Dragon Boat Day

Today China is celebrating Dragon Boat Day. I’m not sure of the history of this national holiday, or what it means for the average citizen here. What I do know is that the China Plaid office was closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week, but only due to the fact that we worked Saturday and Sunday as an exchange.

Some of my coworkers traveled home to visit family, while others talked of how much they looked forward to lying around, watching movies, relaxing, and sleeping a lot.

In celebration of the national holiday, we ate sticky rice wrapped like a triangle in green plant leaves. Actually, we ate it on Monday because we’re silly Americans and we didn’t know any better.

Mom and Dad Adgate are visiting, which is partly why it’s been almost two weeks since I posted the last blog entry. They arrived late on the evening of June 6th after about 20 hours of travel. Whenever I am not working, I am spending all of my time with family.

It’s been great sharing all of our new experiences with them, from eating sesame seed covered duck bought on the side of the road to teaching Dean to giggle like “huhuhuhuh” or say “wow!”

We celebrated Matt’s birthday on the 14th with a delicious dinner of amazing, fall off the bone baby back ribs at Matt’s new favorite place to hang out – a restaurant/bar
named Cheers. He’s only been there a couple times, and yet everyone who works there really does know his name! At any given time, at least one of the five owners can usually be found sitting at the end of the bar. I believe they are all from the U.S., and the atmosphere they've created reminds me of a Taco Mac or Loco's sports bar back home - two places Matt and I love!

The food available at Cheers is reasonably priced, although very expensive in comparison to the local Chinese restaurants. Ribs with a baked potato will set you back 20 RMB, which is about $18, while the yummy chicken sandwich or a burger costs 45 RMB, about $6.50.

One thing Matt found out when talking with the owners is that is was very difficult for them to purchase the right kind of cuts of meat to make burgers and ribs the way we do in the U.S. Meat is just not prepared that way here. For one thing, it is almost always still attached to the bone. The bones add flavor, and probably moisture as well. I get tired of always eating meat off the bone and I wish I could just buy prepackaged Tyson Chicken breasts or ground hamburger meat at the store, but Matt doesn't mind it. He's happy to have meals with flavorful, delicious meat at each one.

I am thinking about asking the guys at Cheers if we can buy raw hamburger meat from them or direct from whoever their butcher is so we can cook with it at home. Hamburger Helper, anyone?