User Comments - mayor_bombolini

Posted on: Good Morning!

baily89,

Your computer may not be set up to reag Chinese Characters.  See the Help Section.

Posted on: Train to Beijing

bubobubo,

Recommend you e-mail "Dear Amber" at cpod.  Maybe they could add it to a show.

I've never been on a train in China (no time + I'm a big whimp). 

We know from the lesson that Jenny does not like trains. 

My guess is it is safe, especially compared to India, Bolivia, and Cambodia...  my goodness you are intrepid....please send us stories so that we can live vicariously.

Posted on: Good Morning!

baily89,

Are you asking about the avatars? 

You can go to your profile and load in a photo or some other jpeg file.  Every time you post your avatar will show up.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

rjberki,

The closest thing I've had to dog is deer meat. It has a stronger flavor than beef.  A little gamey.  I've tended to have it in relatively heavily spiced stews where it was probably slowly cooked to soft tenderness.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

rjberki,

The dogs are farm raised.  The ones I saw at the markets were small to medium size.  My understanding is they are under 1 year.  The breed look like mutts to me may be part Chow Chow (might explain the name).

Posted on: Instant Noodles

Hi changye,

I found some of the dishes to be very good.  In fact, the following winter I had dog stew a couple of times when I was feeling run down.  I found it to be a very hearty food.

It's not clear that eating dog is wide spread in China.  The guys from Shanghai were not happy about it.

My wife, from the Philippines, was upset when I told her I ate dog meat.  Seems they had to sell a family pet to the lasenggo (drunken people) when they were short of money.  I guess dog meat is popular with the bug drinkers.

My wife also believes other dogs know when you've been eating dog meat.  It's plausible give their keen sense of smell.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

 Here’s the dog meat story. Changye, of all people ， brought up the subject of 狗肉方便面， which reminded me of a situation we had in Xi’an. Auntie asked for it, so here goes.  (sorry about the fonts..can't seem to fix it)

We had a business meeting with our Manager Qin, two tax consultants in from Shanghai (Chinese born, US educated, fluent in Mandarin and English), Chip our corporate vp of tax (laowai, lawyer, cpa), and I. The previous week the purchasing manager, Dave asked for dog (he‘s one of these salty old seaman dudes that wants to try everything). They said sorry, no dog this week, but when we get one we’ll call you.

The next week, it turns November in Xi’an and dog is on the menu. Dave is no where to be found, off to somewhere else on his SARs world tour. The restaurant calls up Qin and says we have your dog, come on over. So Qin asks us, do you guys want to try dog meat? Chip and I looked at each other shrugged and said, I guess we gotta try it. We assumed the guys from Shanghai would be ok with it.

We get to the restaurant and continue our meeting. The first dish comes out, it’s slivers of dark meat, served with

red chili sauce on the side. I asked Qin if that was the dog meat, he said yes. I said to myself, fantastic, I can eat anything with 辣椒酱 on it. So we ate the dog meat with chili sauce, and I thought, well that’s out of the way, we’ll get on to some of the standard dishes.

The next dish comes out, flat small squares of some meaty substance in a brown sauce with veggies. I asked Qin, what’s that? He replied, oh that’s dog skin. OK, I guess we’ve got to try dog skin. The next dish comes out, it is a stew pot with chunks of meat. I said Qin, what’s that, oh that’s dog meat also. I looked over at the guys from Shanghai. One of them was not eating any of it. The lead guy was born in Guangdong and was ok with it.

The soup comes out and I asked Qin, what’s the meat in the soup. He replied, oh that’s dog meat. The guys from Shanghai were horrified. The lead guy said, hey why is every dish dog? Where’s the Sweet and Sour Pork? Qin replied, the chef thought that since we had requested dog meat the week before, we were dog meat oficionados and wanted dog meat prepared in all it‘s various forms.

So, yes, I do believe dog can be prepared in many ways and 狗肉方便面 may even be a popular flavor. 

Posted on: Instant Noodles

Auntie,

Help me with my "heaty" question on an earlier post and I'll do the story justice when I wake up in 6 or 7 hours.  Regards, Bill M.

Posted on: Instant Noodles

狗肉方便面 must be a winter favorite.  I have a long but funny story about gou3rou4 that I'll save for later.

Posted on: China Fruit and Pre-Marital Sex

Auntie,

I used to walk over that way all the time (just checked it on the map..never made across the main streets to your hood). There was a bar off Balmoral and Bukit Timah named the Excalibur (originally on Orchard) or maybe Excaliber II?.

When I lived in Singapore the racing was at Bukit Timah and I was often there for Sat and Sun racing.  On the way home I'd catch a ride to over near your neighborhood, have a few at the bar and walk home from there.

I lived in a converted garage under a place.  I think it was 87 Dalvey.  It was not glamrous, but the grounds and area were nice.  It was between the Israeli (aka the bomb shelter) and (probably former) Chinese Embassy (the pink building) on the opposite side of those two.