'Chinese roulette’

We are starting to settle down in to our routine of classes now. We are also starting to explore Lanzhou more. By touring Lanzhou by ourselves we are starting to realize how hard it can be living in a totally different county with a different culture and language. For example we often play ‘Chinese roulette’ at lunch (order food without knowing what it is); it rarely works out well for us! Yesterday we visited a restaurant for lunch and ordered a few dishes, the laughter of the waitress gave us an earlier indication as to how this was going to turn out.

After waiting for 20 minutes we were presented with a wok filled with a cloudy liquid with celery floating on the top. I made the mistake of saying “This looks okay”. Underneath the wok was a small heater and it was only when the water started to boil that the fun began. Once the water reached boiling point what can only be described as a tentacle reached out of the water! After seeing this I didn’t feel too hungry.

When we first arrived we would always ask “What’s this?” or “Is this chicken?” at dinner and lunch. We have now stopped doing this after getting a number of unfavourable answers. When in China it’s best to eat first and ask what it is second (although this is not recommend for allergy sufferers). If you make your dining decisions based on pre-conceptions it’s likely you will be very hungry. We had eaten 13 different animals before we stopped asking.