See Food
I had asked about the chance to get out earlier in the day, and it wasn’t long before we had a van of six ready to go. Tony, our Operations VP was driving. I have mentioned his driving skills before, when I talked about his telling me he wouldn’t run a red light that day, only because I was riding along!! Well, the challenges last night were tough too. The weather was very wet and in the darkness it is pretty tough to see motorcycles without lights, and the many pedestrians always in the road. People are worse than chickens here about having to cross a road, and in many areas they just walk in the road ignoring the sidewalks altogether. Last night was no exception. I’m glad the Chinese have good eyesight! He was good to slow at many risky situations, but did hit a large brick in the road. And I made the mistake of sitting shotgun again!
But off to dinner; we were going to Dongguan City. When we pulled up to the Dongguan Exhibition International Hotel (beside the exhibition hall), I thought we were at the Mandalay Bay. It was a large imposing hotel in a semi-circle and heavily lit for the night. The hotel’s features didn’t stop on the outside either. The lobby was huge. It must have been a hundred yards wide with an open atrium of about five floors. Although pretty, it is a little cold in the mix of styles and colors, but they didn’t scrimp on use of marble.
I knew immediately that I had made a big mistake. Being a little rainy I had decided against bringing my camera. I regretted that decision all night, and now I don’t have pictures to post! You’ll just have to put up with my banter about the evening. Sorry bout that.
Two large aquariums grab your attention entering the hotel. The first is a full round aquarium with a top that extends over your head in a funnel like fashion. Fish were colorful and plentiful. But the plants inside were obviously fake green adaptations that looked out of place in water. The second aquarium was more impressive. It was a long wide sea aquarium with many rocks for manta rays to nest and large sea turtles to traverse. At least three sharks of about three feet long were most popular with guests.
But it is the restaurant its multitude of aquariums that was even more impressive. As you enter the hall of the restaurant, a large display case exhibits two large shark fins, and a multitude of smaller fins. I’m not sure if I’ve had shark fin soup, and may have even had it last night, but I know its popular here, and thus the exhibit to show off some of their collection.
On back about twenty feet, was where the hall split to two glass doorways. The restaurant opened to the right, and the seafood was on display in a room to the left. And oh what seafood! The separation was a wall of aquariums that stretched at least 50 feet down and turned for another 30 feet. In each were separate species available for your dining pleasure. There must have been almost 50 tanks of fish.
After settling at dinner table and having our wine prepared, the hostesses showed up with appetizers for the table. They were in two small square bowls, one with a mushroom looking treat and the other a brown long scallop-like treat. I made the mistake of asking what it was! I usually just eat. But I was informed the darker item was duck kidney and the other was from the stomach of something. Well, anyway they were pretty good! A pickled flavor in an octopus-like texture, but tasty. Everyone dove at them like it was going to be a chopstick war! They were popular.
The evening got better then. Miss Vicky, my associate I work with so much, asked me if I wanted to go see the fish tanks. Little was I to know how much more there was behind the wall of tanks. We entered a room much like a fish market. On the left was a barbecue section with hanging chickens and other meats. I didn’t ask this time.
Down the middle, behind the aquariums were three rows of fish tanks. There were shrimp of about three varieties. An attendant kept grabbing some that escaped to the floor. There were at least three kinds of crab, all banded individually so that they didn’t attack each other. There were dozens of small mussel varieties. There were scallops and lobsters. Oh were there lobsters! Huge lobsters with their antenna reaching for you as you pass. The last row was fish on ice. There were a multitude of varieties and then many in plastic wraps. I think they were a dried variety. The attendant told me the long package was snakes. I didn’t look any closer.
As we rounded to return to the entry, I noticed one of the outside tanks had a big school of long creatures. Miss Vicky immediately noticed my look and informed me that was the snakes, but that they were snakefish: “Actually quite tasty, but too many bones.”
What a display. I thought of my good friend Edna Morris, the former president of Red Lobster. She would have loved this. She has told me of her shopping trips for fish around the world, and with her culinary interests, this would have been a special treat. Of course, I still wonder how she ended up selling frog legs for Red Lobster and now other chains. Heck, she couldn’t even cut up her frog in Mr. Banks 9th grade biology class. I had to do it as her lab partner! She still owes me.
The fish made the night unique! Why did I forget my camera!! Dinner was special too, but it was somewhat anticlimactic after that. We had family style dinner with chicken (with the head peering out the side of the bowl, of course), a pork dish, a couple of fish dishes, greens, a special scallop preparation, and steamed shrimp. The shrimp were divine. I just ripped off the shrimp heads and decided not to try them again. I ate enough shrimp heads back in my days in Japan. All was topped off with some good dim sum for a wonderful dining experience.
We even toured a little of Dongguan City. We were near the new square patterned after Tiammenen, with a People’s Library, and a People’s Musuem among the government buildings. We saw a beautiful pagoda-like entry to the old city. We saw streets as active as most in Hong Kong. We saw department stores or “malls” that were huge and brightly lit. And………… we saw the WalMart Supercenter!! I saw WalMart of Dongguan. What a busy place. Unlike most in the States, it occupied a large department store setting. I have to get back.
And next time I’ll take my camera!!
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 6:02 PM
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