"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you."
-- Jesus acc. to Luke 10:8
Wayne had a wonderful time on his birthday, choosing among the vast array of mysterious street foods, topped off with a delicious torte from one of the local European-style bakeries. If Eric looks a bit skeptical in this picture, there's good reason for that. You never know exactly what is really in these dishes. Notice the beverage selection below: Where do you think this water really comes from?
On my own birthday, two days later, I wanted to go someplace where they spoke English, so we walked about two miles to a place the Lonely Planet city guide labeled as "touristy". I was really ready for touristy.
Instead, we caused yet another commotion upon entering the restaurant, as a parade of waiters and waitresses came to our table, eager to take our order, and each in turn dumbfounded to find that we spoke no Chinese. Finally, a very official looking manager type person found a menu for us that offered some, by no means comprehensive English clues to the dining possibilities. With the help of several nearby groups of diners, all trying to be kind and obviously eager to be try out their schoolbook English, we managed to order some great big shrimp, crisp-roasted pork, and luscious dark green stalks of something the waiter had referred to as "spinach", along with a huge whole crab, which we didn't think we had ordered & hoped was just a free bonus, but which turned out to be, uh, rather expensive. Oh well, we'll be eating birthday dinner leftovers for a few more meals this week. God is good!
love,
Christa
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