When it got to lunch time today, I was starting to flag. This morning, I got up at 5:30am for a call with a business partner back on the East Coast, and so I’d had my breakfast earlier than usual. After buying a fruit knife this morning, I did try the sugar cane that one of the students gave me, but by 12pm I was ready for a real meal.

Just as I was thinking about venturing out on my own, one of my students (a young man called Bush) dropped by to visit. He’s really trying to improve his English, and so he wanted me to go with him to the library to choose some English books that might help. I asked him if he was hungry, and suggested that after the library, we might go to the small restaurant off campus that he introduced me to last week, where they make the most delicious wonton soup. He agreed, and so after helping him chose a few books (D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Women in Love’ and John Irving’s ‘Hotel New Hampshire being among them), we headed off campus.

Before we got to the restaurant, he asked me if I’d ever tried cake with meat. I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but being eternally open to new experiences, I followed him to one the street food vendors. The cake was a sort of unsweetened flaky pastry that she opened up like a pitta bread. Into that, she took a thick piece of pork (it looked like belly pork) from an industrial size crockpot, and proceeded to chop it into tiny pieces, along with what looked like an Anaheim pepper. Lastly, she took a big spoonful of chili sauce and mixed that in too, before putting the mixture into the pastry.

We headed to the restaurant as I explained to Bush that elsewhere, restaurants really frowned upon you bringing your own food with you. He said that was pretty common, and so we sat down to order. I’ve been to this same restaurant 5 times now, and I’m slowly working through their menu. They really do have the best wonton soup that I’ve ever tried, with the most amazing broth. After reviewing all of the different flavors that I’ve tried so far, I went with Bush’s suggestion – pigeon. After trying it, I’m wondering if maybe this isn’t the solution to the pigeon problem that we have in so many cities.. all we need to do is to come up with a really effective marketing campaign on how pigeon is the new black!  It really was very tasty, but I did hesitate for a moment upon learning that you get served just every part of the pigeon. The pigeon heart was so tiny, and well… heart-shaped, but it also was very tasty.  I asked Bush about the soup, and he told me that it is made with 31 traditional Chinese medicines. He told me that it will ward off colds and prevent all sorts of ailments. All i know is that I was left wanting more.

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How it started was that I taught class tonight from 7pm until 9pm. I was busy putting the finishing touches to my charts befoe that, and so I didn’t have time for dinner (only a banana). Afterwards, I had to get back to my room for a call with a new business partner, and one of my students wanted to go over a plan for her project, and so I didn’t eat then either. Actually, I’d forgotten that I hadn’t eaten, and didn’t realize until I was downstairs taking the trash out.

I decided that I’d take a walk to ensure that I met my NikeFuel fitness goal, and that maybe I’d pick up a snack along the way. It’s turned very cold here the last two days, and so ‘Snack Street’ was quiter than usual. I did a first pass, and not seeing anything I liked, I walked around the whole block, coming back around for a second inspection. In the end, I got fed up with being indecisive, and just went to the first stall that was selling a mix of fried fish and meat.

The street was very dark and the stall was lit by something like a 10W bulb, and so it was hard to make out what the choices were. At first, I thought that the option I tried was chicken quarters, but as I pointed to it, I noticed that it was something that had been butterflied. Still thinking that it was some form of poultry, my mind jumped to quail as I found myself nodding my head, as she lifted a circular cover and dropped it inside. She then put the lid back down and started to use all of her weight to squash down whatever it was.

As it started to sizzle, I looked back at the other portion that was still sat on the slab. Hmmm.. remember those scenes in Alien and other sci-fi movies, when you suddenly realize that the skeleton isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen before. That’s how it felt when I realized that it definitely wasn’t chicken. After a couple of minutes, we got to really load sizzling, and so she pulled it out, and before I could take a closer look, she used a pair of tongs and a wallpaper stripper (if you’re not sure what I mean, think wide putty knife) to chop it into pieces.

She motioned if I wanted any spices, and after I nodded again, she liberally covered the contents of the doggy bag with the contents of two different shakers. When I got back to my apartment, I started thinking through strategies of how I could get rid of my snack, if I either chickened out (I wish!), or found that I really didn’t like the taste.

Surprisingly, I found that I really loved it. That’s probably to do with how much cumin was in one or both of the spice mixes, but what little meat there was on there tasted like a cross between bacon and yes, you guessed it.. chicken!

Just as I was finishing it, one of my students popped up on QQ (the Chinese love child of Facebook & Twitter, with a striking resemblance to crusty old uncle AOL IM), and I asked her what she thought I’d just eaten. She’s not that sure that it was frog, and after checking the images that come up when you search for ‘crispy frog’ or ‘crunchy frog’, I’m not all that sure either.

Again, I’m probably not going to enquire any further at this point. There are some things that are just better left unknown!

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After 30+ hours of travel, I arrived back in China on Saturday morning, ready to begin my 5 week stint as a Facilitator with the World Academy for the Future of Women. Leaving the US at nighttime made for a surreal travel experience (I usually take morning flights when I’m traveling to this part of the world), as it was dark outside for almost the entire journey. The day before I left I’d started coming down with one of those achy joints / sore throat / raspy voice sort of colds, so the changes in air pressure made things challenging.

When I got to Zhengzhou, three of the Academy members were waiting to meet me, and while we waited at the airport for Jerrie Uberle (the Founder of the Women’s Academy) to return from Shangai, we started to catch up on all that they have been doing since I was here in May. Even though I was very tired and feeling sick, I couldn’thelp feeling energized when Jerrie arrived and started to update me on all of the progress that has been made, and the new ideas and opportunities that she’s working on.

I’d been hoping that the air quality would be better at this time of year, but as we drove back to campus, i found my eyes and throat burning. It turns out that it is because that now the harvest is in, the famers are burning off the old corn and peanut plants. I’ve been assured that it will be getting better soon, but for now, I’m going to stay away from running. Although the air quality is bad right now, being here at harvest time does give you a glimpse into ancient China, as everywhere you drive, you see farmer’s crops spread out on the road to dry and whole families laboring to sort the wheat from the chaff.

P.S. Just to show you how smoky it is here, take a look at the picture from the alarm program on my iPad. Normally, this looks up the weather for the local area, but as you can see, what it found for XinZheng was ‘SMOKE’.

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