Shinko and Echo suggested we try the Bruce Lee fast-food restaurant downstairs for the girl's next dinner. We decided to order some pork spare rib dishes for ourselves as well. One out of three ended up being thrilled, and can you guess who that was?
You see, from a distance, the meal looks pretty good. When you close in on the "soup," the perspective changes a little bit. The spare ribs - regardless of the size of the piece - seemed to have a bone in every bite. The soup was oily as can be. I drizzled some on my rice for flavor, and even that didn't sit too well with my stomach 12 hours later. Although Cassidy had what I'd describe as a Chinese meatloaf dish, she absolutely loved her dining experience! In fact, she loved it so much we gave her the exact same thing tonight. Shari and I elected to not follow suit.
When we did manage to get out today, we toured a market area. Shari enjoyed the experience of haggling China-style while I loathed the experience of watching everyone in my proximity turn to look and look and look some more at Cassidy. After the third haggle attempt, I strongly supported the idea to head back to the stare-free confines of our hotel room. Maybe it is just that my hayseed-ness comes out whenever I am surrounded by SO MANY people, but I really think my issue begins and ends with the staring and my helplessness in that situation.
Undeterred by last night's dining setback, Shari and I committed to trying dumplings for dinner. I had said that I couldn't leave China without having some dumplings, because they made up a significant portion of my diet while I was in Shanghai three years ago. Echo explained to us that they come either steamed or in a soup and that the souped version tends to be lighter on dough and heavier on meat, so we elected to try that with some "vegetables." I personally didn't mind the dumplings overall. If they would have been consistently good like the first couple, I would have loved them. The trouble is they varied significantly from first to last, and sometimes that variance meant swallowing without chewing. The soup was good as was the spicey sauce. The vegetables were a "Chinese lettuce" that came complete with small flower buds consistent with weeds back home. I commend Shari for even trying them.
I tip my hat to the Chinese. They are a hardcore people. They can eat just about anything. They can make use of just about anything. They are survivors in urban or rural environments. There is a strength to them that I don't see in a lot of Americans today. They don't look to the government to bail them out or give them the world... mostly because they know Big Red won't. What they don't have, they get by without. They don't go around crying about offense or get crippled by hurt feelings. Now if they could just figure out how to value life and not stare at my daughter...
I guess the tone of my last paragraph has tipped my hand. After nil deliberation, Shari and I have decided to move to Guangzhou! I've decided to pursue a career in Chinese commercial voiceovers. I know that once I master reading Mandarin, I will be absolutely awesome at it. I've heard the same commercials at least 1,541 times, and I know I would rock this joint! We're arranging for the kids to be shipped to us via DHL, and we are having a huge garage sale to liquidate our material assets in the states. We have really taken to sweating our butts off in late October, and we enjoy the surprise that every bite of authentic local cuisine represents. Sorry to spring this on you in a blog...
Oh, I so enjoyed that. I actually had a lot more that I chose to delete just because I've promised my wife and myself to be a good boy.
Kudos to Debbie for the comment. Shari and I got a good laugh out of the "J for J" reference.
No comments:
Post a Comment