Today, we had a pretty good lunch. I haven’t figured out what exactly we are entitled to, but I know we are only limited to 1 choice of a meat dish and several vegetable options. I went with the 土豆丝 (shredded potato) and 大白菜 (cabbage cooked in vinegar), both as uneventful as they sound—bathed in pot of MSG gravy. And then we had chicken fritters (hoooray) that I showered in a watered down Chinese version of Mayo. (The longer I live in this country, the more I make do with things)
We had a clear sweet soup to finish, made with jujubes and 银耳 (silver ear), which is really white fungus, the cousin of 木耳 (wood ear) the black fungus. Both are delightfully crunchy and squishy, a texture that I don’t have have enough emotional vocabulary to describe. I’ve many happy memories of squishy funny textures growing up in the kitchen, whether it’s cleaning out the raw meats or eating all sorts of things that my mother and late grandmother said was “good for you”.
Overall satisfaction: 7/10
