Farewell Dinner

It's hard to believe that our time in Shanghai has passed so quickly. Hyrum finished grading final exams on Friday, and as a precursor to our departure, the College of Engineering hosted a farewell dinner for us the Tuesday prior.
Pictured here are the dean, vice dean, some of our co-teachers, and our friend Yiming (standing far left) who has organized our trip and taken such good care of us.

And now for some shots of some more wild Chinese cuisine. Pictured are (1) drunken shrimp...raw shrimp swimming in some kind of sauce that we're pretty sure had alcohol in it (not something we ate), (2) crusted pork...most like Russian "sala"...the upper fatty layers of pig skin, (3) very delicious rice cones that you fill with sweet mandarin sauce, dragonfruit, and corn, and (4) the everything seafood bisque: clams, muscles, oysters, crabs, jellyfish, ... truly excellent, but jellyfish is hard to swallow, literally.

Zhujiajiao Canal Town

On Friday, Yiming took us to the canal town Zhujiajiao ("Ju-Jaw-Jow"). Beautiful! The city is over 1700 years old. It features this bridge-- which is a measly 500 years old--called the "Set Fish Free Bridge" to honor the kindness of a town leader who was always doing good deeds...
...so we bought some fish and set them free.

A shot of the main canal running through town. Besides the boating, we saw a lot of locals washing their clothes, shaving, and fishing in the canal.

We also took a boat ride in one of these canal-worthy vessels. Instead of pushing off the ground with a pole (like Italian gondolas), they actually row.

Nice hat, Mom!

Ahh, lunch. Previously, we had seen some locals selling some fresh eels, and others eating some snails. Little did we know what dishes awaited us at lunch! In addition to the usual shrimp, tofu, and cucumbers & edamame, we were treated to stewed eels w/ onions, and boiled snails. We tried everything...and were pleasantly surprised by the eels. We actually ate a bunch of snails for adventure's sake...actually quite tasty, but the texture isn't something we're used to.

Where's the beef?

This is what I thought I was be getting. As I understood it, the 4.50 yuan version included cheese.

And this is what I actually got. Really, it was quite tasty. But it caught me by surprise. In case you can't tell, the fixins inside include:
(1) Lettuce
(2) Tomato
(3) Bacon
(4) Cheese
(5) Egg

What? No beef? When we asked the lady at the window about it, we couldn't make out if she was trying to tell us they were out of hamburger that night, or that this "hamburger" didn't actually include any hamburger. Either way, it was yummy with an egg.

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.