The Food

Some may wonder about how I'm doing with the food here. The answer is that some nights are great, while others are not so much. Usually it's easy to find some things to fill up on, though. I eat what I like, and just pass on the rest. Like this stuff.



(Although I did eat some king crab.)

Mmmm, fish eye! My favorite.



During one dinner of Hot Pot (there are small boiling pots of broth for everyone to cook their own food in) I played with my food. Ron had told me that masters of the chopsticks were able to pick up three peanuts with them, so that's what I'm attempting here.



Did I say attempting? I mean rocking at.



That night turned out to be a real trip. The whole place was done up like an adult Barbie doll house in black, silver and white. Lots of chandeliers everywhere. There was one above our table.



Strange translation on our moist towelettes.



Fancy fruit plate.



Fresh fish.



How fresh, you ask? So fresh that the fish was still moving. It was gruesome and also entertaining. I was used to it from seeing dad clean fish when I was a kid, but even our vendors were a bit taken aback.



Squid with a squid illustration on the plate.



Shrimp-cicles. This is the hot pot, for reference.



Our dinner another night was a larger community hot pot.



So, dinner has been interesting some nights, but I'm not starving. Last night I tried the tip of an octopus tentacle, which was actually not bad. Not slimy, and kind of meaty instead of chewy, like calamari. In any case, I've got to skip along and get ready for work. Oh, as for an ear update, I still can't hear much out of my right ear, and sometimes I wake up with a little earache, but for the most part, during the day it's fine other than the lack of hearing. It doesn't pop anymore when I fly (there have been several short flights), because of the hole in my eardrum, I presume.  And so I limp along on my tour through China and Taiwan!