It was Rainer's birthday yesterday. Ina planned a birthday dinner for him and Matthew and I went out to celebrate with them. Tony's been away for business in Malaysia this past week and missed all the festivities. Mr. Miao was invited to the festivities as well along with some of Ina's friends from Malaysia. Eugene and Li Ping used to work in Shanghai with Tony and Ina and they were here visiting. It was nice to be able to put a face with a name. Too bad Tony wasn't able to see them as well. Li Ping and her sister Steffanie ordered the food for us. We were a table of seven adults and two children. That means....bring on the food. Sake and beer was flowing endlessly as well as soda for the kids. We had the usual- sashimi, tempura, gyoza, beef negamaki and other tasty tidbits and then we all noticed some new items on the table. Let's just say those who saw the show "Mr Ed" would know what I'm referring to. It was horse meat and a Korean dish that consisted of raw meat with a raw egg on top - something similar to steak tartare. I figured between the sake and beer... if there was something questionable about the meat, nothing would be able to survive. So, yes- we all tried the horse meat. I was told that many many years ago, mortadella- that lunch meat that you see with the pistachios today used to be made out of horse meat. I can't tell you if it's true or not but I had a very bad image of Mr. Ed the horse getting led to the slaughterhouse and getting sliced into razor thin pieces. I can honestly say that I've tried it...can't say that I would do it again. Then again, I've had some pretty weird things in China that I know I will never see in the States.
I made a chocolate peanut butter pie (see attacked pie picture) for Rainer and it went very quickly. Ina is a bit of a party girl and is not one to go home and sleep early. She insisted that we all go out for karaoke. Matthew and I have never been to a karaoke bar so it was a first experience for us. The Chinese take karaoke very very seriously. They don't care how they sound, it's the sport of doing it. A typical karaoke night will mean you are chaperoned into a private room with your party. This beats having to do it in public on a stage with many strangers staring and snickering at you. Hey, at least if you're going to sound awful, you can do it in the privacy of a room with your friends. I'm happy to report, our party didn't sound awful because Matthew and I declined to sing but sat back and watched everyone else do it. After about three hours, we rolled up the party and drove home. Matthew was giddy about staying up until 12:45. He wants to do it again. I told him he'll have to wait until Rainer's next party.
