Food

I mentioned some things in my last post about the food here but let me
share some more details. So far we have gone to some fun places. Last
Sat. night we went to an Indian food place complete with belly dancer.
The food was good and they had a red sauce there that was even too hot
for James (He may say it wasn't too hot, only that after one small
taste his mouth was burning and his brow sweating.) Anyway, that was
probably the priciest place we have been to. It was like eating out in
the US. There is supposed to be another Indian place in town that is
not so expensive.
Our favorite place for lunch is the jiao ci (dumpling) place. Talk
about a lot of good food for cheap. For 5 kuai (about 8 kuai= $1 US)
you can get 8 dumplings filled with pork or beef and assorted veggies.
They have like 20 different kinds but so far my language skills have
only helped me order the same 2 kinds everytime.
Another cool place we have gone to is what they call "hot pots". It is
like Chinese fondue without the desert part. You sit around a round
table with a burner in the middle. Then you order the type of broth
you want- mild, medium, hot- they even have a pot that is split down
the middle so you can get two different ones. Then they bring you a
large stainless steel bowl filled with broth and all sorts of spices-
garlic, chillies--not sure about the rest. You order what you want to
go with it- meat (beef or lamb), mushrooms, potatoes, noodles, greens,
of various kinds. You wait for the broth to boil and then you put
things into it to cook. As it cooks you spoon some onto your plate or
just eat out of the pot. The hot side is VERY hot....and the mushrooms
really absorb the flavor. That was really fun.
More later.
Michelle