Chino! (Chinese)

Went on my last run here in Barcelona...too bad the weather was not nice, it was threatening to rain the whole time. Unfortunately the weather never really got any better as the day continued, in fact towards the end of the night I thought a tornado was coming in with all of the violent wind! 


One of the graduate students here in the program with me is from China, his name is Ke "Aero" Huang. Aero has turned out to be a very good friend during my time here; tonight he invited me out with him to go get authentic Chinese food in the "China town" of Barcelona. He picked out a restaurant that he had dined in earlier during the semester that offered Cantonese style Chinese food. The interior of the restaurant was very beautiful and exhibited everything I like about oriental architecture. The restaurant seemed to be family run because there were only three employees inside: the husband, wife, and son. The wife was our waitress and she spoke THREE languages...Cantonese, Spanish, and English. Aero ordered all of our food in Cantonese...and everything was very good. It was nothing like "Chinese" food in America..."Number One Kitchen I, Number One Kitchen II, or Number One Kitchen III can't hold a candle to the food I had tonight. The waitress provided us with chopsticks to eat our meal with...Aero wielded his like a professional while I struggled to pick up even the biggest pieces of food. We had chicken feet (which was surprisingly good), some sort of beef stew with mushrooms, cabbage and onions, two types of cooked pork, tofu and vegetable soup, rice, and fried noodles! It was a feast, and mid way through I had to switch to eating with a fork or else Aero would have "sped off" with all of the food haha! He explained that in order to show that the food is good it is customary to "smush" the food loudly in your mouth...I thought it was pretty funny but I followed suit. Not only did Aero pay for the entire meal he also bought me a small gift. The gift is a type of Chinese weaved ornament made from palms or grass (very similar to sweet grass); each ornament has a different pattern that represents a certain quality or expression. The one he gave to me represented progression! 


I told him that in return I must take him out to dinner at an American Chinese restaurant in Clemson. As I had hoped today brought more great memories.


Next blog post from Stuttgart...Germany Part two! 




The Gift from Aero