Tuesday, December 7 - To the Bars and the Gutter!

At lunch, Grace and a few members of the team took me out to lunch. Guess where we went - To the Sunshine Hotel restaurant (1 block east of SenMao building). Ok, I am now going to remember to ask to go somewhere else. Anyway, we did try some new dishes there - In addition to my fried mushroom plate, we (i.e. they) ordered large pigs feet, an absolutely fantastic eggplant dish, vegetables, tofu soup, and some "steak rice" shaped and colored exactly like small (1.5" diameter) pumpkins. I don't have to tell you that I have a strong stomach for trying things, but I am really beginning to want to avoid pigs feet, and pig knuckles - I think I was approaching a gag eating the large slimey cartilidge bites of that pigs foot. On the more tame side, I also tried a dish that I thought was jellyfish, but actually turned out to be the webbings from ducks feet. They had the consistency of cartilidge, were clear, and a crunch you would expect.

After work, Winson, and some other friends, took me to a Hong Kong style restaurant a couple of blocks to the north of work. I had actually never been there before and only had Hong Kong style a few times in my past trips. The restaurant was nearly empty, and we proceeded upstairs to our small private dining area. The menu was very colorful, and I chose a couple of the dishes myself: A Fried fish (tasted exactly like a baked whitefish back home), some lightly fried spicy shhrimp, and the restaurants speacilty dish - bullfrog! The frog was served in pieces in a bowl mixed with many different vegetables. The meat pieces resembed small pieces of pork that you would see if you ordered Chinese take out back home. The taste was nothing special, except it had a multitude of small bones to contend with. Some of the other dishes were fried chicken bits w/ vegetables, and a desert type cup of somethign resembling pudding that the Dalian folks didn't like.

After dinner, we headed over to the underground shopping area to the north of my hotel that I have been to many times. This time, however, we headed to the back area and down a couple of levels to a bowling alley. The facility had 28 lanes and I believe the cost was around $1.25 per person, per game. Having been to about 1 bowling alley in the last 15 years, I can say it is probably just like one back home, except for 2 big differences, they had no bowling shoes even close to my size, and the bowling balls had very small finger holes! For me, this was all a good thing as I had plenty of built-in excuses for not bowling well. In fact, I have been regularily beaten at Wii bowling by my children since the kids were 4). So, for shoes, they simply gave me a pair of socks to wear and I did my best. The results were about what you would expect: I put up a solid 98 the first game (after predicting a score of 100), but turned things around in game two with possibly my highest score ever - a 144 - complete with 2 strikes. So, from now on, if I ever would be teased regarding my poor bowling (do people even get teased for that anymore?), I can ask how many strikes they have had in China - cause I think I have the most of anyone that I know. After 3 games, we had had enough, and decided to head over to a bar for a couple of drinks.

We walked about 8 blocks to the east, past the table tennis store that I visited over the weekend, through the financial district, and over to another wealthy part of town where a pub-style bar, adorned with "Coors Light" signage, awaited us. Inside the smokey bar, Winson ordered the 2 of us 8 beers, some watermellon, popcorn, and peanuts (at a cost of 200RMB - quite expensive - about $30 US). The funny thing is, they brought all eight beers out at once and opened 4 of them. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except that they were not in ice. By 9:15 the live music started. The band consisted of 2 keyboard players, and 2 guitar players, and a rotating group of singers - I think around 4 of them. They played a mix of American and Chinese songs that were quite enjoyable to listen to. I did notice at least 4 other westerners in the bar, but it was largely occupied with wealthier Chinese. Even at a bar, I could easily notice just how many workers are at a given business in China. I think the ratio of bartenders to people was about 1:3. Our table seemed to have 1 full-time person assigned to us and he would have help occasionally opening bottles, and clearing off the table debris. The time flew by, and before I knew it, it was after midnight (10:00am Central US time), and the music was done for the night. Winson dropped my off via taxi at the hotel and I showered off the stink, and went to bed.