Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 11:23 PM
Subject: Day 5 - 5/25/08
Pickled sea weed for breakfast, mmmmmm.
The breakfast buffet was interesting as usual. Larry had me try one of his favorite breakfast dishes, the above mentioned. I tried it, I didn’t gag, let’s just leave it at that.
I had a little bit of work to do this morning, just some preparation for tomorrow’s presentations. Afterwards, Larry took me to a local restaurant for lunch, which here in Guangdong Province (known in the west as Canton) is called “tea”. In typical Chinese style, you select multiple dishes from a card which contains literally hundreds of choices. Everything was in Chinese and there were no pictures so I was completely at Larry’s mercy. He was kind to me. We has two different kinds of brothy soup, Sweet tofu – also in a broth, fried tofu with mushrooms, steamed shrimp dumplings – excellent, fried eggs, sticky rice balls filled with pork and vegetables and steamed inside a large leaf – really good, onion rings – the only deep fried thing I have seen here, and pickled vegetables, and tea served in stemmed water glasses with the tea leaves in the glass – you have to kind if sift with your teeth as you drink. The leaves were large so this wasn’t too difficult. The last course was like a dessert, and I can only describe this by telling you what it reminded me of when I bit into it. You know those little floatation key chains you use for your boat keys – kind of foam rubber on the inside and a vinyl coating on the outside – it was kind of like that; bread-like, compresses easily when you bite into it, but your teeth have a hard time cutting through. Anyway, you dip the key chain into sweetened condensed milk and try to gnaw your way through. Not much flavor and a lot of work.
After lunch we needed a walk so we took a taxi ride a few miles to a shopping mall. I cannot get used to the taxi drivers here. I just keep my eyes focused on something other than the road ahead. I bought some more of my favorite tea at the Wal-Mart tea shop – same one I went to on my first trip here and still my favorite. The girl preparing the tea has, according to Larry, the equivalent of a Doctorate in tea preparation. They really take tea seriously I guess. Anyway, she made great tea, we sampled a few different kinds and I would up buying one I already liked.
I cant get over how many young people there are here. Cities like Shenzhen draw young people from all over China looking for work in the factories and shops; their parents remain in the country mostly. Apart from being 6 inches taller than most everyone, a good bit heavier, and having a hair color other than black, I also stand out for being older than most everyone to boot. Whenever I get away from the neighborhoods where foreigners are common, I notice people watching me somewhat curiously.
Later on, Larry and I connected with our customers and went to dinner in a Sichuan style restaurant in the center of Shenzhen. Dinner was upstairs in a private room as usual – big circular table with a big lazy susan in the middle. Food is placed around the edge of the turntable and you spin it around to grab what you like. Sichuan food is very spicy, red chilies in nearly every dish. Yes, I had more chicken knees. I also had frog. I am not sure what part of the frog, but it was not the legs. Three different pork dishes, all good, all hot, fried rice, shrimp in the shell with the head on – too much work, soup with lotus root and pork, local beer called Kingway – not so good and kept getting served warmer as the meal went on. It was a good time
We took the bus back to the hotel. It was evening now, almost dark, and people were out along the streets everywhere. I have noticed this before here, in the evening it seems everyone goes outdoors. We passed a park where hundreds of people were doing what looked like calisthenics all in unison.
I had a bit of work to do when we got back to the hotel, and I had no energy to go out afterwards. Still adjusting to the time change I guess. Tomorrow is a working day with a large group dinner afterwards.
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