Relatively. From wanting to update this blog everyday, I am now slipping to updating it just once a week. Sigh. Last Saturday, Ju-Jintsu, a South Korean woman in my class invited all of us for dinner.
It was around 5PM when we met. Before that, Yoke had come along with us to this wonderful little restaurant called Sultan. I was just about to puke if I had one more dinner/lunch of rice and noodles. I was craving for a different food – initially we thought of going to Mike’s Pizza, but gave it up after failing to find precise directions to it. And then, we thought of going to an Indian restaurant. There are around 3 Indian restaurants in Chengdu – and almost all of them are kind of expensive. I wasn’t willing to spend 50RMB for a naan as yet. And then I just stumbled upon the menu of Sultan. Oh gorgeous! It took some time to find it, but there it was. A little Turkish restaurant that offered Saffron Biryani for just 14RMB a plate! And hummus! And pita bread! I was thinking to myself that I wish Bangalore would finally have an authentic Middle East/Turkish restaurant. This is not cribbing – this is just a wish. If anyone knows of such a restaurant in Bangalore, please let me know. As far as I know, you can get falafel or pita bread in a few restaurants supposedly offering “world cuisine,” but I haven’t heard of a restaurant dedicated to this cuisine.
And then, it was a mad rush to Ju-Jintsu’s place. Her apartment was swanky and tastefully decorated. I had met her husband before – he is in the Upper Elementary Level. Ju-Jintsu had prepared quite a spread! There was just one meat dish, but the rest were all vegetarian. Bimbap, and a host of other Korean dishes, including the ubiquitous kimchi. It was a gastronomically-heavenly experience, that Saturday.
The rest of the week has been pretty quiet. I did go out one evening, around 9PM for an hour of badminton with Mr Hu, a Chinese teacher, and Tashi, this guy from Bhutan. It was fun, although it felt a bit weird to be playing badminton so late. And the other evening, the whole class went out for hotpot. I think it was a more vegetarian hotpot – at least Fu Julie’s husband was there to confirm that the oil was non-pork based. The soup…well, I am still unsure of that. But it was delicious, as always. I am thinking that I should go for hotpot at least once a week in the remaining few weeks I have here. I am so going to miss it in India! Beef or blood broth or whatever!
And now, I can’t believe that it’s already time to start thinking of booking the return flight back home. Before that there is a long period of travel – I am yet to come around to planning that part. Yoke is coming along as well, and both he and Birdy want to see the Gobi desert – and I just want to see vast, desolate landscapes. It also appears that we may not be able to visit Tibet in July due to some travel restrictions that period. Sigh. And oh! Did anyone read about the bomb blasts in China? There is no mention of it on the Chinese media – it was scrubbed after Xinhua first broke the news. I can read about it on international news sites, and it is funny how the government thinks that it can really stop the spread of information in this day and age of tweeting and smsing. And now, back to Anki, my character recognition software. Later, meeting Silk for coffee. I am a bit disoriented today, and I think this post shows.
