7/20/06 ~ Midweek Tidbits

Playing on the Rio: David Gilmour ~ Shine On You Crazy Diamond, 3/11/2006, Hamburg, Germany. R.I.P Sid Barrett.

I noticed on the elevator in both the hotel and the office building that there was no Floor 13 and 14. Apparently the Chinese are superstitious about 14. A one and four together suggest imminent or impending death, so no Chinese building has a fourteenth floor.

I've been working extra hours this week in order to have conference calls with the U.S. team. So, on Tuesday night we went out for a traditional Shanghai dinner. Thank goodness I asked for an order of fried asparagus. Two of the dishes I did not care for. The first was chilled broth fat with a meat piece (I don't know if it was pork or beef). [Picture chilled clarified soup fat cut into slices.] The second was bean curds with crab and egg in a sauce. My colleagues could tell right away by my facial expression I did not like these items, but at least I tried them, and I swallowed.

The soup was ok; it had big chunks of pork fat with little pork, bamboo shoots and rolled out bean curd tied in a knot, which I thought this was a big pasta noodle. They all laughed at me when I said I liked the pasta.

Besides the fried asparagus, I also liked the spicy beef with peppers dish, cucumbers in vinegar, and the baked whole fish.

They also told me not to ask what I was eating…it is better not to know and not very polite. I'm not sure if they were serious. At such a large round table it was hard to reach all the dishes, especially with my novice chopstick skills. But I managed not to drop anything.