Lamb Pot
You would have thought we had walked into a big southern fish camp. A big room full of round tables. The tile floor was reverberating to the sounds of the many patrons into a steady hum. Overhead fans were spinning fast to stir the air. But the humidity in the air wasn’t filled with grease and the smell of fish. No it was heavy humidity, but you didn’t smell fish.This was no fish house. This was the Huanan Sheep Faizen. Roughly translated, it meant we were in a restaurant serving lamb in hot pots. Chris had been asking me if I had partaken of a night of lamb pot. This was my first offering of this type meal. And what a treat. It was certainly a night of good food, good time, with good friends.
A group of eight of us had stolen away from the factory late on a Thursday evening for the night on the town. Xiao Bao was recruited to drive in the new bus. Comfortably seating 20, we had more than enough room for the twenty minute drive to Chanan.
As we pulled up, a large silhouette of a goat was pointed out to me in the restaurant window. It was the most decorative thing about the place. The rest of it was quite barren and sparse. This was a “local’s restaurant”. This was not a regular place for Westerners. I was immediately recognized as being unique in this restaurant. Besides, I was twice the size of most of them.
Ushered to a round table that kept us compact but convenient for conversation, we found a burner with a hose from the gas supply. Soon a large pot was placed on the burner, the soup poured in, and the pot was fired up to start the cooking.
The first thing we all did would have probably made most people walk out, but seems to be a common way here. We washed our dishes! Yes, these were the dishes that had been served to our table, and hot tea had just been poured into cups. But my friends I was accompanying all reacted in same manner, and immediately started pouring the hot tea into the different cups, spoons, and saucers to just clean the items a little more thoroughly. I had only seen this on a couple of other occasions. It seems to be a standard reaction by most to be a little more “safe” about the cleanliness of the utensils. We then just poured the used tea under the hot pot to increase the steam in the room. And got a new cup of tea!
Beer and Chinese sweet wine were delivered as Ms. Fung and Xiao Pan ordered the food items for the night. Even before they had finished, vegetables were being delivered by the wait staff, and Vicky was adding to the pot. Everyone seemed to know exactly how to cook and with little disagreement, kept adding and each did their part to keep the foods mixed and cooking properly.
We had bones from legs, sausage, and dumplings, as good as I’ve ever had. The vegetables ran the gamut of being great to tasting more “like paper”. Oh well, some were good. A fried rice was served separately from a ceramic bowl. The waitress showed off how it had the crusted rice in the base of the bowl, to everyone’s enjoyment. It seems this is highly recognized as being the best and most proper way to do rice. The crusted rice was a little crusty and tasted great too!
The lamb was delivered cut in thin strips and took some special cooking. I was shown that you had to take a type of ladle and hold the lamb in the broth for just a few minutes to cook it properly. Turning with your chop sticks was encouraged to evenly cook the lamb. It tasted fantastic!
There were plenty of the obligatory toasts with the beer and wine. It all added to the wonderful, relaxed ambience of this casual and comfortable dinner. Nothing like a good dinner to make for another wonderful night.
Photos of Lamb Pot Dinner available from link on right! Enjoy!
posted by A Bryson (formerly) in China @ 11:00 AM
Comments: 0
