Dad's first Proper Dining Challenge

After a nap we needed food, we thought peking duck would be a logical choice and we noted the address of the nearest recommended venue. However it must have moved or closed or we couldn't recognise it...so we walked round and found a Beef hot pot restaurant ...no English spoken but the menu had translations...I think that was the first bit that unnerved dad - intestine hotpot didn't seem to appeal nor black tripe and that was just what we spotted before an accommodating staff member trotted over with a translated phrase on his phone - "we have a two person special would you like that"? What we got was some vegetation - still growing in a pot, some crispy carbohydrate of some sort, two trays of raw beef, two pots of funky peanut'y sauce and a huge steaming pot containing taro, peppers, beef, and lots of coriander. We worked out a method for cooking the beef by gripping it between enormous cooking chopsticks and swirling it in the pot..tasty but chewy, we crunched some of the unknown golden fried carbohydrate and then the staff took pity on is and came to help us out. We'd been doing it all wrong...mostly slowly and inefficently rather than anything else. Except for the fried carb..which we were supposed to add to the stock until it went floppy...and took on the consistency of old leather. By this time Dad had decided he really didn't care for beef and in the end I decided I couldn't cope with anymore coriander..I had done my best to avoid but it kept sneaking through. We admitted defeat, finished our Yanping Beer and paid up... An interesting experience but not as good as last nights noodlesRead more