I worked in the area of Wan Xiang Cheng (the Di Wang Building, MixC Shopping Center) area today. I went from this glitzy area, from Gucci, Mercedes, HSBC, LV, etc. Just next to this place is the real life of Shenzhen and China. Dog meat restaurants, seafood restaurants, salacious hotels, side alleys, side streets, spicy duck neck, chicken girls, la mien noodles, and walking with my girl; all was in this evening's agenda and all random.
The goings on: chicken girls are waking up and going for breakfast as we have dinner. At the Uyghar noodle restaurant, a "CG" comes in for breakfast as we are having our dinner (noodles and noodles); high heels for her, brown boat shoes for me; the rain is falling lightly, people are walking by on the sidewalk at the Guangdong seafood restaurant, and the owner sips tea as he watches his business just across the sidewalk. A counterfeit money changer comes by, and hawks his fake RMB. Chairman Mao is much too small, methinks. He continues to accost passersby, taking out his artistic forgeries from his off white leather billfold (long, so as not to fold the bills). He is balding, with a big nose, and was trying to pay for his dinner. Finally, hands on hips, the owner took the most credible bills, 300 RMB, to pay for his 50 RMB dinner.
The dogs were hanging in glass cases, bereft of friends, shaved, and bleached white of skin. One was a bitch, nipples protruding (she had been lactating, her nipples were protruding, one wondered if the puppies were consumed), and another boy halved and ribs and meat showing. This was the first time in Shenzhen that I have seen this in nearly three years (admittedly, I don't always get out to this part of town). I am not making value judgments here, and forgive me that I use language that seems so, I am only thinking of my audience from western countries. It didn't affect me, and I wish I had a camera with me, but didn't. My mental image has been recreated here in words. I must say, the dogs were hung immaculately, and 'dressed' with care, just as a side of beef or lamb or any other meat that we eat would be (except for the paws, which were a giveaway). But why should we think the feet of an animal would make them less palatable?
Ah, it is late. I have to work tomorrow.
But one last note: duck neck. This is one food that I thought was totally pointless when I first had the chance to eat it. Spicy duck neck. In the past three years, I went from the former idea to, "not bad", to 'spicy duck neck with beer', to "super spicy duck neck". Oh man! We found a place called "Qin Shi Huang's Barbecue Duck Neck Sauce"......Qin Shi Huang was the Terra Cotta Warrior first emperor of China, who united the country for the first time and died in 221 BC. "Qin" is pronounced "chin", and it is for this tyrant that China is named. Anyway, his duck neck is really f'ing spicy, both "ma" and "la", but really "jia la". Really spicy, I love it! I'm munching on it and having a Czech beer to wash it down (I went shopping in the glitzy shop).
Wan an............James P. Zaworski
The goings on: chicken girls are waking up and going for breakfast as we have dinner. At the Uyghar noodle restaurant, a "CG" comes in for breakfast as we are having our dinner (noodles and noodles); high heels for her, brown boat shoes for me; the rain is falling lightly, people are walking by on the sidewalk at the Guangdong seafood restaurant, and the owner sips tea as he watches his business just across the sidewalk. A counterfeit money changer comes by, and hawks his fake RMB. Chairman Mao is much too small, methinks. He continues to accost passersby, taking out his artistic forgeries from his off white leather billfold (long, so as not to fold the bills). He is balding, with a big nose, and was trying to pay for his dinner. Finally, hands on hips, the owner took the most credible bills, 300 RMB, to pay for his 50 RMB dinner.
The dogs were hanging in glass cases, bereft of friends, shaved, and bleached white of skin. One was a bitch, nipples protruding (she had been lactating, her nipples were protruding, one wondered if the puppies were consumed), and another boy halved and ribs and meat showing. This was the first time in Shenzhen that I have seen this in nearly three years (admittedly, I don't always get out to this part of town). I am not making value judgments here, and forgive me that I use language that seems so, I am only thinking of my audience from western countries. It didn't affect me, and I wish I had a camera with me, but didn't. My mental image has been recreated here in words. I must say, the dogs were hung immaculately, and 'dressed' with care, just as a side of beef or lamb or any other meat that we eat would be (except for the paws, which were a giveaway). But why should we think the feet of an animal would make them less palatable?
Ah, it is late. I have to work tomorrow.
But one last note: duck neck. This is one food that I thought was totally pointless when I first had the chance to eat it. Spicy duck neck. In the past three years, I went from the former idea to, "not bad", to 'spicy duck neck with beer', to "super spicy duck neck". Oh man! We found a place called "Qin Shi Huang's Barbecue Duck Neck Sauce"......Qin Shi Huang was the Terra Cotta Warrior first emperor of China, who united the country for the first time and died in 221 BC. "Qin" is pronounced "chin", and it is for this tyrant that China is named. Anyway, his duck neck is really f'ing spicy, both "ma" and "la", but really "jia la". Really spicy, I love it! I'm munching on it and having a Czech beer to wash it down (I went shopping in the glitzy shop).
Wan an............James P. Zaworski
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