What about the main food ?

We’ve been here for a little more than two weeks and everything is going just perfect. Nevertheless we’ve happened to realize something very important about what TexasT spoke with great eloquence at the following address. I talk about the insane booze called “bai jiu” that Chinese translate in english by the word “wine” and about the chinese way to enjoy a lunch or a dinner with a bunch of good friends. First of all, as a French, I must say that this “bai jiu” has nothing to do with any kind of wine and that it hurts me every single time a Chinese would say “Please have some wine…”. It hurts my ears because IT’S NOT WINE at all and it hurts every other part of my body when drinking it as it is a flavorless 50% alcohol that kills everything it touch. Usually nobody likes it, I mean not even the Chinese who’s giving you a cup of this rubbing alcohol. (By the way the cup contains generally a good deciliter and a half). According to Chinese custom, you get this drink as a starter. As you are starving, it is obvious that with this treatment after five minutes at a Chinese dinner everybody gets completely smashed. Then the dinner would go on with loads of beers or if we’re really damned it would go on with “bai jiu” for the rest of time (but this situation happened only once and honestly I hope it will remain the only one time). Along the whole dinner, it is full of pretexts to cheers with someone and to challenge him for a drinking contest. In other words, you don’t drink to go with the food and heighten the taste as my education taught me back home, in China you drink to get drunk, really drunk.

The great thing in a chinese dinner is the food. If you still have the ability to taste it after the raid of the “bai jiu” chinese food is bliss. All along the dinner, the waitress would bring some dishes of different kind of food (fish, meat, vegetables, tofu, kind of cold noodles, beans, soups,…). After 20 to 30 of those, one wouldn’t be only really drunk but also really full. And that’s always the very moment somebody would ask: “Ok guys, what about the main food? “. In general the main food consists of a full dish of noodles for everyone that you swallow by making as much noise as you can with your mouth.

What we actually found out with the guys is that apparently we’ll have to get ready for all of this at least once a week. Even though it is great when it's about sharing some good time and some good food, it becomes a trial when it's about the drinking part. However I must confess that I let my two bros down from the very beginning when I clearly announced that I didn’t drink alcohol anymore (since our first time in Shen Qiu in the end of may). The outcome is that I don’t need to get as drunk as Travis and Jakob, but I still “have to” drink a little (especially the first glass of “bai jiu”) to show my respect to the culture and to the people who invite us for dinner – as they do it also to get drunk with laowai).

In spite of the seemingly darkness of this description, I must say that these lunch and dinner are always a really great time that we enjoy with humility and honor as it’s not given to any laowai to be part them. Furthermore, the Chinese are such a nice, curious, open and positive people (especially deep down in small towns like Shen Qiu) that we’re always glad to share a good time around a table with a bunch of cool guys.

To get a glimpse of a genuine chinese experience of the chinese table, go to this address (Travis’s blog), it’s a real warriors’ tale…

http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=334096&go=dudemeister

Comments

[GwenJahz]

Hey Thom, man it's been quite a while... I'm glad to read about you my friend; all the more to do it on this blog. Yes, I think we've all found a way to express ourself in a fairly healthy way over here. However as you guess, and as everyone who practices martial arts knows, pain is almost an everyday reality (and unfortunately not always in a good way). But as they say: "No pain, no gain!".
As I played music in bands myself for years before leaving Switzerland, I can tell you that you didn't choose the easiest way neither. As far as I know, playing in a band requires many sacrifices of different sort and a huge ability to deal with the complexity of human psychology (including your own of course). I'm glad to hear you've found the energy to go on with this exceptional way to express yourself and to share mystical experiencies with poeple. I must confess that I'd love to play with a band again (if I happen to settle down for more than half a year at the same place). But as selfish as I am I'm not surprised to find myself striving for inner peace through a more indivualistic way.
It'll be great to catch up with you while walkin' around in a beautiful typical swiss green field.
Take care !

[thom]

hi gwen & brothers!
the description of your work is quite impressive, and so are the pictures! it's good to see you found a way that fits you, in which you're able to truly express yourselves.
i'm still looking for my own!
music seems to be it so far. big show coming up with my band this saturday, and we're under a nice pressure...
gwen, we miss you here in good old switzerland, but you know that nothing really changed around here, so there is no rush to come back!
kiss china for me, and i'll be glad to share some moments with you when you get back (if you ever do).
love and happiness!

thom