Wichmann Stories: Never thought I would eat this....

Yesterday, I was had dinner with the Temptations and Nationwide team to celebrate the mid- autumn festival. As everyone is aware by now, Temptations is the wine bar/restaurant here in Xiamen where Mark and I live, and Nationwide is the company owned by the same team which imports and exports wine from around the world to establishments in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Shanghai.

We went to a place called Little Sheep, where it's basically a hot pot restaurant, where they had two different soups in one huge bowl. One side is extremely spicy, while the other is a more mild version. Here one selects the meats, vegetables, fish, whatever you would like, toss it in for a few minutes to cook and basically pick your food out of this pot. Mark and I have gone to Good Taste near our house on many occasions, the difference here is that I went with 20 odd Chinese, so you can bet the food they ordered wasn't going to be the same as the food Mark and I order.

After Shelley mixes the sauces together, off hot oil, raw egg, soy sauce, and a few other things that I had no clue about, we received our dip.

Before the food came out, everyone was already doing their best to get their fellow mate drunk. The gunbeis started very quickly and within one hour, we already went through 2 boxes of Tsingtao.

One table held the Temptations team and the next table had the Nationwide team. The newest employee had to go around each person on the other table and toast each person. Some were a little more enthusiastic then others.

The Temptations Team

The Nationwide Team

Next comes the various plates which consisted of lotus, string mushrooms, potatoes,lettuce, spinach duck's blood, lamb, fish balls, and of course, one plate I never thought I would eat, pig's brain. It wasn't that bad actually. The consistency was a little on the soft side, but the taste was quite good.

The pig's brain

Throughout the meal, the drinks continued with the staff becoming more boisterous as everyone cheered everyone. I think Gordon won for the most consumption of alcohol.

Later unbeknownst to me, the night was to continue at a KTV. Here we were to sing, drink some more, and play the dice game. After all, it is the mid-autumn festival.

Well as usual, the dice game is always a big favorite, especially when there are prizes to be won. The one thing that we enjoy about the dice game is that the Chinese give practical gifts. People won woks, toasters, detergent, toothbrushes, etc. I won a steamer, which is good since we don't have an iron, Kleenex, and shampoo.