Christina and I have developed a saying: "Life in China is like a mooncake, you never know what you're going to get!" Last week was the Mid Autumn festival, where people give mooncakes to one another. Mooncakes are kind of like fruitcake in the States: everyone gives them; but does anyone really crave them or enjoy them? Christina and I tried ours together, and the ones we were given weren't terrible (although they could have been greatly improved with some cream cheese frosting on top). Hence the saying, life in China is like a mooncake--bite in and find out what it is!
Today we bit the mooncake, figuratively speaking. Our friend Sofia took us to a hot pot restaurant for lunch. We'd never had hotpot before and were too intimidated to try it out on our own. Hotpot, for those who don't know, is basically Chinese fondue--you get a pot of boiling flavored water, some raw ingredients (usually meat and vegetables) and drop them into the boiling water to cook, pulling them out to eat. So Sofia took us to this restaurant, which turned out to be on campus, right in an obscure corner of the building that also houses the on-campus grocery store (think grocery store in the truck-stop sense of a grocery store). As we got there, there were tons of flies and I was feeling apprehensive about eating the food without getting sick. Christina saw my apprehension and quickly reminded me to "bite the mooncake." So we told Sofia, "just order us something" as she asked what we would like. (By the way, I hate this question, since at Chinese restaurants I generally don't know what there IS, let alone if I LIKE it. Hate being illiterate, although I am working to overcome my illiteracy, at least in food). Well, the food turned out to be delicious, very fresh, and very safe as you pull it out of the boiling water yourself. The only problem was it was the most severe test of my chopstick skills yet! You have to pick up huge and slippery vegetables, noodles, you name it, in and out of the water and then in and out of the peanut sauce to eat. The peanut sauce was my favorite part, along with the delicious beef we had.
Who knows what my next figurative mooncake to bite will be? I surely enjoyed this experience today.
