Adventures in eating

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O'k, so Matt has been subjected to the most culinary adventures so far of all of us. This is actually quite humorous as he is the least open minded eater of our bunch - "just give me white cake and vanilla ice cream". On a recent work outing to southern China, he was bestowed with the good fortune of being the "guest of honor". This dubious distinction came with a proudly presented meal of a FISH HEAD. Yes, that's right - eyes, bones, skin and all. Of course, it would be insulting for him to refuse this culinary specialty so he slowly picked away at it until a fellow diner came to his rescue and suggested they "switch plates". Hearing much "crunch crunch", Matt reports that the fish was rapidly consumed! Then, as if he hadn't yet learned his lesson, he asked our very Chinese driver, Cai, to have lunch out with him at a Chinese restaurant. Very Chinese. No menu. Ready made meals in bowls that simply need to be warmed and all in a brothy white unknown liquid. Noodles, chunks of unknown meat (woof!), tiny bones, green floaty vegetables. Yummy! Cai has an extra "side dish" with his meal - large, flat, pink and chewy. Matt later discovers the side dish was actually pig skin! Matt tells Cai that in America we feed this to the dogs!! Our driver has a great sense of humor so no worries here. Yes, Matt was quite the big spender at this basically Chinese only establishment. Total: 26rmb for both very filling lunches - $3.25. He says at that price, I get to go next!

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