Stinky Tofu and Snub-Nosed Monkeys

Another rainy day in Shanghai. It rains at least a little almost every day, but this entire weekend, and today, it rained pretty much all day. It is at least possible to sneak out during periods of lighter rain to get meals, and we have figured out a decent enough strategy for timing it. (It works usually…. But sometimes we do get caught in the middle of a huge tsunami.) There isn’t really much to do when it’s so rainy, and I’m done with class, so I will probably read, study Chinese, and take a nap—but not necessarily in that order! :) I need to go to the grocery store as well, so depending on the weather I might try to do that today or tonight.

Today’s [strategically planned] lunch was a giant bowl of noodles with roasted beef… about $1.50. Ordering food here is difficult because the menus are normally in Chinese, but I can usually play it safe by ordering things only with the characters I know (different kinds of meat, eggplant, tofu, vegetables, noodles, rice…) but just because I know the different characters doesn’t mean I know exactly what it is going to taste like. It’s usually good, but occasionally I am stuck with something gross. The worst thing I‘ve ordered so far was chicken with some type of weird seaweed… Not the normal tasty kind of seaweed. Ick. But anyway, today’s lunch was a success! I probably won’t even be hungry for dinner.

Nothing too exciting has really been going on here other than classes, eating, and homework/studying, so sorry if this post is boring—but I’m trying to get in the habit of regularly posting. Bare with me while I try to find interesting things to write about! For now I’ll just mention one dish in China that I think I am going to man up and try soon with Maggie. Jessica says she won’t try it, but Maggie and I are going to take the plunge when we come across it. Two words: Stinky Tofu. (Or in Chinese, still two words: Chou Doufu.) Anything you can imagine about it is probably close to accurate. It apparently smells like garbage or manure, but people still eat it…but then again people here seem to eat almost anything. Anthony Bourdain (the guy who eats everything) apparently threw up when he tried it. I'll let you know how I handle it when the day comes.

Here’s a link to read a little about it (go Wikipedia!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu

Also, today in Chinese class we got to watch part of a video about China’s wildlife, and the golden snub-nosed monkey was one of the animals featured. Look how cute it is!!!!!