Food

I am officially sick of Chinese food!
I dont think it is fair to say 'Chinese food' as a whole though, since there is so much variety all over China. For example, Northern Chinese (like in Beijing) food is apparently sweeter and saucier; Southern Chinese food such as Sechuan is very hot; and then we have the middle where I am, which is apparently very oily.... yes, it is. So instead of saying I am sick of Chinese food, I should really just say I am sick of  the food at my school. We get 3 free meals a day at the cafeteria. I eat, on average, 2 meals a day here. The issue is, it is the same thing practically every day; variation coming only from the fruit you are given (banana, apple, orange, and on a lucky day, melon) and the meat that winds up on your plate (with the likeness of chicken feet and heads...well obviously you just suck all the meat off and spit it out the beak onto your plate... pork, or really bony fish with the fins and head still on cause of course that is the best part!) of which I rarely try to eat.

Here is an example: breakfast on Thursday was actually not too bad. It is the only meal that I still don't mind too much and that is mainly because of this delicious warm powdered milk (I'm not kidding), and the egg crepe things at the bottom. My challenge in the mornings is almost all the breakfast food has pork in it in some capacity and I am allergic. And the stuff that does not have pork is almost like cake which is not good for my beer belly.... I need to save the excess carbs for beer drinking only or I will be in trouble!
So breakfast is served at 7am. Then lunch is served at 12pm, and dinner at 5pm. Over 5000 people shuffle through the three floors of the cafeteria in about 30 minutes, three times a day. It really is quite an impressive operation. I am always thinking of the supply chain management that must go into it, but than I catch myself because I am supposed to be a science geek here, not a business geek! I leave the business geekiness to my Sundays which have now been designated 'Thesis Sundays'.

Mmmm lunch. What? cabbage again? Delicious! And deep fried mystery meat? My favorite!
If you want, you can get a big pile of white rice on top of this culinary masterpiece, but I like to stick to my oily veggies.

This dinner on Thursday was particularly sad. Good thing I was making a potato and eggplant curry later and all I really wanted was a quick banana and bowl of soup before heading to play basketball for a few hours.


While I am talking about the food here, I might as well touch on the table manners in China. Well, I was sitting beside a friend of mine one day this week for dinner (he teaches grade 6 math and us math geeks like to stick together) and we were chatting here and there while we ate and he just so happened to be eating a fish head. I thought it would have been a great video to truly explain just how Chinese people eat. I was really trying to focus on not gagging throughout the majority of our meal together, which is really too bad because I really like the guy and would like to share more meals with him, but....

Chinese people basically shovel as much food as they can into their mouths, and keep talking to the point of spitting their food all over themselves and those around them but somehow they don't notice the food on their friend's cheek. Anything they don't particularly like in that huge bite, they spit out onto the counter in any stage of being chewed.... right between them and the person beside them...and this generally includes but is not limited to bones, peelings, brains, beaks, and toe nails... I swear I am not exaggerating.

Needless to say, on a Friday afternoon after a long week, the last thing the other teachers and I want to do is have yet another meal in the caf. This particular Friday night, the four 'youngins' got together and we went out for (only because I yelled the loudest when we were trying to decide what to have) SUSHI! Jason and I started off the night the way any good Canadians would and bought some big beers and sat out on the curb for a few hours as the sun went down, drinking.


Gina and Linsey met up with us at our beer drinking spot (the bus stop) and we went for all you can eat sushi and all you can drink sake for 120rmb.... Yes, this might have been the highlight of my life. As you can see from the following pictures, I was being a very well behaved, gracious guest. And certainly drinking my 120RMB's worth or deliciously warm Sake. I won't fail to mention from the get go I started yelling out random Japanese words that I know (SUMIMASEN!) to the surprise and delight of the Japanese girls working there. Sake ga suki desu! Can't take me anywhere...