adventures in china

Yep, it’s about over now. I fly home tomorrow morning.

Interesting foods eaten: snails, pig brain, fish heads, cow skin, chicken head, chicken feet, sea urchin, assorted intestines, fermented things…

Things stolen: computer, mp3 player, pair of shorts, external harddrive, camera, ~30 yuan, buckets for the experiment, red ribbon, mesh, a bottle of rice alcohol on a train…

Frogs genera photographed: Bufo, Rana, Rhacophorus, Philautus, Microhyla, Kaloula, Microletta, Polypedates, Chirixalus, Kurixalus, Ferjervarya, Limnonectes, Duttaphrynus, Xenophrys, Leptolalax…

and

New DVD’s: Stranger Than Fiction, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, Observe and Report, Knocked Up, Year One, Superbad, Zoolander, Smiley Face, Hot Fuzz, The Ladies Man, Happy Texas, The Big Lebowski, The Full Monty, Choke, Sideways, Chop Shop, Gran Torino, Gangs of New York, Gladiator, 300, Valkyrie, Sweeny Todd, Edward Scissorhands, Lethal Weapon, Taxi Driver, Clockwork Orange, The Shawkshank Redemtion, Mississippi Burning, The Pianist, Forest Gump, Back to the Future collection, all Bruce Lee movies ever made, The Warriors, Get Shorty, Capote, Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Twister, Walk the Line, Goodbye Lenin, City of God, Amalie, City of Hope, Fight Club, Clockers, Lord of War, Adaptation, Burn After Reading, Shoot ‘Em Up, The Professional, El Mariachi, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Sin City, Jackie Brown, Four Rooms, Meet the Parents, B13U, Run Lola Run, Catch Me If You Can, Eyes Wide Shut, Iron Man, Rocky collection, Cliffhanger, Rambo, Pirates of the Caribbean collection, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Sixth Sense, The Siege, The Fifth Element, 16 Blocks, The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ace Ventura Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, Bruce Almighty, Die Hard collection, 12 Monkeys, Bandits, Lucking Number Sleven, The Shining, Dawn of the Dead, Pet Cemetary, The Omen, Amityville Horror, Return of the Living Dead collection, Brain Dead, Death Proof, 1408, The Village, 28 Days Later, Seven, Cloverfield, Eight Legged Freaks, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The English Patient, American Gangster, Capone, Once Upon a Time In America, Goodfellas, The Godfather collection, Scarface, Soldier, Star Wars collection, Star Trek (new one), Alien collection, Predator collection, Terminator collection, Indian Jones: Raiders of lost ark, temple of doom, and last crusade, There Will Be Blood, 3:10 to Yuma, Way of the Gun, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dolar Baby, City Heat, Unforgivin, Mystic River, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Fistful of Dollars, The Wild Bunch, Synecdoche New York, There’s Something About Mary, From Dusk Till Dawn, Mars Attacks, Independence Day

And complete TV series…The Wire, Weeds, The Sopranos, Heroes, Dexter, some more…

Time to finish packing now!

THE END

Can it really get worse than Red Lobster in Wisconsin?

Yes.

The Spaghetti House is a franchise of Italian restaurants “established by an Australian and a British in 1979.” Their red and yellow signs scream cheap attempt at American-Italian food throughout the streets of Hong Kong. I knew it wouldn’t be great. In fact, my expectations were about as high as if I had been walking into a Fazoli’s or Olive Garden. But that’s what I wanted, a mediocre attempt at Italian food that would make me think “home.”

I ordered a “delicious pasta covered in Italian sausage, pieces of bacon, and fresh mushrooms, served in a white cream sauce.” What I got was undercooked spaghetti with sliced hot dog, bacon bits, canned mushrooms, and an oil, starch, and salt sauce.

Granted, it was cheap. And I did eat it. But, I no longer will proudly state that all the food in China is delicious. It should be made known that only most of the food here is delicious.

Found this little frog on the road. He was tough, only had three legs, not even adult yet, and trying to stuff a worm four times his size down his throat. It reminded me of Spike.

I made my first sandwich in months, though it probably won’t that look good to those who have access to sandwiches on a regular basis. It took trips to a city an hour away to get supplies for this lunch, and many experiments with different types of oil and a hot plate. And although it was burnt and oily and didn’t taste much like home, it was still delicious, well not delicious, but it wasn’t spicy noodles or rice!

These photos were taken by the Georgia herp guy who came here this week, Zach Felix.

From left to right – Bill, Gwen, Jocelyn, Brenna, me

I think this is a photo of breakfast, where you dress up your noodle soup with that stuff in those bowls.

These are apartments down a side street in town, sort of like the one I had for the first few days I was here.

There are a lot of dogs walking around the streets

This is where you buy dresses

This is where fishermen buy gillnets and other fishing supplies

These things are like trucks with tractor engines. I don’t know what they really are, they use them a lot in Madagascar too.

A very typical street scene. People like to hang out around stores and play cards, smoke, chat.

Street

At this fried rice place near the entrance to the gardens you can get all sorts of good food and fresh juices!

You can also order these “potato cakes”, basically slices of potatoes, fried, and then covered in condensed milk. Sort of like pancakes in a way.

Last night, some friends of a friend of Jocelyn’s showed up. They’re herp guys from a university in Georgia. Real herp guys, like the kind who spend years radio tracking thousands of copperheads and swimming with Japanese giant salamanders.

We took them to Dai barbeque. It’s mouth-numbingly spicy food that you won’t find in any other part of China, the kind of restaurant I like to eat at a couple times a week. Skewered meats, tofu, and fish are mostly what ends up on the table, but my favorite is a fiery cucumber and tomato vinegar-based salad that tastes like it belongs in Central America. Everything is loaded with MSG, and the spices and sauces painted onto the foods you pick out taste like nothing I’ve encountered before.

After dinner we went frogging, normal Monday-night work frogging, just around the gardens. The jetlagged professor and friends did well. We will go out again Wednesday night, this time to the rainforest. I’ve promised them flying frogs! I hope I don’t disappoint.

What to do with food that you don’t want to eat is a dilemma that faces only a small portion of the human population. I’m fortunate enough to be one of them, but I try to be conscious about what I do with it.

Some people throw undesirable food in a plastic bag with other things and then have a man drive it away from their house in a big truck so it can be buried in the ground. Others give it to the dog, and a few even throw it outside into a big bin so it can eventually be recycled and turned into more food. But, I rarely need to employ any of these tactics for discarding disgusting foods; my roommates are stoners. They have gladly accepted over-frosted M&M brownies, burnt cookies, endless buckets of Thanksgiving stuffing, and even an occasional curry gone wrong.

Two days ago I tested their appetite with a pie – A French silk pie, handmade by Madison-based LMNO-Pies. On my first bite I determined the filling to be sugar, whipped butter, and hot chocolate powder. There was nothing silky about it. The pie filling had a consistency similar to a mix of Crisco and sand, while the taste was like that of Swiss Mix made by a six year old – sweet enough to soar your throat upon reaching your lips. “Perhaps my roommates will enjoy it?” I thought. But as soon as they took their first gritty bite I understood that this just was a really bad pie.