Thursday, December 9 - Man vs. Food - Sea Urchin Edition

For lunch, two of my team members, Carol and Becky, walked me over to a buffet style international restaurant. It is located about half-way between the office and the hotel, but about 5 blocks to the north (You can see the red building just to the north of the 3 tall condos in the center HERE). It was another comfortable day outside, I would guess about 45 degrees, so we walked. We took some of the back streets and traversed the confused path w/ each new block having a wide variety of places to walk - seldom of which on a sidewalk. Most of all spaces in front of each building are now packed with cars. In fact, I think I see more cars in Dalian every single day. To fight this, there is a massive subway construction project going on in the city. I have probably counted 25 metro stations under construction simultaneously. They tell me it is set to open in two years.

After a 10-15 minute walk, we reached our destination, a 5 story tall, 1 block long, shopping center, colored deep red (again, HERE). Inside, we proceeded to a restaurant which seemed fairly new, with colorful Christmas lights strung up everywhere. They ordered a couple of main dishes, and then we proceeded to the buffet. There, I found some typical western salads, dressings, and even a couple of different potato salads. Adjacent to the salad section, was a noticeably Korean section, with some small crab legs, Korean cabbage (Kimchi), and some small ceviche (just cooked in citrus) prawns which I just had to try. Back at our table the main dishes arrived: little steak kabobs, grilled shrimp, chicken livers, some beef strips, and some mushrooms. All were very good, however, I did have a bit of an incident eating some of the sashimi - the wasabi sauce was the strongest thing I have ever eaten. Fairly hot, but more damaging was the chemical reaction my body had. It shot through my sinus, then filled my brain and chest and I thought I may explode. So quick lesson learned for me, careful of wasabi. Apparently my reaction was easily noticed as my hosts commented on my very bright red face. When I was able to catch my breath, I explained what happened, and they had a good laugh. As far as the ceviche prawns went, they tasted just like the live shrimp from my last visit, however, they were small and eaten whole. Unfortunately, the shell was as hard as a shrimps, and was a bit pokey - especially it's head. I should mention that further down on the buffet line were plenty of desserts, fruits, and a western section, with small pizza slices, french fries, etc. And no, I didn't try any of that - as you know I am very conservative on my dining, so I didn't risk it. :) Near the end of the meal, they got around to discussing their favorite television shows and we hit a common one to both of us - "The Big Bang Theory". We joked for awhile on our favorite parts of the show, which they also enjoy in English, however, some of the talk is a bit fast for them. Small world.

After work, Winson, Carol, and I proceeded to take a taxi over to a very nice Japanese restaurant (which I had never been to before). The taxi driver noted to Winson that he knows I am American and said "Please" to me to show off his English. Winson then told me to drop a little of my Chinese on him, which I did. He was very impressed and laughed heartily. We joked back and forth for the 10 minute ride to the restaurant. I even told him to not to try and take the long way there, as I know my way around Dalian very well. At the stop, Winson paid the standard taxi fee of 8RMB (About $1.25). I really appreciated his fun interaction and gave him an extra tip of 10 RMB. His face really lit up and then he said, in near perfect English, "I will see you tomorrow!". We both had a great laugh. Walking in to the hotel Winson said that I really made the driver's day and he would surely tell all of his friends of the experience. Kind of neat.
In the restaurant, we were lead to a semi-private dining room. It had one large table in the middle that was divided with a large bamboo shade curtain as 6 other diners were already eating on the other side. Winson ordered our meal - it was an all-you-can eat type of affair with a fixed cost ($35 US) for each person. That is very expensive for China, but we decided it would be our project completion celebration. He first asked if I wanted to try the large fish, served alive, but sliced up. I have to admit that I did have to draw the line at that one. We then settled on a multitude of sushimi items, and some other foods as well. We each had a large and delicate lamb? liver which was amazingly soft and tasty - no hint of the minearly taste of liver from back home. We also enjoyed grilled shrimp, and a small wooden plate of orange blobs. At first I thought it may be roe, but it turned out to be a favorite of mine - sea urchin. Each small wooden box, held about 10 of them, and I would say we had 4 or 5 servings throughout the meal. For the sushimi, they were fairly standard: tuna, salmon, octopus, and some mystery ones that didn't have a good translation. Also for this meal, we shared a full bottle of Japanese wine - a fruity version of a white wine.


After the meal, we went back to the office to finish up some work, and then I headed home by 9:45pm for the night.


Final note: This will probably be my last post for a few days, as I can only access this from the office. After today (Friday), I have a free day Saturday, then I will travel via a 8 hour flight, to Singapore on Sunday. On Monday morning, I plan on being in the Singapore office. Since my flight into Singapore doesn't arrive until late Sunday, I probably won't get to my hotel until 1:30am on Monday, so I assume I will not get a chance to post again until Monday night (which is your Monday morning). Take care all. I will be back home on the evening of Thursday, December 16.