Making friends and meeting family

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Sunday was the Mid-autumn Festival here in China. It is a day for travel and family outings. Gu Huang invited Travis, Marta, Steve and I to her parents’ house for the festivities. We arrive early and enjoy tea, moon cakes, and pomegranates. I had never tried a pomegranate. I have had it in juice from but never as a fruit. It is shaped like a pear but looks more like an apple. The inside is filled with hundreds of seeds. They are very sweet but a little difficult to eat. Actually, they aren’t that hard to eat you just need to develop the proper eating technique. Like sunflower seeds, you pop a bunch in your mouth and spit out the waste. Gu Huang’s mother arrived with a bag full of groceries. I am getting excited now. I can’t wait to find out which delicious plates we will be enjoying today.

So far I have sampled plates from all over Kaifeng. Each meal of each day I try something new. Kaifeng has not let me down. I can not think of a single dish that I have not enjoyed. The dumplings are awesome, the xiao long bao are awesome, the noodles are amazing, the meat on a stick is fantastic, and the soups are exciting. I will say that I am not a fan of the fish head soup. It is too fishy. No that I expected anything else from something called fish head soup. I even enjoyed the French Fries, I mean Freedom Fries, from KFC. I couldn’t help myself. They looked so good and everyone else was enjoying them. KFC has an excellent view of Gu Lo. It is the downtown area of Kaifeng, shopping central. Every night at 7p sharp the intersection below KFC transforms into one of the famous Kaifeng night market.

We watch with great anticipation for the clock tower to strike seven. Click, street vendors pour into the intersection from every direction and every ally-way. Only five minutes have passed and dinner is served. There is cart after cart of every type of food imaginable. There are soup carts, dumpling carts, seafood on a stick, and lamb on a stick, pastries, sushi, sweets, and pastries. Everything! It is heaven. Oh, and dinner will cost about 3 USD. That includes appetizers, drinks, and dessert. I love China.

Back at Gu Huang’s home, dinner preparations have begun. Her father invites us to join in the preparations. I am so excited to learn how to make dumplings. Everything is made from scratch; there is no creamed mushroom or tomato paste. The dough is mixed and rolled out into little circles. The filling is prepared by mixing pork, onions, and seasonings. I hold a circle of dough in my left hand and place the filling in the middle. There is a delicate balance of proportion. Too much filling and the dumpling has a blow-out, too little filling and the dumpling lacks flavor. None of us really perfect the technique but most of the dumplings turned out quite delicious. We return to the living room to finish the movie Sideways. If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommended renting it.

Gu Huang’s Mother and Grandmother finish the dinner preparations and set the table. Her father calls us back into the dinning room. I turn the corner to find a banquet feast which rivals that of Thanksgiving. I now understand why Mid-autumn Festival is compared to Thanksgiving. It’s not just the time of year. It is everything like Thanksgiving, friends and family come together to share a magnificent meal and share stories. I learned that Gu Huang’s Father is the head of the History department at my University. He has been there for more then twenty years. We chat for an hour or so and finish the case of beers. He told me that we had to finish the beers today because he doesn’t drink on a regular basis. This is a special occasion. I am happy to oblige.

After dinner, Gu Huang wants to take us to the karaoke bar in the center of town. We grab a cab and are on our way. Karaoke is serious business in China. If you have ever been to a swanky bar in downtown Chicago you will understand the setting. Everyone gets a private room. Beer and liquor are brought to your room. The room is dimly lit with neon lights. The couches are leather or pleather. I’m not sure. Regardless they look nice. The music box is filled with Chinese and American music. You get two microphones. It was the most fun I have had at a Karaoke bar since Primetime.

We leave the bar and cruise over to Gu Lo for some snacks and to find a bathroom. We head over to KFC to use the bathroom and as I’m walking in a group of my students come walking out. They wave and say, “Hi Michael.” I wave back and want to stop and chat but I had drank so much between dinner and karaoke I didn’t want to make an ass of myself so I ran. The next day I met up with Jane, one of the girls who had seen me at the KFC and explained the situation. I hope they were not offended.

Jane and Antonio took me for a tour of the new campus and showed me some of the sites Kaifeng has to offer. I’ll save that trip for another entry.