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Dinners are a very formal thing in Shandong Province. Read more below! |
Lunch banquet in mine in Jiaodong. |
 Lunch banquet: plates start to pile up. This is just the begining. The end is marked by the arrival of dumplings.
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Sea cucumbers. Click to Read More |
Sea cucumbers. Click to Read More |
Banquet tables are round and seat either 10 or 12 guests. Typically, this will be in a private room in a restaurant, but the same is true in the mines we visited. The most honored guest is seated to the right of the main host who faces t he door (or the entertainment if entertainment is part of the banquet). If the most senior guest has an interpreter, the interpreter sits to the right of the honored guest. Other distinguished guests are seated to the principal host’s left. The second-ranking hosts sit across from the top-ranking guests at the head table. The second-ranking guests sit to the second-ranking hosts’ right. The remaining high ranking hosts sit on the east and west side of the table.
Chicken feet. |
 Sea worm. |
Half-hatched egg, perhaps my least favourite. |
Massive crab. |
The hosts makes great efforts to bring out the best in Chinese food. I could not count the number of dishes in any particular meal, but they surpassed 30 and included several types of soup. They kept coming and were piled in the centre, on the rotating table in the centre and on top of previous dishes. All sorts of delicacies are brought in, from sea, land an air, from rivers and mountains. From insects, sea cucumbers and moluscs, or anything else from the sea, to shark fins or rare fish from the Yangtze river, or wild herbs or vegetables. Not only is the variety of edible things enormous, but the way to serve them too (continues below).
Gafanhoto. |
 Gafanhoto. |
The rotating table with the dishes in the centre only turn clockwise, and as the main guest, you seldom serve yourself but instead the main host will place the delicacies on your plate for you to try. The variety, as you can see in these photos, can be challening, but everything is is delicious, except for the half-hatched egg!
There are two drinking vessels: a tea cup that is constantly filled, and a medium sized chalice for for spirits, typically Chinese wine (very strong spirit). The alcoholic drink is only to be touched for the purposes of a toast. The main host on the north side of the table will be the first to propose a toast, and noone else. They will do that three times separated by some reasonable amount of time and accompanied by a short speech welcoming the guests and wishing the best for the collaboration, and ends with "gambei" bottoms up. Then, the second-ranking host on the south side of the table will propose two toasts following the same pattern. Then it is the turn of the hosts on the east and west side of the table. By this time, the guests will have drunk 7 shots of spirit. Then and only then, is the turn of the main guest to propose a toast and thank the host for the welcome and wish the best for the collaboration. After that all are welcome to raise a toast and get really completely drunk.
This is a real banquet as I never had anywhere else. The richness, the variety, the tastes and the formality, all make for a great experience.During my visit to the mines this happened everyday, for lunch and for dinner!
Abalone. |
Scorpions out of focus. |
Shells. |
Worms and cicadas. |
Star fish. |
End of dinner. Notice the dumplings on top. |
Here is a sample of exotic dishes served in the restaurant in the hotel within the University, these exotic ones are among other, for us, more common dishes of shrimp, beef, chicken and the like (the spelling is also part of the joy of this list):
Now in the menu above you know what you are getting. In a more popular restautant close to the University we had a similar looking menu. A large book with a leather cover and large pages with beautiful photos of the dishes. Here is how the poetic translator expressed the name of the dishes. In the one restaurant you know what you are getting and rather not know, in the other, you have poetry for dinner:
FOR DESERT
FAVOURITE DISH NAMES: