Wo yao zhige...

Let's talk a bit about food. As a warning to you all, this might turn into a food blog. I really, really, really love food. Overwhelming impression thus far: delicious with a whole lota' meat, spice, oil, and a fair bit of vegetables but certainly not enough. 

What I, and every other foreigner, appreciate is that the Chinese tend to believe in depicting the food on the menu. This means you can point to the picture or, in some cases, you can just point straight to the food... Let me explain one of the first official meals I had in China. We all (teacher pose) went out to a fancier restaurant where you went into the menu room and pointed out the food that you want: the actual food. This applied in the case of meat. You can actually point out the live creatures. Vegetables were displayed in attractive bouquets or tidy piles. Let's take a look:

 Snails on the rocks?

Or, perhaps you would like some halibut?

Fresh vegetables?

Insects? Seafood? Whatever tickles your fancy...

Did I mention that the room was filled with mirrors ? Yes, you can inspect your food from all angles before consuming...

Once you have ordered all your food by pointing and saying "wo yao zhege" ("I want this"), you and your party get to occupy a nice little private room with a round table and a spinning center piece.

This meal was amazing. The green mush at 6 o'clock was some sort of mug bean concoction. 7 o'clock is spicy soba noodles that were the bearers of our first introduction to flower pepper. Flower pepper (aka Szechuan peppers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szechuan_pepper) are these peppercorn sized seeds that are firey like black pepper and cloves combined and they leave your mouth with extreme tingle. At first, I was shocked and didn't really like them. Over the past week they have really grown on me. They are, quite literally, a taste sensation. My theory is that they sensitize your mouth to all sorts of other flavours. And they make you gleek. What more could you want in a spice?

Okay folks, there will be more food talk to follow. It's both a promise and a fact.