missed this little boat. Here's a glimpse:
I got dibs on the croc!
Or maybe some geoduck (GOOey duck):
Year Of The Pig, yum yum:
And looky there! This fish comes with a salad. Pre-chewed:
What an adventure. Crunchy white knuckles and all.
(Read the whole China story.)
