There is a Chinese saying: Eat everything with two legs except human, eat everything with four legs except tables. During my recent trip to China to help oversee the Cloak, I found that this saying was not far from the truth.
While I consider myself an adventurous eater (I’m a huge fan of the Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods), I was shown up constantly by one stand-out diner. A few days into the trip, Ben managed his first Chinese sentence while we were driving between factories — “Yi Qi Chir Bah!” — and our driver, Mr. Liu, happily accepted the invitation.
When we got to the restaurant, we all ordered up. I put in an order for jellyfish salad (simultaneously the softest and hardest food on the planet) and Mr. Liu ordered something we couldn’t understand. Fifteen minutes later the food began arriving, one dish at a time, and the suspense built up as we waited for the mystery dish. Then it came out: a gigantic bowl of a yellow stew with a giant fish head bobbing in it.
It was an intimidating dish, but in the end I think everyone agreed it was quite delicious. Even despite the huge language barrier, Mr. Liu was able to share his favorite dish with us.
On my last night in China, after finishing dinner, I won a free turtle meal ticket when I paid for my (turtle-free) dinner. I happily gave the ticket to Mr. Liu, a quirky driver and bizarre food connoisseur from across the globe.
