Day 101 – China BBQ and China Hot Pot

Day 101 – China BBQ and China Hot Pot

Gilbert picked us up for our elementary age class.  We had two of our regular children and one very shy four year old whose parents wanted to check out the class.  Things went well until Susan and Steven had a falling out of some sort and then they didn’t want to cooperate in class anymore.  Oh well, it was time to go home anyway.  Then Gilbert taught us some more Chinese phrases.  Now to try and remember them….

For lunch, Gilbert and Zinia took us to a Chinese Barbeque restaurant.  This place seemed out of the way, but it was filled with people downstairs, so we went to the upstairs.  It was totally empty except for us and then Gilbert goes out a side door and when he comes back in, he talks to the waiter and then takes us out to check out some yurts that are set up on the rooftop for eating in.  That is where we had lunch.  The meat is cut into small strips and then placed on skewers where they braise the meat over an open fire and brush it with sauces as it cooks.  It didn’t seem to be the cleanest of places, but the food was good.

The inside of the yurt where we ate lunch.

Our side of the yurt on the rooftop.  At least it was quiet.

Chinese BBQ.  I didn't think to take this picture when we still had most of the meat on the table.  They also do bread on the skewers and brush it with seasoning as it toasts.

Then we shopped at a store that we have found may be closer to us than RT Mart, so we wanted to check it out.  Gilbert waited in the car while Zinia came in to help us find our way around at Carrefour and get what we needed as quickly as we could.  The prices seemed okay and we were able to get the things we were looking for.  We’ll have to take the bus there sometime and see if it works better for us than RT Mart. 

This man had taken his birds out for some air today,  Some people who have birds as pets, take them on walks and out to enjoy the sunshine.

When we came home, I wasn’t feeling so well.  I think it was the spiciness of the BBQ that was not settling on my stomach, so I stayed home and David went over to the Comprehensive Teaching Building to watch a “New Teacher Competition” that Eva had told us about last night.  They have the new teachers in the English Department present a 20 minute lesson and they are judged on not only their teaching skill, but also on their ability to speak English.  He said it was interesting.  When the competition was done, David and I were invited to go with Tom, Jane and Eva to a “hot pot” restaurant for dinner. 

On our way to the restaurant, we were just going past the hotel and I noticed two girls that seemed to be “pushing” each other to do something.  We kept walking past and just as we were about 100 feet away, we heard one of the calling and running after us.  “Excuse me!  May I have a moment of your time!”  We stopped and then she started to speak in Chinese to us.  After we told her we couldn’t speak Chinese, she started in English.  She wanted to know if she could take our picture and interview us for her English class assignment.  We said yes and so her friend grabbed her cell phone and started filming us.  She asked questions about a movie called, “Dad, Where are We Going?”  It is a TV program that follows five fathers taking their child to go see something special.  It is produced out of Korea and seems to be encouraging fathers to be a part of their child’s life. The girl interviewed David for about five minutes and then when she seemed to have her questions answered, thanked us and left.  Then we hurried on to meet Eva and the others.

The spread of meat and veggies at the "hot pot."  Our broth was boiling, so it was time to put the meats and veggies in to start boiling.

A “hot pot” restaurant has a burner either for each person, or for the table and you order meats, vegetables, tofu or seafood and boil the food in boiling broth.  The broth can be either tame or spicy.  We both chose tame.  I had a chicken mushroom broth and David had a beef broth.  We had a variety of vegetables: potatoes, yams, turnips, cabbage, spinach, lettuce.  The meat is sliced very thin, almost paper thin.  It rolls up into little cylinders.  We also had tofu chunks, rice noodles, mushrooms and something that looked like spaghetti tied in knots, but was really some kind of bean product.  There was also a seafood paste that a restaurant employee would come to the table and spoon it into balls that you could boil also.  It is kind of a fun and healthy way to eat a meal.  You also have a small bowl of sauces and spices that you can dip your cooked food into.  You get to choose what you put into the small bowl also. 

Ready to eat with Tom, Eva and Jane.

Food boiling in my hot pot.

We had a great time visiting with Tom, Jane and Eva and talked about our experiences here and what it was like when we first got here.  Because of Eva’s experiences when she first arrived in the US, she wanted us to have a better experience here and we told what a difference her attentions to us in those first few days made in our experience here.  The department is going to look into some of the things that we talked about and try to see if they can’t set up some system for all the new teachers that come here to have that kind of support when they first arrive.  I think it is an excellent idea.