On Friday our new Chinese friends took us downtown to eat a dumpling restaurant. They were the equivalent of potstickers in America, but even better. They brought us 8 plates of 18 dumplings, each plate stuffed with something different; corn, lotus flower (Ryan's favorite), onion, bean, etc. All had pork in them and they were delicious.
Here are all of us at the restaurant. From left to right are Ryan (the white guy), Kate (Mr. River's secretary who has helped us a lot), another woman who works at the college, GongLi Shun (A Japanese man teaching at the college, The bus driver, Mr. River, and Celia (our school administrator. We had a great time eating off each other's plates and seeing who could pick up the most beans with chopsticks at once!
Also, in Beihai, we tried to eat a restaurant. After a lot of pointing and picking, we wound up with this meal:
On the left is what is left of our mystery meat. It was glazed in a sauce and barbecued/fried. We think it might be duck, it was very good dipped in soy sauce. We also got some corn mixed with a sauce, some onions and other ingredients. We mixed it with our rice and it was very good. For dessert, we had watermelon.
We are trying to learn to cook on our own as well. So far, we are sticking with the Chinese equivalent of Ramen noodles, but as soon as someone has time to show us how to cook a little and where to find some meat, etc. We are going to try cooking on our own, too. We'll keep you posted!
Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson
