Another Thanksgiving. Last year I was home...home enjoying the food and the company of my family. This year, in China...a lot lonesome and a lot wishing for some good ham, turkey and potato salad.
So yesterday was Thursday here, still Wednesday in the states...but since it was Thursday I guess yesterday was Thanksgiving here for me. Nothing special! No turkey, no ham but DUCK.
I have an 阿姨 (a yi - literal interpretation "auntie" but more accurate translation is housekeeper). She is 65 years old and she buys the groceries for dinner every evening, does the laundry and cleans the apartment. She fixes dinner, cleans the pots and pans and then leaves. All this for 1,500 RMB per month including groceries - around $225 US dollars. I leave the food selection up to her - she can choose anything but fish, snake or dog and no chicken feet.
Last night's "Thanksgiving Meal" consisted of a small duck cooked in red peppers - chopped up in bite size pieces (bones and all), fried cabbage and of course, rice. The duck wasn't bad, a little spicy but delicious. I hate the Chinese way of chopping up chickens and ducks into the bite-sized pieces and having to eat around the bone. I am really not fond of poultry but if I must just give me a good ol' boneless chicken breast.
Anyway that was the meal. I washed it all down with a big 620 ML bottle of ZhuJiang beer. I then washed that down with a half a bottle of 白酒 baijiu (Chinese 'white lightning' - 56% alchohol). Needless to say, when I finished my Thanksgiving meal I was well snockered. I decided to go out for coffee which is something I rarely do. Two double shot expressos. My cousin Buddy always said that "drinking coffeee does not sober a drunk. All you have is a woke-up drunk." And thats what I was, a "woke-up drunk".
Went to the apartment, tried to sleep. Too much coffee and too many things on my mind. Finally fell asleep around 3 this morning.
This morning, not feeling too well. A little turkey, a lot of ham, a lot of potato salad would definitely have been better and a wiser choice. And thats what its all about isn't it? Making wise choices, something I always fail to do.
Anyway, enough of my rambling and post-drunken depression. I wish to all my family and friends a Happy Thanksgiving. Please eat a little for me.
