Every time I walk to the metro station by my house I pass by some kind of fast-food waffles operation. Delicious in theory, none of the options look overwhelmingly appetizing. But what confounds me is the one that appears to have meat and/or peppers on top. Fortunately, they have life-size plastic models on their counter for closer inspection. Unfortunately my blog is being retarded again so I can't insert the picture here. But its uploaded in my photostream so take a look.
Anyway, this is just one of many weird food experiences. Another includes the unhappy discovery of two egg yolks somehow preserved and hiding within an otherwise delicious mooncake. And because I'm in the middle of teaching the present perfect tense to a few of my classes, "What's the craziest thing you have eaten?" has yielded some interesting answers, the craziest of which were live monkey brain and live baby mice. This last one is a dish refered to as the "three squeaks" - one when you pick it up, one when you dip it in sauce, and one when you bite it. Ick.
Wacky and disturbing food aside, I've actually had a much more positive culinary experience this time around than when I came to Shanghai three years ago. I've puzzled out the differences between a few regional cuisines, and my Mandarin-speaking friends are teaching me how to deduce a meal's content from its tricky menu name. In a process that has, I'm sure, evolved slowly through its deep and multi-millennial history, China has developed a slightly anti-intuitive approach to naming its food. Menu translations into English have been eliciting chuckles from foreigners for years. Names like "government abuse chicken" and "chicken without sexual life" can and do easily find their way onto English menus (correct translations would be "Kung Pao Chicken" and "Spring Chicken.")
Well it's Thursday afternoon and I have to get back to work. And by work I mean watching Ghostbusters.
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