Tuesday, October 18, 2005

 

Lounging at Lanting

I promise I won't tell you every time I have a good meal here (which I have to admit is much more frequent than I had expected), but last Saturday's lunch is worth a mention. Besides the food here is most definitely noteworthy. As they say here, "A good life is having a Chinese cook, an American salary, and a Japanese wife." (On the other hand, they also say, "A bad life is having a Japanese apartment, a Chinese salary, and an American wife." Sorry ladies). Anyways, last Saturday, two people from Shangyu College, Howie's school, took pity on us and decided to show us some cites around town. Our two “guides” for the day were Dewy and his boss, Ms. Foo. Dewy is a teacher at Shangyu; like us, this is his first year teaching and he happens to be the same age as me. (A quick note on ages: in China you are one year old when you are born, so for your Chinese age you have to add a year. So here I am 25. I wonder if car insurance company will buy that?). Ms. Foo claimed she could not speak English, but could, in fact, speak quite well. Moreover, her Chinese was very clear and easy to understand. So she made a very good Chinese teacher for us.

They picked us up at quarter to nine in the morning and drove out to Lanting (the Orchid Pavilion), which is the thousand year old home of Wang Xizhi, a famous poet and calligrapher. He was also the inventor of very old drinking game. He and his poet friends would sit by a small stream and compose poems while small cups of wine were floated past. If a poet were not able to write an adequate poem on command, he had to drink three glasses of wine. Howie and I were invited to sit by the same stream and drink one of the small bowls of wine that girls dressed in traditional costumes would fill and set in the water. It was Shaoxing wine which I don't like much, but it was still a fun experience. Perhaps Sister Eva should work that game into her next poetry writing class. It could have very interesting results.

The rest of Lanting was beautiful with many small ponds and streams, as well as a large lake with a house in the middle. The whole compound was also covered with bamboo, said to be planted by Xizhi himself. There were many large stone slabs with different Chinese characters carved into them. Shaoxing is home to many of the most famous poets and calligraphers in all of China. It is not usual to find slabs like these in any of the public parks. It is interesting how these poets were famous not only for the words they wrote, but also for the way they actually wrote them. The poem becomes more than just a words, it becomes "a thing."

Following the visit to Lanting, Ms. Foo drove us to Shangyu, the town where Howie teaches, which was about 45 minutes away. On the way over, Dewy discovered by questioning me that neither Howie nor I had eaten since seven PM the night before. It was then 11 am. We were hungry but not starving. However, both Dewy and Ms. Foo looked horrified. Ms. Foo, who was driving, put the pedal to the floor and Dewy kept turning around to reassure us we were almost to the restaurant, as if I were bleeding to death in the back seat and we were on our way to the hospital. It was pretty funny, and a little scary—Ms. Foo isn't a great driver.

We finally arrived at a small restaurant built out in the middle of a pond. The four of us had our own private room with a door that opened onto a small walkway that edged the building. We sat in the fairly large room and commenced to eat for nearly two hours. Our server continued to bring dish after dish; way more than we could possibly eat. I guess it is tradition when you have guests to prepare more food than is necessary. It was the best meal I have had since I got here. We had chicken, duck, beef, fish, and (my favorite) fresh water crab. Along with this there was eggs and chives, sweet corn, celery and pork in little brown bread bowls, spring rolls, green beans, roasted chestnuts, and waternuts (which I have never had before). We each had two bottles of beer with the meal, except for Ms. Foo who was driving. Ms. Foo showed us how to eat the crab so we got all the meat out. She also taught us a famous Chinese poem about the geese in the pond at Lanting.

I think I have figured out the pattern for eating here. When you eat in a restaurant, they bring out each dish as it is ready, and everyone eats from the serving dish (though you have a small bowl for saving bits). So phase one, the dishes come out and you try each one as it comes. The guest of honor is usually the first to eat from each new plate. You continue to each and drink until all the dishes are out. Then comes phase two: you slow down or even stop eating all together, and just talk or make toasts. Phase three, rice, comes just when the foreigners think the meal is nearly over. Rice comes last when eating in China; this sparks a whole new round of eating. This has fooled me twice now. I continue to eat until I am full, then the rice comes out and I can barely eat more than a few bites (which is bad because it's rude not to eat the rice). But now I think I have the hang of it.

After lunch, Ms. Foo and Dewy took us to a famous middle school in Shangyu, where many prominent artists, writers, and scholars had lived and worked. It was interesting but both Howie and I were pretty tired after such a large meal. On the way home, we stopped at Ms. Foo's apartment so she could give Howie her old Smart Phone. I went up to the apartment with them and was amazed by how nice it was (it was a two-story apartment). While we were up there, Ms. Foo offered us some sugar cane, which I had seen in Bolivia but never tried. It looks a little like green bamboo and is about an inch in diameter. She gave us each about a foot and a half of the plant. Dewy showed us how to eat it. You use your teeth to strip the bark off, and then you chew on the center pulp. As you chew you extract the sugary sap, which you drink. Once you've gotten all the liquid out you spit out the pulp. It was pretty good but a foot and a half was a bit too much for me on a full stomach. After the sugar cane, Ms. Foo drove us home, getting in only one small accident, and two near misses. The rest of the day was devoted to rest and recovery.

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