Shanghai, part 4: Dinner

Chunlin's cousins in Shanghai treated us to two extravagant dinners. Lots of weird food. Lots of good food.


Some of the appetizers didn't get eaten much.


The sweet and sour fish was enjoyed by all. Pull off a piece and dip in the sauce.

We had the best sesame pork baklava you'll ever eat anywhere.

Pork slices fried, with a kind of hollandaise sauce.

The waiters just kept bringing dish after dish after dish, consolidating and removing empty plates and piling them atop each other.


The first dinner, they asked me what I wanted to drink. Since the only Chinese drink I know (not the only drink I know in Chinese) is baijiu, a liquor, I asked for that. Our cousin then ordered a very expensive and extremely good bottle of baijiu.

Baijiu is to be savored, sipped, smelled. We didn't finish the bottle; we made them take the extra home.

At the second dinner, they ordered huangjiu, a weak liquor with a taste reminiscent of pine sap.



Efforts were made to get the two youngsters to speak English, with some success. Chunlin's nephew was bolder in his speaking, but her niece never spoke incorrectly. Often silent, though.