Fancy Dinner

Has anyone ever heard of Groupon or Living Social? well if not, in short, they are internet coupons where someone buys in essence a gift certificate for less than full price... Ben and one of our Chinese friends found a fancy dinner gift certificate at a western style steakhouse- coffee shop marked down 80% ( YEAH 80%) 

so of course all of us that were offered the opportunity jumped at the chance to get a 155 Yuan meal for 28! 

On Tuesday we decided that Wednesday would be the day that we would go... Wednesday at lunch, I suggested that we should all dress up for dinner: shirt, tie, jacket, the whole thing!!!

So this is how it happened: 

6 PM, five very well dressed foreigners  and 2 Chinese people get on bus number 33 outside of the south gate of campus.

6:01 PM, the strange looks from the locals is intensified by our clothing. They had to be wondering who we were and where we were going, and wherever we were going, why the heck were we taking public transportation and not riding in a black sedan.

6:30 our bus arrives (well at least the stop closest to the restaurant) Since we are still several blocks from the eating establishment, we decide to hoof it... the spectacle continues as the foreigner parade marches through the new part of town toward the cafe.. 

6:45 we arrive at our destination... A very (very very) fancy restaurant with a well dressed wait staff and fountains, a coy pond, table linens, everything... we are escorted to our tables, and due to the large size of the group, we were instructed to split up into two groups.

6:46 we are sat down and served a plate of watermelon seeds (yeah the things we spit out in the states) We could not figure out how to eat them, so we settled for sucking the salt off of the shells

6:48 the waitress begins to ask Alexis (our resident Chinese interpreter) about how we want our steak cooked (yeah, I said steak) apparently, in china instead of rare, medium rare, medium etc, they rank the done-ness on a scale from 1 to10. one being the rarest and 10 being the most well done. I thought I'd be safe with a 4 since I tend to go for medium rare in the states, I should be fine with a more medium than rare cook.

6:52 each person is given a small cup of espresso. (I think it was just really strong coffee) I was happy just to have some coffee for the first time in over a month... It was pretty good

6:55 our soup and bread arrives.. it wasn't to bad. the soup was just some kind of lukewarm sweet corn/milk porridge. The bread, on the other hand, was not so good. it was like toasted sweet bread. but it wasn't sweet. just weird. 

6:56 (only one minute later) the meals arrive... Each dish is on a personal skillet type of dish and covered with a metal lid. after the server lifts she lid she proceeds to pour gravy all over the steak which is also served with a sunny side up egg and a poor attempt at Italian Pasta. The gravy, I am convinced was just black pepper and water... SPICY! The steak seemed way more well done than even medium let alone rare, but hey, meat is meat! (I even think it was beef!)

7:20 a plate of fresh fruit is brought out containing watermelon (with seeds), papaya, pear, and some melon. this was a refreshing finish to a spicy meal. 

I think all of us really enjoyed the meal. Although it was no Texas Roadhouse, it was good to have a meal centered around a piece of meat for the first time since arriving. the atmosphere of the restaurant definitely made up for the mediocre food too.