Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Two lovely Chinese visitors

Yesterday Zhongli Yao and her brother Zhongfei Yao, from Shanghai, China, visited me along with my good friend, and their cousin who lives and works in Oulu, Bill Zhang.

Zhongli Yao, Bill Zhang and Zhongfei Yao

Zhongli Yao, Bill Zhang and Zhongfei Yao


We discussed many topics of potential interest including printing of this year's "Edible Art" calendar for Annikki.

After they enjoyed walking around the Kampitie Garden, we went to Michele's Chinese restaurant, Royal Garden, for dinner. I had spoken to Michele earlier, that we were coming. Unfortunately she was not there but she spoke to her cook, who is from Shanghai.

They prepared a great dinner for us.

A delicious soup, a starters of sliced duck which had be rolled in a type of pancake with sliced cucumber and cellery and eaten with a sweetish dark brown sauce, and three dishes, a salmon, a beef and a fish dish, served with rice.

All were delicious. Quite different to Indian Chinese or Finnish Chinese food.

Bill said that this was the first time he had had really original Shanghai food in Oulu and also that it was really good.

I learnt a lot about how the Chinese consume their food - and I do not mean using chopsticks. I canot use them because of carpel tunnel syndrome that I suffer from.

It is about who takes the first morsel from each dish, how when drinking beer, the Chinese don't eat the main meal, etc., etc.

It was quite informative, as Bill led me through these customs, which are diametrically opposite to our Indian customs.

We enjoyed a great meal and I took back some more traditional Michele Chinese food for Annikki and Mika, who could not join us at the restaurant.

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