June 24, 2006
On our cross-country/family trip in May we stopped in Las Vegas to see David's family, where we also saw my cousins Betsy and Kjersten and Kjersten's husband Cole. Betsy and Kjersten are sisters, but due to extremely different work schedules, they don't get to see each other, so we got each of them to ourselves for awhile. We went to the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant, with Kjersten and Cole. We were all a little unsure of how the whole experience was supposed to go, since none of us had 'done' fondue at this particular restaurant before. David and I had had a fondue night at a friend's years ago, but the restaurant experience was completely different, especially since we all had to agree on some things like the same cheese mixture for the appetizer and a dipping style/broth for the main course. But we figured it out in the end and had a really nice time to boot.
Yesterday for lunch in Changchun, not only were we unsure of what we were doing, we didn't even know what we were ordering. We had found a variation on the food court idea in a dingy open-air style mall the night before where we'd had fabulous dumplings. There were about 25 different stalls so we wandered back for lunch and ended up sitting at a serpentine lunch counter with a hole in front of each seat about 8 inches wide. The waitress and we didn't speak a mutually intelligible language, so to get the ordering ball rolling I pointed to a plate of something sitting in front of another patron that looked like dumplings (I'm a sucker for them). The waitress then tried to convince David he had to order something that cost 12 yuan ($1.50), which he was reluctant to do, since we had no idea what it was, but agreed in the end. We were then 'encouraged' to order some greens, which we also did. After completing the ordering process to the satisfaction of the waitress, we each had a pot set in the hole in front of us into which boiling broth was poured. It turned out that all of the food we'd ordered was to be 'cooked' in the pot, removed with a strainer and then set on a little plate after which we poured sauce on it. As complete novices we received help in the appropriate sauce mixing not only from the waitress (me), but from another patron (David). The sauce, which we had thought was a thick yellow mustard, was actually similar to a Thai peanut sauce after all of the accoutrements were added and tasted quite good. The 12 yuan dish, as it turns out, was thinly sliced beef, the 'dumplings' were actually fish balls (blech) and the greens we got were cabbage, cilantro and something that could be a lettuce, but we're not sure. All in all it was a fun lunch.
We were in Changchun because we left Shenyang on Thursday and took a 'luxury' bus similar to a Greyhound, but nicer, on our journey north. Changchun is the former capital of the 'puppet' Manchurian empire under the Japanese occupation. The last Qing emperor, Puyi, who was forced from power after the Chinese revolution in 1911, was brought back by the Japanese and ruled the northeastern part of China until the end of WWII. The palace is now open to tourists and the translation of the signs into English is hilarious. Chinglish, in general, is really funny, but as propaganda against both the Japanese and the colluding Chinese officials, with the exception of 'poor Puyi,' it's somehow especially amusing.
-Leah
