Cycle 4 – Item 292

24 (Thu) October 2013

Chicken with Mushrooms & Morning Glory

3.5

at Luo Jia Shan Hotel

-Wuchang, Wuhan, Hubei, China-

with APACPH Executive Council

APACPH 45: The Wuhan Follies (Day 2)

1. 4.291 Roasted Pigeon in Shiqi Style
2. 4.292 Mushrooms & Morning Glory
3. 4.293 Yabozi
4. 4.294 Steamed Wuchang Fish (Salad Oil)

In Wuhan.  Here to attend the 45th Conference of the Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH).

LUNCH

The Room Service Incident.  The 1-page room service menu offered a limited range of items, but at least they were written in English.  I dialed the number.  Room Service: “[something in Chinese].”  Me: “Room service…please?”  Room Service: “Jasmomen (just a moment) … [CLICK] … [dial tone].”  5 minutes later, still no return call. I grabbed the 3-ring binder and took the elevator down and walked over to reception and showed the guy behind the counter the menu and pointed to what I wanted.  He picked up the phone and called someone and said “[something in Chinese].”  To me: “Jasmomen.”  Just a moment later, someone else showed up.  She pointed in the direction of the restaurant.  I followed her there.  Once there, she said “[something in Chinese].”  I showed her the menu and pointed to what I wanted.  She said “[something in Chinese].”  I said nothing, closed the binder, got out of there, took the elevator back up, walked back to my room, not really caring at that point what happened.  30 minutes later, the food arrived.

DINNER

The APACPH Executive Council hosted a Welcome Dinner.  The venue was at the Luo Jia Shan Hotel, the conference’s alternative accommodation.  In typical Chinese banquet fashion, the guests sat in tens at large round tables, Lazy Susan in the center.  The food was served platter by platter, without any recognizable rhyme or reason (e.g., soup came halfway through, no rice or noodle dish, etc.).  Perhaps due to the large Muslim contingent, from both Malaysia and Indonesia, most of the dishes were vegetarian, no pork.  I can’t recall any single dish in particular, the variety and volume being so overwhelming, also typically Chinese.  But I enjoyed the meal overall immensely

Instead of beer, we were served the local kaoliang ju.  The big bottle was passed around the table, allowing guests to pour as much as they wanted into individual mini pitchers in front of them, each holding about 10 small shots, sipped at personal discretion.

The food was served platter by platter, without any recognizable rhyme or reason (e.g., soup came halfway through, no rice or noodle dish, etc.).  Perhaps due to the large Muslim contingent (mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia), many of the dishes were vegetarian, no pork.

I was quite overwhelmed by the variety and volume of food.   The stir-fried chicken with mushrooms and morning glory was perhaps my favorite dish.  Everything was pretty good.

In typical Chinese banquet fashion, the guests sat in tens at large round tables, lazy Susan in the center.

I’d managed to seat myself at a quiet table away from all the bigwigs, and most of the Koreans, so I was free to take photos at my leisure and avoid the heavy toasting/boozing.

HOUSEKEEPING

The Underwear Incident.  Upon checking in yesterday, I’d taken a shower and put the worn boxer shorts and socks into a white cloth bag that was provided in the closet for in-house laundry services.  I placed the bag in a drawer, as a temporary hamper.

This morning, as I was leaving my room for breakfast, I hung the “DO NOT DISTURB” sign (written in both Chinese/English) on the doorknob to prevent housekeeping from coming in and cleaning up and messing up all my documents that were spread out everywhere.  

When I returned, housekeeping had come in and cleaned up and messed up all my documents.  

A few hours later, after taking a shower, I also discovered that they’d taken the laundry bag.  With our Chinese-speaking research assistant, I went down to reception to cancel, but the clothes had already been put into the system, unretrievable until the pieces came out finished on the other end.  They agreed to drop the charges (they actually did not drop the charges, so we’d eventually spend another 30 minutes arguing with different staffers at check-out).  

When I returned to my room after dinner, the freshly laundered boxer shorts and socks were on my bed, in a nice baggy.

(See also BOOZE)

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN CHINA)