Beijing Week 2 - 2

I definitely had an adventure last night. The co-worker who took me downtown for "Chinese hot pot" although incredibly nice and although not "perfect" English, could be understood. The place is on "Gui St" - pronounced Gwee not gooey. Which apparently is a pretty well known restaurant row. However, we did not go to one of the fancy lit up places - oh no! We went to a dirty little hole in the wall. (I do not know the name of it.) I think it had 7 tables. We sat at a wobbly one in the back. The staff wiped most things onto the floor from the tables. The main guy who cut the meat (2 feet from our table) also smoked and not once did I see him wash his hands. Hot Pot - is basically like broth fondue. They use a copper pot that has a flute like contraption in the middle where they load in the coals/hard wood. This boils the water that surrounds the flute. (mind you there is no "dishwasher" or official place to wash the thing.) They heated the coals outside in a open bar b que type thing. The plate, bowl, spoon and glass came in a shrink wrapped package and packaged chop sticks. (So presumably clean.) In the boiling water was mushroom and a bit of onion. Then we added the meats my coworker ordered. Two types of beef, skinny little mushroom shoots, some veggie that tasted like heart of palm but was something else, tofu and a mystery meat. I did try the mystery meat... it tasted like bad fish. He let me know that it was "pig throat." I decided not to try it again :) I then tried the "sesame bun" it was not very good. Oh and unlike fondue where you skewer it and let it boil for a while - you grab it with your chopsticks and hold it in the boiling water until your desired doneness. Yes you eat from the same chopsticks you picked up the raw meat with. Fun times...

It was dirty enough that even locals were re-wiping the tables when they were seated. However the place constantly had people waiting to be seated.

This morning I stuck to my cereal with two clementines and a cup of tea. I ate a pear - supposedly they are good for your throat.