We made friends last semester with a very outgoing man, a science teacher at our school. I believe it was Jason who met him, actually, on the way home from school one evening on the bus after English corner. He is a dynamic, extroverted guy, and loves to laugh. His family name is Liu, one of the more common Chinese names, and he happens to be from the nearby community where we do most of our shopping, liu xia, so we dubbed him "liu xia liu". We had always been meaning to get together with him for dinner one evening, and a couple of weeks ago, he asked us to meet him for dinner at one of the better restaurants that liu xia has to offer. At that time, it was still in the waning days of the Chinese new year festival, so the place was packed, with folks getting one more banquet dinner in with friends or family members before the holiday came to a close. By the time we showed up at the place, Phoebe was already pretty tired, because we had been to mcdonalds for coffee that afternoon, where we had incidentally had a very interesting experience: we met a large, sweet, Iraqi family who also had a one year old little daughter, and had a whole conversation with them all in Chinese while the children played together! Anyway, though, we showed up at supper time to eat with mr. Liu. He introduced us to his wife, and another family, and he seated Cecely by the other family's college aged daughter,who was able to speak a little English. She was interested in making friends and chatting in either language, which was nice. Her English name was Joan, and they exchanged numbers, so she is someone we might be able to keep in touch with. So the evening was off to a lovely start, and the food started to arrive. If you have been a foreigner in china, you already know that the banquet dinner can be sort of a juggling act. This bowl is for this, this plate is for that, don't drop your chopsticks, and if the fish is staring at you, look around, he probably isn't the only one!!!!!! But over the past year, Chinese banquets have been ratcheted up a few notches on the excitement scale: throw in a squealing, sometimes screaming, kicking, and grabbing baby, and watch the fun really begin! Phoebe wanted to touch everything, the plates, the glasses, the soup, the fish. She was so tired, but didn't know it, and just super amped up. Meanwhile dishes continue to arrive. More soup, another fish. Some cabbage, some cauliflower, some tofu, all delicious, by the way....whatever we could kind of throw into our mouths while keeping an eye and a hand on Phoebe. Then, I noticed that there was a bowl on the other side of the table that liu xia liu and the other couple kept eating from, and they offered some to the daughter, Joan, and she just looked a little nauseated and said no. She said she was too scared to eat it. I said,"what is that?" She answered,"live shrimp!" Actually, I have heard of this dish before, the shrimp are indeed live, but drunk, thus the name, Drunken Shrimp. The shrimp are soaked in Chinese liquor, and they ingest some of the liquor, so they become drunk, sort of instantly pickled. They are served this way, no cooking necessary. This was my first time to actually see the dish in person. When they offered me some, I agreed with Joan that I was way too scared to eat it. Liu xia liu replied, "don't worry, the shrimp are way more scared of you than you are of them!" So that gives you a great idea of this guy's personality. the evening started winding down, but not until after posing for a few zany photos. Perhaps you can tell, by this point Phoebe was like, "where am I?" it was big fun.
We made friends last semester with a very outgoing man, a science teacher at our school. I believe it was Jason who met him, actually, on the way home from school one evening on the bus after English corner. He is a dynamic, extroverted guy, and loves to laugh. His family name is Liu, one of the more common Chinese names, and he happens to be from the nearby community where we do most of our shopping, liu xia, so we dubbed him "liu xia liu". We had always been meaning to get together with him for dinner one evening, and a couple of weeks ago, he asked us to meet him for dinner at one of the better restaurants that liu xia has to offer. At that time, it was still in the waning days of the Chinese new year festival, so the place was packed, with folks getting one more banquet dinner in with friends or family members before the holiday came to a close. By the time we showed up at the place, Phoebe was already pretty tired, because we had been to mcdonalds for coffee that afternoon, where we had incidentally had a very interesting experience: we met a large, sweet, Iraqi family who also had a one year old little daughter, and had a whole conversation with them all in Chinese while the children played together! Anyway, though, we showed up at supper time to eat with mr. Liu. He introduced us to his wife, and another family, and he seated Cecely by the other family's college aged daughter,who was able to speak a little English. She was interested in making friends and chatting in either language, which was nice. Her English name was Joan, and they exchanged numbers, so she is someone we might be able to keep in touch with. So the evening was off to a lovely start, and the food started to arrive. If you have been a foreigner in china, you already know that the banquet dinner can be sort of a juggling act. This bowl is for this, this plate is for that, don't drop your chopsticks, and if the fish is staring at you, look around, he probably isn't the only one!!!!!! But over the past year, Chinese banquets have been ratcheted up a few notches on the excitement scale: throw in a squealing, sometimes screaming, kicking, and grabbing baby, and watch the fun really begin! Phoebe wanted to touch everything, the plates, the glasses, the soup, the fish. She was so tired, but didn't know it, and just super amped up. Meanwhile dishes continue to arrive. More soup, another fish. Some cabbage, some cauliflower, some tofu, all delicious, by the way....whatever we could kind of throw into our mouths while keeping an eye and a hand on Phoebe. Then, I noticed that there was a bowl on the other side of the table that liu xia liu and the other couple kept eating from, and they offered some to the daughter, Joan, and she just looked a little nauseated and said no. She said she was too scared to eat it. I said,"what is that?" She answered,"live shrimp!" Actually, I have heard of this dish before, the shrimp are indeed live, but drunk, thus the name, Drunken Shrimp. The shrimp are soaked in Chinese liquor, and they ingest some of the liquor, so they become drunk, sort of instantly pickled. They are served this way, no cooking necessary. This was my first time to actually see the dish in person. When they offered me some, I agreed with Joan that I was way too scared to eat it. Liu xia liu replied, "don't worry, the shrimp are way more scared of you than you are of them!" So that gives you a great idea of this guy's personality. the evening started winding down, but not until after posing for a few zany photos. Perhaps you can tell, by this point Phoebe was like, "where am I?" it was big fun. 
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Thanks for the pictures of the dinner, I can only imagine what it was like with Phoebe being tired and a LONG banquet! You were great to participate much less finish strong! Keep up the good work!
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