Today I went out for Chinese New Year lunch with my floor. That's usually a nice, happy thing. For me it was really horrible (though I love the people and the idea...). I was asked if I want vegetarian food. Nope! I eat everything (other than raw onions).
First, there was the yu sheng, which you might remember from CNY two years ago. We toss a bunch of random stuff in the air - including raw fish and a bunch of vegetables. Today I learned that it originated at a Singapore Chinese restaurant in 1962, because Singapore wanted its own CNY tradition. After that, the sharks fin soup was served. Generally, I don't eat at places that serve sharks fin soup. It is one of the most offensive dishes I know - the way they get the sharks' fins is horrible and leaves the sharks in a horrible state. Well, here I couldn't exactly walk off (we have important people on my floor...). I politely refused. The next few dishes were okay and involved some canned cabbage that is apparently quite expensive and abalone which is some form of seafood that I never heard of until I moved here, but now I see cans of it for LOTS of money. I should have eaten more of this course, because the next one was horrible. They put a little baby pig on the table. It's head was cracked in half, from the neck/chin/bottom, and it was put out flat. The two halves of the jaw were sitting on the plate - teeth and all - and then there was the back which seemed to have crunchy skin and some other meat attached. The finale was the little curly tail that was placed at the end of the plate. I really could barely keep my cool. It was horrible. It looked sort of like this, but the head was much more in tact (and split, except for the forehead area). And this picture clearly doesn't have the tail at the end.
After I stopped feeling horribly nauseous, I got a bagel and cream cheese for lunch. And some ginger ale to calm the tummy. Yuck.
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