Monday, January 25 – Things are winding down

It was very quiet in the cafe this morning for breakfast – maybe 5 other customers total. It was clear and cold again outside, maybe 10 deg. F with a brisk wind. For lunch Winson took us back by the hotel to an underground Hong Kong style restaurant that was connected to the Parkland mall – we just didn’t know that had an underground as well. We had BBQ pork (Asian style), shrimp dumplings, and a steak noodle dish. All were very good.

For dinner, we took a taxi with Winson over near Roosevelt Mall to a small local hot pot restaurant that we were told has extra tasty mushrooms. As we entered, around 6:45pm, I knew this dinner was going to be different – we actually had to wait 30 minutes for a table. This was the first time in any of my visits that I have ever waited in a restaurant in China. Once our table was ready, we proceeded into the seating area where Winson picked out our food for the hot pot. At our table, the waitress brought out a large steel pot filled with a dark soup. It sat on an electric heater that soon brought the broth to a boil. Next, the waitress would add in a couple of bowl s of mushrooms which cooked for about 5 minutes. She then scooped out the mushrooms and divided them between us. On our plate, we also had two small piles of sauces – one mild, one medium. They both went very well with the mushrooms. Course after course of mushrooms were brought out and cooked for us, with the best being the “monkey head”; hard to describe, but very delicious. At some point during the meal, the waitress brought us a glass jar filled with peaches as a thank you for waiting so long for our table – how about that. By 8:30pm, we were all full of mushroom and headed back to the hotel.