Brookline High School in China

China 17: Dumplings and Hospitality

time since we arrived: 1 month 1 day
time till we leave: 2 months 17 days

It's not that I'm counting down the days before I have to leave Xi'an; it's that, like a kid on Christmas day, I'm trying to relish as much as I can before it's over and I have to wait till next time which might be a while.

Today, I went out with Zou Leyang, my brother who I hosted in the US, and his family and cousin's family. This little excursion seems to be a perfect example (though perhaps a little on the extravagant side) of Chinese hospitality. They invited me to go out to dinner with them to eat dumplings. However, we arrived early to the restaurant and we had to wait for his cousin's family. Knowing that I had been shopping for clothes earlier in the day (a suit to be more specific which I actually found a lot of though my experience in buying is negligible compared to my ability to buy jeans and kicks), Leyang's parents took me to a shopping mall near the restaurant to "kan yi kan" or look around a little. So I went with them and looked at some clothes.

We ended up at a sports store looking at basketball shoes. Leyang pointed out the pair that he liked to me and his parents and asked what I liked. Sensing an ambush of genorosity, I claimed that they were all very nice. As I was congratulating myself on my quick thinking, Leyang's dad decided to intensify the attack head on. He said, "Wo mai ni ti shu he qiu xie," "I'm gonna buy you a shirt and shoes, you just pick which ones." Well, I picked up the defence a notch too making excuse after excuse to his dad like "I don't need shoes," "I don't want shoes," "In american, these same shoes for much less." But in the end I was defeated when he told me that he was going to buy Leyang shoes to and buy us matching T-shirts b/c we were brothers. I managed to convince them I didn't want a shirt, but they made me pick a pair of shoes that I liked.

I did, and they didn't have my size. I said "too bad" and got up to leave. Well, of course that didn't work. Leyang's dad simply picked out the shoes that Leyang was going to get and asked the guy for those. So I gave up and got the shoes which turned out to be $130. Walking out of the store, Leyang's mom, who covertly snuck off for her own mission, handed me a bag w/ a VERY nice basketball shirt in it which was about $40.

Then we went to dinner. Dinner at one of the nicest places in Xi'an with the BEST dumplings in the world with his cousins family. I had a great time joking around with Leyang and his cousin both of whom speak amazing English, though I personally spoke chinese the majority of the time. At the restaurant, we all sat in our own private room complete w/ TV and ancillary bathroom. I think my chinese might have actually improved just a little since I've been here b/c I was able to distiguish words in the conversations and peice together the conversation and even make my own comments. That alone was amazing enough for me.

But then, in our little private world, which came with a servant or two as well, came DINNER. The centerpeice came first. It was a platter with coldcuts and vegetables and roses shaped in two interlocked circles. I made the mistake of picking up my chopsticks at this point and was quickly laughed at a corrected. Apparently the food sitting in front of us was for decoration and not to be eaten.

Then the appetizers came along with the tea and drinks. In front of me I was given three different beverages to drink at my whim, Coke, Apple Juice, and a rare mountain tea which tasted very good. The appetizers I was advised not to eat to much of too b/c we'd were apparently going to eat 22 different kinds of dumplings next. So I dabbled in the cold beef, pickled carrots, and duck liver while I hungrily waited for the dumplings. (I hadn't really eaten all day.)

The dumplings came and they, for lack of a poet's imagination, were beautiful. Each kind of dumpling was served after the one before it was finished by our two very sweet and helpful waitresses who explained each dumpling before its demise. The 22 dumplings came in different shapes, sizes, and flavors. I had dumplings exquistly crafted to resemble ducks, fish, pigs, boats, and sea barnacles. One dumpling was folded with 13 round pinches in it to symbolize the 13 dynasties that Xi'an graced as capital; this dumpling was apparently the hardest to make and most time consuming. Looking at it, I'd guess even the most deft dumplings folder spent at least three minutes on one while if I made one it'd probably take three hours and a lot of dough. The dumplings were stuffed with pork, beef, shrimp, crab, fish, persimmon (which I can still feel on my tongue), red bean, chicken, vegetables, duck, and lamb. EVERY SINGLE ONE was, (again I lack the talent of tongue to properly describe the sensation that took place), Delicious.

We ended the meal with the 22nd kind of dumpling which were very small. Each one was no bigger than the size of my little finger's nail. A hotpot was brought into our room and to a boil. the uncooked microdumplings were thrown into the pot and the lights were dimmed to allow us to see the glowing flames licking the sides of the pot. The waitress proceeded to tell us the history of these dumplings which were created by a chef in the Tang dynasty for some empress. The cool part is that after the dumplings are finished they are scooped into a bowl along with their milky broth so that the little dumplings are invisible. According to superstition, the number of dumplings you end up in your bowl tells you about your future. If you get one then nothing that special happens. If you get two, your pleasure in life will double. If you get three, I forgot but it's something good. If you get four you will be VERY rich. And if you got none you'd never have to worry again in life. I ended up with one, but I plan on revisiting till I recieve a diffrent number.

And so our night ended. Leyand and his cousin, who wants me to call him Double, invited me to play basketball tomorrow (which I'm beginning to think is the only langauge besides English which I'm fluent in), and his parents invited me to dinner AGAIN tomorrow and then some show consisting of Chinese dance and music.

How do I take this much hospitality? When saying "no" only makes your host fuss over you MORE, what can you say? The Chinese so far have have taken me in as a "WANG" or a king. I look back at how the Chinese who came to the US were treated by their high school and their families, and even at other guests my families hosted throughout the years, and I wonder how welcoming did we really seem?





Here's some pics from a WHILE ago, when we all gave speeches in Chinese to the entire school:

posted by dAVID @ 8:54 AM