Welcome dinner

Last night, the College of Engineering threw a welcome dinner for Scottie, Nicole & me. The vice dean, co-teachers, and the incredibly friendly Yiming--our administrative assistant (more about her later)--took us to the Taoli restaurant, we we had several courses of Chinese food, including a few Shanghai specialties. We tried everything, and likes most of it.

The Shanghai specialties were:
(1) Cold pumpkin with pickled figs (Pumpkin was good, figs were...ummm...pickled)
(2) Rice balls (the texture and shape of soggy gumballs) in a slightly sweet sauce (Hyrum liked it, Scottie was suspicious)
(3) Marinated pork (Hyrum ate the lard and all, Nicole and Scott were more civilized)

The dinner highlights included:
(1) Ying-yang soup...in the Taoist tradition (yummy)
(2) Jellyfish salad with peanuts (Hyrum liked it, Nicole was indifferent)
(3) Tofu sprinkled with fermented duck eggs and coriander (sounds yucky, but pretty good)
(4) Lotus roots (bulbs) stuffed with sticky rice (yummy)
(5) A whole mandarin fish (head included) with relish in sweet-n-sour sauce (delicious!)
(6) Sauteed Chinese mushrooms & peppers (Nicole's favorite)
(7) Chinese "cakes" that you stuff with veggies before devouring

...and others: cucumbers & vinegar, shrimp & vinegar, and a boiling pot o' tofu...still on fire at the table. We topped it off with drinks of herbal tea, pecan juice, and coconut milk....which Scottie devoured...and dessert: fried sesame cakes and watermelon. Yum! Truly a feast.

Here are a few pics of the meal. We'll show pics of our gracious hosts in a coming post.




Blurb: (L to R, top to bottom): (a) the feast the Chinese-style lazy Susan turntable (why don't we have these?), (b) notice the ying-yang shape in the soup, (c) jellyfish salad, (d) bean curd with duck egg, (e) lotus roots, (f) the fish smiling at the camera next to a plate of shrimp, (g) Scottie opted for a pineapple Popsicle.