Suckin' Snail Shells

Yep,

Our dear little Anna has finally found a Chinese food she enjoys other than white rice. After basketball on Friday, the guys took me to a "Hot Pot" Chinese restaurant. It's a very popular cooking style in China. Here are the steps:

1. Sit down at a table with a big hole carved out of the middle of it. There's a heating element in the bottom of the hole.
2. Waitress bring a gigantic steel bowl split into 2 sides.
3. Waitress fills both sides with water and chucks a bunch of red chili peppers into one side and celery, other seasoning into the other side. Now, there's a spicy and non-spicy side.
4. Order up the raw ingredients: lamb, beef, chicken, chihuahua, leafy vegetables, quail eggs, dumplings, bean sprouts, bamboo, beans, and lots of un-named others.
5. Waitress brings the stuff out sequentially, sometimes presenting a couple of things at the same time.
6. Deposit items in the boiling water, choosing whether you want it spicy or not.
7. Cook
8. Remove with ladle (if it sunk) or chopsticks (if it's floating)
9. Eat

Aimee and I had tried this in Sanya on vacation. This experience was similar but these guys were professionals and all I had to do was eat. I brought A&E with me too which made things a little more interesting.

I picked up orange juices and a large Pepsi at the neighboring KFC (yes, as in fried chicken) first so we'd have some cold refreshment. The restaurant was hot and humid, plus steamy.

About the shells..... One of the several appetizers was a plate full of snail shells in a hot sauce. Much to my surprise, Anna tried one and proceeded to spoon out about 15 of the things before the night was through. She didn't mess with the "meat" on the inside but just enjoyed the hot sauce. The plateful of carnage is below.

Some details:

Pics 1 and 2: There were 8 adults and 3 kids. Most of the guys are new to our company so it was a good opportunity for some team-building.
Pic 3: The hole and that's not coffee but some room temp juice that the kids loved. Not sure what kind it was. Does that make me a bad dad. The guys assured me there was no alchohol in it.
Pic 4: Engineering manager, Charlie, and his daughter who is 3 and ate KFC.
5: Anna and one of the casualties.
6: When I was in the USA, Kohl's was running a special on patriotic shirts. We got one for everyone in our engineering group. I liked this one best.
7: Sucked shells.
8. Elijah's "Dad, it's 9:30pm" face.




Over and out.