Tonight I caught up with one of my supervisors from the states. He is born and raised in China and said he would take me out for dinner.
We went to this place a few blocks from the condo. Good thing I had him because I tried to walk into the restaurant and the hostess starting yelling and Chin, my supervisor, calmed her down and told her I'm just an American not knowing what to do.
There was a few minute wait so we had a beer at the place next door. I just asked for any beer and they gave me a 22 ounce beer for roughly 1.50 in us dollars. The beer was warm but I was told that happens here because when it gets hot out the equipment can't stand up to the heat.
After my gross warm beer that I drank just to be polite we were seated for dinner. This place once again had no air conditioning at all. It was a buffet style place but each table had a mini grill. The grill was for any raw food we may want to cook.
I got in line and grabbed a plate. In China they do not have a serving spoon for every dish. It is pretty nasty because one person could use a spoon to serve cow and then broccoli. I just pretended I didn't care and went to town. Once again with my luck I put a huge portion of what looked like noodles on my plate...took a bite to see if I liked it...and Chin goes "Dave, thats pig intestine." I wanted to throw up all over the place but just threw my plate away instead.
I finally got a plate with things I enjoyed and we sat down. I asked for some rice to go with the meal. They brought me out a bowl with rice at the bottom and carrots, avocado, and a sunny side up egg on the top. Rather interesting way to serve rice but I just mixed it all up and it actually tasted o.k.
I had my first course and then Chin went to grab some meat. It was all raw so we threw it on this grill. We cooked our own duck, pork, and chicken. Pretty good considering I cooked it myself.
A side note...I am eating my dinner schvitzing like I have been running for an hour. Everyone else is sitting and enjoying their meal while I am using napkins to stop the sweat from getting in my eyes.
After our meat we had a variety of dumplings. These things were awesome. It was like a states dumpling on steroids. More meat! After the dumpling I felt like I was going to pass out. The combination of 3 courses and 95 degree temperatures can really take a toll on someone.
Looking past the lack of air conditioning dinner was really good. I would like to find a place where I can enjoy my meal and not have to change t-shirts as soon as I get home.
I am going to try to get some sleep for the first full day of work tomorrow.
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2 comments:
Haro,
Glad you made it. To comment on the stool sample...awesome Do they have sinks so you could wash your hands, or did you just wipe it on your shirt and eat some of the fine food? Sounds like it was more enjoyable than the rittnehouse bathroom. The story about how the people drive explains a lot. Enjoy yourself over there and don't do anything that I wouldn't do. Ha, that's not much.
Hi Dave,
Welcome to culture shock. My first meal in the Ivory Coast when I was in the Peace Corps was muscrat with a sort of dough in gravy(gave up picking out the dead spiders from the dough as I figured that it was an easy way to get some extra protein). As far as a huge meal in a hot place, that's what we got at my Mom's(your great aunt) every summer we returned to the Bronx. All these"little" things will be great to tell your future children. I'm sure you're gonna have a great experience. Enjoy. Phil & Annie
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