Eat, Eat, Eat: One Man's Search to Eat Way Too Much Across Dali

I don't know what Eat, Pray, Love is about, but apparently a lot of people thought it was great. My favorite books are non-fiction, and although that book fits into this category, I don't really like reading about "feelings" - I prefer facts, history, and honest looks at the human condition. I can't relate to the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, either. I've never been married (or divorced) nor I have never been to Bali. Wikipedia says that she would spend nights crying on her bathroom floor since she was so unhappy. Again, I can't relate, as the only place I spend my nights crying is outside on a cold concrete floor. Totally different than a suburban American bathroom.

Even though I've never read the book, I can relate to Elizabeth's desire to escape from her current situation to find something a bit different for a while. Except I had 3 days, she had an entire year. Not fair. Also, I just miss Western food, I'm not at all depressed like she was.

So as I mentioned a week ago, I headed off to Dali for a nice long weekend of relaxation and hanging out with friends. Oh, and stuffing my face with roasted meats, German pastries and sandwiches!

Upon arriving in Dali, I met up with Christine and Phoebe at The Four Seasons. The Four Seasons Hostel, not that Four Seasons. Not sure how legal that is, but this is China! I was shocked/not shocked at all to see the bags upon bags of goodies they bought at Wal-Mart in Dali (no, I am not kidding). It was so much good stuff that I later decided to go before leaving town, but we'll get to that later.

Various meats and vegetables. And Yorkshire pudding.

That night, just like Pinky and the Brain, we "did the same thing we do every night!" Correct answer: "Go to Bad Monkey!"

Bad Monkey is a bar run by a bunch of ex-pats and has apparently been around a long time. Basically, you go there, get a beer tower of Qingdao (which looks like a giant fancy glass with a spout), play "drink the beer tower fastest" game, and then order some tasty Western food. The first night we were there was Thanksgiving, and appropriately enough, Bad Monkey had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. It was only 35 RMB (about $5.25) and chock full of roasted meats, veggies, some kind of stuffing, and Yorkshire pudding. Food journey #1: complete.

I'm sure nobody cares about what I ate, but I do, especially since I eat what I call "boiled leaves" at least 6 times a week and on special occasions, "extra-oily eggs." Plus the title of this post is about how  much I ate, so you have no choice.

The next morning, a number of us went to The Sweet Tooth, an awesome bakery run by an owner who had culinary training in the US. The place is run by the hearing impaired, so while asking for "cream for my coffee" might be hard in Chinese, it's even harder in Chinese sign language. Or you can just try pointing at the menu. It works much better than picking up and using an imaginary cream pourer, trust me. They have all sorts of delicious pancakes, French toast (both of which come with syrup!), and lots of granola and fruit salad type things. Totally go there and eat a lot. Sorry I didn't take a picture, though it might be a good thing since it'd just make both me and you drool all over our keyboards.

That leads us to... The Official CEI Paying-For-Thanksgiving-Dinner Bash of 2010!

A hostel in Dali called Dali Hump hosted a ridiculously tasty Thanksgiving meal on Friday night. If you've been keeping track correctly, you'd realize that's two (2!) Thanksgiving meals in two (2!) days! CEI paid for this one which made it even tastier. All fellows were invited, but somewhere around 20 actually showed up to participate/eat until passing out and then going to... you guessed it, Bad Monkey!

Soups and garlic bread.

That's right, folks, that's pumpkins soup and real garlic bread. It's just sliced French bread with butter (I guess) and nice minced pieces of actual garlic! They don't even make garlic bread that good in the US! The meal consisted of things I haven't had since mid-July when I left the US: carrots, pasta (that Thanksgiving staple), and actual soup (not just hot water with MSG in it). To top it all off, we got some delicious pumpkin pie from Bakery 88, home of German pastries and other sweet goodies. We then went to Bad Monkey and played beer race and ate pizza.

Our third and final night of gorging followed our second and final full day of gorging. During the day, I had a sandwich made of chicken, cheese, pastrami, and egg, served with some awesome French fries and real ketchup! Most Chinese ketchup is super thin and oddly both sweet and bitter at the same time. I love ketchup more than a daily shower - this is not something I would have said 6 months ago. Stay away, stay away, from Chinese ketchup!

We were invited to dinner by a friend of a guy that used to work for CEI named Vinny. He was at summer training with us for a bit, but soon after left to work on various projects throughout Yunnan. Vinny's friend, Bob, somehow has an awesome Moroccan chef and he made some great dinner for us. Western food is great since I miss it, but something totally foreign is even more exciting.

Rabbit with raisins and stuff!

We had some delicious rabbit (above), some awesome salad-type stuff made of rice, tuna and spices, and an awesome cheesy potato dish. In case I was becoming lactose intolerant, I'm pretty sure the amount of cheese I ate this past trip has pushed me into overdrive toward becoming "super-able-to-process-lactose man" again.

Before coming back to Dazhai, a group of us made a stop at Wal-Mart. I was able to spend only 70 RMB and bought pasta (20 RMB), pasta sauce (12 RMB), a loaf of bread (4 RMB), and some curry powder and Italian herbs & spices (7 RMB and 8 RMB, respectively). I haven't made the pasta yet, but the bread is tasty and I've been dabbing the very non-Chinese flavors of curry and Italian herbs & spices onto my bowls full of rice and boiled leaves. When those flavors hit my tongue, I'm briefly taken back to Dali, or Florence, or that good Indian food restaurant in Alexandria. Then I realize I'm just eating rice and disappointingly look down at my boiled leaves.

If I'm as successful as I hope to be from this adventure, not only will I have changed the educational outlook of at least 150 students in rural China, but I'll also be lucky enough to have a film made of my experiences that receives at least a 5.1/10 on IMDB. Keep your eyes peeled for "Eat, Eat, Eat" on a bookshelf and silver screen near you!

Enough food pictures. Here are some more random pictures from the trip:

A sweet gate to Dali Old Town.

Impromptu jam-sesh at Dali Hump after dinner.

Beer tower. Classy, huh?

Typical Dali scene with some poor, poor workers doing repair work on some tiny little wires.

If you want to see even more pictures, check out my album on Picasa here.