Dinner in a Chinese Home

This evening, I had a lucky break! I had gone to the train station with two of the teacher aides to purchase train tickets for the group. Friday will be our first day off and we're planning to travel to Hangzhou which is said to have some beautiful lake panoramas. It's about one and a half hours from here. In order to buy a train ticket, all passengers must present their passport... apparently there was a bad train accident last year, and now passports are required to buy a ticket so they can keep track of all passengers. It was around dinner time. I planned to go back to the school to check my e-mail and skip the school cafeteria. (That could be another blog...anyway..)
Lily (American name) asked me if I'd like to come to her home for dinner. Well... I quickly considered my options and rapidly decided to take her up on it... "Will it be OK with your mother?" "Oh yes..." Lily and her parents live in a new apartment building in a large complex. They are on the 4th floor. Walking in I thought the stairwell looked run down and/or unfinished... we proceeded to walk up 4 flights. Then Lily opened a door into a beautiful entryway. She quickly gave me a pair of slippers to put on and told her Dad the teacher was here. Lily's Dad was sitting bare chested reading the newspaper. It was a bit awkward! She gave me a tour of the apartment... lots of room. A guest room, a laundry room and a couple of large unused spaces. The dining room was right off the kitchen. Beautiful wood shelves filled with various bottles and food items were against one wall. The dining room opened onto the living room which had a large TV attached to one wall and very large pieces of wood furniture. Two huge carved wooden chairs and a large wooden couch. She said they were made of a very special wood. They were beautiful but looked very uncomfortable.

Lily's Mom was in the kitchen and smiled at me and then motioned for me to sit down. On the table were at least 6 different dishes. I'll do my best to describe what was in front of me:
a bowl of roasted potatoes and meat in a beefy broth, a bowl of cool cooked cabbage, a plate of grilled chicken pieces, a plate with 2 complete fish soaking in a very delicious sweet savory sauce, a bowl of peanuts and another bowl with some kind of marinated vegetable. It was very good, but I have no idea what I was eating. Well, each person used chopsticks to take morsels from dish and eat them. Oh yes, there was also a bowl of tiny little shrimp. With the chopsticks, you would pick up the shrimp, put it in your mouth and put the uneatable shell parts directly on the glass topped table. She did give me a little bowl to use for bones, but I was the only one who didn't just put the uneatable right on the table surface. After about 10 minutes enjoying these morsels, we were each given a bowl of sticky rice. At this point, the father stuffed his mouth with rice, ate it quickly and got up from the table. He went back to reading his paper. I felt a bit disappointed and hoped it was nothing I said! ha ha....
Lily's Mom and the two girls and I continued to enjoy the food and I really tried to find out more about Lily's Mom. She works in a factory, 6 days a week. Lily's Dad works in the country in some kind of government position. He wasn't a very talkative guy....
For dessert there was a bowl of sliced pear and some kind of candy from Mongolia. I even tried a special kind of fruit that was in a liquor that is a specialty of Yuyao. Whew!! To drink there was coke and I drank plenty... nice change from all the beer I've been drinking!

Then it was time to leave and Lily's Mom drove me back to the school. I told her it was the best meal I've had in China and it was true. She told me that I could come home with Lily anytime! What a gracious, lovely person she is... It was an evening to remember.







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Location:Yuyao