Friday night was a parents' night at school. We hold these nights on Fridays because many parents live outside of Beijing, and must fly in for the meeting. They fly in, spend five minutes with each teacher, spend the night in a hotel, and then fly home. They are dedicated to their children's education.
The event runs until about 6:30. As a way thank the teachers, the school brings us out to dinner afterwards. I'm not talking about a sandwich tray in the teachers' lounge or some colleagues going Dutch unofficially. Nope, I'm talking about an official sit-down meal paid for by the school. With beer, no less.
We had a great time looking through the menu. Some of the translations were priceless. We have to go back with a camera. I can't even begin to fake just how awesomely bad some of the names were. While the Chinese staff usually order for us when we go out, this time they gave us a chance to order on our own. Well, the Canadian decided we should try something "exciting". OK. Donkey it is!
It was a cold dish. Sliced meat with a ginger/garlic dipping sauce. I did a side-by-side comparison with the cold sliced beef we also ordered. I couldn't tell much of a difference. It tasted like... meat.
The highlight of dinner was the duck, though. Oh yes, I had my first official Peking duck. Thin pancakes, cucumber sticks, green onion shreds, plum sauce, and sugar. And duck. First, they bring out the duck skin. You get meat later on. And at the end they fry up the bones so you can suck on them. By then, I was stuffed, so I didn't try the bones.
The skin, though. Oh, the skin. Crispy, fatty, warm duck skin. It brought me back to my days at Maggie G's, when chef used to staff the duck cracklins after rendering duck fat for confit. The sauce was bitter; the sugar was necessary. We ran out of cucumber and onion. But the skin was heaven.
Definitely better than the donkey.
Popular Posts
-
Last night, I decided to attend my first Burns' Supper. For those of you who don't know, a Burns' Supper is a celebration of the...
-
Welcome back to Blogger, Loyal Readers. After my dalliance with other blog sites, I'm back to the old stand-by. Why? You wonder. Wel...
-
I decided to take myself out for a nice dinner. Here is the review. The restaurant wants to be fancy. It wants it desperately. I am shown to...
-
As our bus neared the entrance to the "Diversifolious Poplar Forest, I noticed a disturbing trend along the highway: scores of Chinese ...
-
Three years ago, I embarked on this grand adventure. Bla bla bla, you've heard it all before. Also, three years ago, for my Spring Festi...
-
Two years ago, when I flew to Beijing, I was scared. I was heading off into the Great Unknown, Alone, and it was intimidating, to say the le...
-
This thought was flitting around my mind as I sat, sick, uncomfortable, with a tinge of very real fear, on the boat back to Bali. My thought...
-
I walked away from the dermatologist with ointments and creams and medicine: I refuse the IV antibiotics crap. I keep with my nice, easy, on...
-
I'm not sure which is more surprising: that this translation is currently hanging in the hallway of my school or that it's been ther... -
It was a sunny morning in a small village outside of Kashgar. We were there to witness the animal market which is in a different location on...
No comments:
Post a Comment