the Hot Pot

Right now it is 7:30 in the AM. I normally wouldn't be up this early but I have been experiencing a bit of rumbling in my bowels, which I had to address a little while ago. Last night a bunch of us, me, Mom, Emily and about 14 of her friends, went out to dinner for the infamous "Hot Pot". I didn't know what to expect, just that it was good and also somewhat spicy. Now, I can handle spice, so I wasn't too concerned about that, but I kept getting hints that this could possibly destroy my stomach, so I was still a bit weary going into it.

However, I have been gung ho about pretty much everything we've eaten or that's been offered me (I've already eaten sheep brains, fermented eggs, cooked flowers, chicken parts, among other things) so I was ready to eat whatever was before me. Hot Pot is somewhat like a fondue restaurant. There were large bowls sitting in the middle of our table that were hooked up to a heater. The bowls were divided into two kinds of oil...the spicy and non-spicy. In the non-spicy were some vegetables and a raw fish soaking to create flavor and in the spicy were these red hot looking pepper things...it looked like some sort of death brew, dark red and full of ominous looking things.

People started passing around this yogurt drink and I was encouraged to take a swig. Apparently it helps line your stomach to keep the intense oil from the hot pot messing you up too bad. So it isn't necessarily the spice that gets you, it's just the richness of the oil...though the spice helps the process I'm sure.

Once the oils got hot we started putting all sorts of meats and veggies in to cook them. Beef, black chicken, little sausages and meatballs, potatoes, tofu, seaweed, sprouts, and a bunch of other things I didn't know the name of. Emily told me that I needed to eat from the spicy pot, so I did. And it was really good. Sometimes I would get a veggie that had really soaked up a lot of spice and it would be rough to the taste buds, but other than that I really loved the spicy stuff and ate from it most of the meal. Once things started rising to the top of the oil it meant that they were ready to eat. So you just reach in with your chopsticks, grab whatever it is you want, and put it in your little bowl of oil, then after letting it cool off you partake. (And, by the way, eating in China is great because everything that would be considered rude in the U.S. is perfectly normal in China...like making noise while eating, putting elbows on the table, slouching to put your mouth close to the bowl, picking off peoples plates, and reaching around others. It's so awesome!)

The Hot Pot really was delicious. I even added cow stomach and pig throat to my list. The pig throat was certainly the weirdest thing I've eaten thus far...like eating a rubber band, took me forever to get it down.

It was a good night. Met some really awesome people. I'm envious of my sister's crowd of friends...I would love being a part of that group. I finished the evening playing Ticket to Ride (if you've never played before you've got to try it!) and I won again...I won on Saturday night as well so my international record is 2-0.

But then I woke up this morning at 6 feeling that the bowels were in distress. And I ended up pooping out a completely green poop...never seen that before in my life. So I blame the Hot Pot for that, though it was pretty cool.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the city center and a Buddhist temple called Manjushri at the Wenshu Monastery. It has been so cool to see such a BIG city filled with so many temples and cultural sections. Another interesting observation is that Chinese people hate the heat...actually they really just hate the sun. They want their skin to be as light as possibly so they use umbrellas, stand in the shade, wear gloves or weird hats...they really hate the sun.

A couple of other cool things that we got to do yesterday were, 1) ride the subway and 2) ride in a three wheeled cart. The subway system is brand new and is certainly the nicest one that I have seen or been in. Awesome new technology that is brilliant for a subway line. The three wheeled cart thing is this motorcycle that has a little cart attached to the back like a mini-taxi. It was a pretty fun ride, especially with all three of us piled in the back.

I was actually able to download a video of yesterday! Found some faster internet. Check it out.

Monday we went to see the Panda's...and it was pretty awesome. Our driver, Yang Bing, was a phenomenal tour guide and he took us to a spot away from the tourists where there were 6 pandas all frolicking around. The Pandas really were fun to observe. The Chinese love panda bears. It is their national animal. They pamper these things like crazy. It was a pretty cool place...basically a zoo of Pandas, Red Pandas, peacocks, swans, other birds and Coy catfish. The lake where the catfish were was crazy...there were so many of them wriggling all over the place trying to get in line for food from tourists throwing in little pellets. All those pandas got us in the mood for Kung Fu Panda 2, so we decided to go to the theater that night to watch it since it was still being played in English.

Here's another gem of a video:


We ate dishes that night, again phenomenal. Egg and tomato dish, fried eggplant dish, and cabbage and pork dish and then walked around a nice little park where I bought a couple of DVDs for 75 cents a piece. We then went to see Kung Fu Panda and it was hilarious...made it even more special to watch a movie set in China while sitting in a movie theater in China!

Well, that's all for now.

-b garrison