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Published: November 13th 2011
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Canal Convention Centre, Yangzhou
Still friggin' around with the lights Photos:
…..”English menu, English menu”, the restaurant proprietor calls out from the doorway in a small sidestreet off Jinling lu in central Shanghai. A sure drawcard if you are in a strange city & don't know where or what to eat in China. Making sense of a menu often requires extensive conversation between even Chinese people & the restaurant staff. After two & a half years of learning Chinese there's not a hope. OK, let's have a look, what have you got? Choose from among the following:
Beijing sauce wire clip bun.
The peasant family stir fries flesh for a short time
Spiced salt blows up pig hand
Toothpick meat
Braise an arm pull in soy sauce
Decayed thick gravy
The tomato white potato discharges a soup for a short time, finally not forgetting:
Millet pepper fell in love with small cock
News headlines induced by hallucinogenic drugs or just Chinglish, still alive & well in Shanghai?. No, there is no requirement here for me to make up any of these, in fact, I'm not sure I could. I should add that, when I go to find something to eat in evening I brave the “Chongqing saliva
Jackie with Seven
Ding Deng's mum with the new puppy chicken”. It's pretty tasty. I didn't realise it's a cold dish though....
…..I'm in Shanghai to buy a replacement translator for the one with the broken screen, find a preamp for my mandolin & violin, maybe to look for a few other things I can't get so readily in my small provincial city of 4.5 million. As it is I don't find a suitable preamp & I'm Shanghaied-out after a day & a half.....
…..my neighbour, young Ding Deng, has a new pet, a puppy called Seven, who now has a playmate as some foreign teachers have also bought a puppy, Peanut. Interesting to note an overlap of Chinese & English vocabulary, “Aaaaaaaw!” to indicate cuteness is the same in both languages.....
.....my Saturday gig for the PR man who heard me at Gloria Jean's is cancelled. I only find out as I've heard nothing about it so I send an SMS, in my best Chinese, with a request to keep the reply simple, as my language skills are, (I'm being generous here), basic. The reply is an apology for omitting to tell me it has been postponed.....
…..George, Jenna & Chance have their hearts set
Shou Xi Hu, Yangzhou
Lady with hawk, (apologies to ornithologists) on Papa John's pizza for dinner. I haven't been there. I've been told it's, by Chinese standards, even US or Australian, expensive &, although my daughter's pizzas are the world's best I'm not that keen on commercially produced pizzas. There's not often a great choice of pizza without salami, ham or other stuff I don't eat. As it is it is expensive & so-so. For some reason, even in China, pizzas are ordered by diameter in inches. A nine inch diameter pizza, (23cm) is pretty small, but costs ¥65, or almost Au$10. It'll be Chinese next time.....
…..it was Shen Yue's birthday this week, a significant one, both in Chinese & English, the big 4-0. As various combinations of people turn up for dinner on Saturday nights we decide to make it a slightly belated birthday party. As a number of teachers have gone to Shanghai for the weekend, Sunny & Kevin both have work commitments it's a small gathering, only 6 people. As the birthday girl we let her choose the venue. Lao Ma, (Old Mother), an unassuming name for a local restaurant chain with a surprisingly extensive & nicely presented menu. We leave her to order. It
Shen Yue's Birthday
Posing with the birthday girl seems to take a long time & involves a lot of dishes. However the bill for six turns out to be under ¥200, including drinks. That's about Au$5 each, in a nice restaurant with plenty of table service on hand & some really amazing food, better than some much more expensive places we've seen.....
…..I discover I am the de facto Excel spreadsheet expert, not on account of my proficiency but the lack of it in others. It's nice to be able to share the work on the formulae to work out the percentages, (that's the easy bit), & the conversion to test grades, (which took a little tweaking).....
…..I almost forgot my invitation to Nanjing with the Qiao family, my student Tianyi, (George), & his parents to see the autumn leaves at Xiqia Shan, near Nanjing. As it happens autumn has arrived late this year, the trees are confused & only a few have changed colour & anyway the thick fog obscures the view of anything further away than about 5 metres.....
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Jane Manifold
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Good to hear from you Dave!
Yet another interesting account of your experiences in China... and good pics to go with it! I hope you continue to enjoy yourself. Ciao, Jane