Food and Tibits (ooo, riblets...)

I am proud to say that I am the only member of the group who has tried every single dish at every single meal. I didn’t realize that everyone else was picking and choosing until someone pointed it out. “Have you tried everything so far?” “Well, yeah, haven’t you guys?” “I haven’t” “Me either” etc, etc…They seemed shocked – asked if I had a steal stomach, or had been working up to this my whole life (which, yeah, I suppose I have in a way). It’s sad really.

It’s another contest now. A weird looking tofu dish – send it my way. The battered fish with its head and everything – doesn’t even faze me. “How does this taste?” – I can tell ya. That’s not to say I’ve liked every dish, I haven’t, there’s been a few that I only needed to take one bite out of before I set it aside. Truthfully, though, the scariest looking dishes (like that fish) were usually the tastiest. I’m trying to get everyone to try things – at least the people who aren’t vegetarian or allergic – but for now it looks like I’m the go-to-gal for “what’s that one taste like?”

Anyway, moving on from that side note, we’re no longer in Beijing - haven’t been for quite a few days, actually. Sorry I haven’t been good with this recently. On the plus side, I’m a little behind on my journaling too so it’s not like I’ve left this fine audience for someone bigger and better – like myself. Since my time away from this blog we’ve been to Jinan, Qufu, Inner Mongolia, and are now stationed in Shenyang. And even that doesn’t really count since we’re leaving for Shanghai tomorrow morning. Since I’ve already missed so much – I’m gonna give you all the bullets points. Hopefully when I’m not so tired I’ll get back to long, hopefully humorous, novels about each of these places.

Places:

Jinan

• Fresh water spring with local students practicing their English – needless to say, we were pretty popular with them

• DaMing Lake and the Yellow River

• Mount Tai – Still sore, and oh yes there will be a future entry on this one.

• Martial Arts School and a visit to a ‘wealthy’ village – Rich is such a relative term

Qufu

• Day visit to Confucius’ temple and Tomb

Inner Mongolia

• The Yurt – fun to stay in, although while some complained it was cold, I was more concerned about the concrete-like floor we slept on.

• Celebration feast complete with full goat.

Shenyang

• The Vegas-like city

• Multiple lectures and a night with English major Chinese students – post on this one for sure, too

• Free time and meals on our own – hence the previous post

• Totally rockin’ the street market

Food Tally:

• Goat – not horrible, not great

• Lamb – pretty good

Celebrity photos:

• Posed: in the 30’s

• Paparazzi photos: near 60