We had another going-away party (we've now had four with more to come) with quite a few of our friends at the Xinjiang restaurant across the street. We went all out and order the whole roast lamb. It weighed in at 14 lbs. and came with four side dishes (laohu cai, cucumber and garlic, and some noodles). The lamb was tender with thin crispy skin. We had to tear it apart and dip the pieces in a variety of spices (cumin, chili powder, chili sauce, and combination of cumin, chili and other spices).
With the number of people we had, we also had to order a few more vegetable dishes and nang. Because we've been in there rather often for the last year, the boss even gave us some soup and a very large fruit platter (with yellow watermelon?). It all tasted great along with a bit of Tsingtao and a bottle of cognac.
When all was said and done, we were thoroughly stuffed and the bill only came to about US$100--far cheaper than if we had chosen to eat one of the more popular buffets.Jia's brilliant idea after the long dinner was to head down the road to Good Friend Health City for foot massages. We checked it out a few days ago, and they said it was 38RMB for an hour. Somehow Jia managed to get us a group discount, so the foot massage only cost us 30RMB each. I got comfortable next to two of my friends who speak decent Chinese, and we had some fun talking.
The girls giving the massage were quite amusing. One kept commenting how much more work she had to do with D.'s enormous feet. She also said something about his hairy legs, which was more amusing considering mine are hairier. All three girls laughed at I. for drinking beer during the massage--he kept trying to offer them some, but they refused. For some reason, the girl giving me the massage was very polite and made no odd comments about me--it was much appreciated.
The only one who didn't quite enjoy the massage was J. He managed to get the girl who gave an unwanted rough massage in a rather tender area when moving up the leg.
4 comments:
That lamb's making me hungry. Any party pictures?
That's a nice looking dinner. There's just something about the way Uyghurs can cook lamb that makes it such a great meal.
Sounds like someone doesn't want to leave China!
Mmm, that looks tasty. Are you sure you're ready to leave?
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