As I walked through the courtyard of my apartment complex, I could hear the plucking of some sort of Chinese zither wafting down from the windows of a 5th floor apartment near mine. Finally a breeze finds my oily face, rescuing me from the discomfort of a day full of teaching PE and battling the Dongbei humidity that seems to be filling the sky right now. My mind's empty of all the stress and anxiety from my teaching day after filling myself with spicy hotpot and assaulting the restaurant air with conversation with friends. It's Wednesday night and I was invited the past few weeks to participate in the Wednesday night "dinner club", which isn't so much a club as 6 or 7 people getting together at different restaurants all over town to celebrate hump day in the best fashion possible: around food. If you know me at all, you know this adds up to near perfection for me. I'm so happy with food in my gut.
For those of you who have never had Chinese hotpot, it's a really popular style of eating that is similar to the idea of fondu: you have a boiling pot of spiced and flavoured water in front of you, order a whole assortment of thinly sliced/shaved raw meats and tofus and vegetables, and cook them communally to share amongst the hotpot goers around the table. Added to this is generally a self-made sauce usually consisting of sesame or peanut sauce garnished with an assortment of chili pastes, fish sauces, oils and fresh things like cilantro, garlic, ginger and baby chilis which the diners mix together to make, well, one of the most delicious things in China. Sooo good. I ate this often with my friends last year, the girls from the ESL office who kept me sane while trying to inhabit this terribly foreign country.
For those of you who have never had Chinese hotpot, it's a really popular style of eating that is similar to the idea of fondu: you have a boiling pot of spiced and flavoured water in front of you, order a whole assortment of thinly sliced/shaved raw meats and tofus and vegetables, and cook them communally to share amongst the hotpot goers around the table. Added to this is generally a self-made sauce usually consisting of sesame or peanut sauce garnished with an assortment of chili pastes, fish sauces, oils and fresh things like cilantro, garlic, ginger and baby chilis which the diners mix together to make, well, one of the most delicious things in China. Sooo good. I ate this often with my friends last year, the girls from the ESL office who kept me sane while trying to inhabit this terribly foreign country.
Nights like these make life worth living. My favourite way to spend social time is around food and drink. I haven't found a better way to share burdens and get to know people. And it seems like every culture around the world has their own version of this communal dining and eating, often with families. Here in China, it's the same... people don't go to hotpot on their own. They go with friends and families and for celebrations. And what better thing to celebrate than to surviving spending a whole day with hundreds of teenagers?
It's also nice to have these more quiet, contented nights, especially after having the crazy fun of this past Saturday night's "Newbie Bash". You'll have to message me personally if you want the rundown on the crazy stories that may have involved some swimming in the Yellow Sea, some bad karaoke, and a lot of amazingly "Chinafied" outfits put together by the ladies of our teaching staff. I'll just say that crimped hair made more than one appearance... that should give ya'll a hint!
My night is already winding down at 8pm... my 5:20am alarm comes quite quickly in the morning, so I'm trying to discipline myself into hitting the hay early after a bit of reading. I still have some preparation to do for tomorrow, but I'll manage. Until another night, mes amis. From six stories above the Yellow Sea...
T
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