Next crazy people after the Japanese ....

... is definitely the Chinese!!

I was invited to a big dinner the other night at a Chinese friend's house. My friend is from Manchuria, so she told me that she will be serving Manchurian food. I never thought of Manchurian food as any special Chinese cuisine, considering it is not really known around the world. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how unique and different it tastes from the standard Chinese dishes I'm accustomed to.


The top dish is full of cilantro, or as it might be called coriander, or xiang cai (in Mandarin). I rarely see it in Chinese food, so I was quite amazed (Not that I'm a big fan of chinese food or something).


The poor orange creature on above picture was turned inside out and fashioned in some unknown way into these balls of fish. Remarkably, all the meat is still attached to the spine. Lucky for him, the sacrifice was not wasted and he was totally consumed.

We had deer meat that was shaped into round balls and deep fried, but the most mind-blowing dish was something my friend could only describe as "wild animal". I got the Chinese word, PaoZi (pr: Pow-zeh), for it. At first asking my chinese friend at my table what paozi meant in English, meeting only with blank stares and shrugged shoulders. I then asked other Chinese friend at lab the next day with the same result. They could only tell me it was like a cross between a small deer and a dog . Can you imagine my horror to the mention of "dog" with food I had unwittingly eaten the night before? God knows how they got the stuff here.


The giant donut-hole looking things are actually some kind of fried apples. They must be eaten quickly, otherwise they'd stick together. Before eating them, you must dip them into a bowl of water to prevent scalding your tongue. I am excited to have sampled cuisine from another part of the world and look forward to discovering more invitation to free dinner LOL.