Friday, June 23, 2006

What's the difference between a crayfish and a chinese student in Tiannemen Square?


Sorry for the food hang-up, but...well, this is Paddy, and if you didn't know I have a thing for eating (one of the deeper connections between Wop and me). So apparently here in Shanghai we're in the season of 'baby lobsters,' or crayfish, one of the most sought after dishes in Shanghai (besides Paddy that is). So after the Muslim hand-grabbing I thought i'd take the advice of the placard (Chinese are WAY into slogans) and GRASP THE CRAYFISH.

The back gate of the university comes to life after 6pm on a Friday night, completely transformed into a kinda of semi-precious county fair atmosphere. Bicycles with coal grills on the back open shop with BBQ corn on the cob, squid, chicken, beef...AND STEAMED BABY LOBSTER of course. This is quite the scene.

And the result... Pao Pepper Crayfish. I'm sure I should have read something about hepatitis A and B, but...what the fuck, it's Baby Lobster season.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How much are you paying there for a full meal? Sasha and I just had an incredible 5 dishes of the best food in Saigon (actually, this restaurant is really just a collection of the best street vendors in the city) for an astonishing 15 dollars (drinks included).

Anonymous said...

yeah, about the hepatitus (sp?) - we're right there with you. We had a bajillion blood cockles with our dinner.

What's the answer, by the way, to your question?

Anonymous said...

I'll post the answer to my question presently. I gotta run to pick up the students at the airport. Oh, and for the most part I haven't been paying for my meals and there are some rather swank restaurants here (Beijing this ain't.) But generally I think a full, and by full I mean gluttonous, meal with beer runs about 7 dollars.