The Crab
After a slow start on the Thursday of my first week, I went around the corner and grabbed a piping-hot meat-filled bun thing and a couple of doughy steamed things with spring onions inside, a bit like a dim sim. I figured out how to use my washing machine with the help of Google Translate, and then mid afternoon, I met my new friend, (the teacher who had suggested the bar that I'd been to the night before), in her area on another attempt to find the elusive underground supermarket. This time I succeeded. It was quite basic, but a supermarket nonetheless. I stopped to make eye contact with a motionless crab in a tank, and I'd like to think it was looking back at me, as it suddenly woke from its daze and followed my movements. I felt a bit sorry for it, no doubt destined to end up in someone's hotpot or fried rice. I had to move away from the tanls as the ammonia smell was a bit unappealing, then met my teacher friend outside. We got a taxi to the downtown area, and got out at the start of a little pedestrian street filled with food stands and little restaurants. We did venture into some ancient courtyard areas which are meant to be the old but restored parts of Xuzhou, where I took photos of beautiful paintings at the entrance. A few minutes later we arrived at Nice Cafe, allegedly one of the two cafes in all of Xuzhou that sells decent coffee. Bright, yet cozy inside, we ordered a couple of 'Au bais' It turns out that this means 'Australian flat white', Au for Audaliya and bai for white in Chinese.
Au bai
The coffee didn't disappoint, in fact it was Melbourne-level, but smallish. We chatted about life in Xuzhou and the history and places nearby to visit. After quite some time, we decided to head out into the cold and go to a hotpot place not too far away. We continued along the pedestrian street and then it continued as a bustling main road. In the near distance was a looming circular building, the same office tower I'd previously seen all lit up. It turns out this is Suning Plaza, the biggest shooping centre in Xuzhou and the centre of town. We didn't go in but instead headed past and came across another mall directly behind it called Golden Eagle. The whole time my friend was telling me more about Xuzhou's important history, and pointing out various cultural landmarks, such as some ancient school that now is a plaza with restaurants, and that Kaifeng, a tiny city I've longed to visit, is an interesting day trip away, as too are Qufu City (birthplace of Confucious) and Huaguoshan or Flower and Fruit Mountian, (near Liangyungan City, to the east of Xuzhou) which happens to be the birthplace of Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, the hero in the epic saga, Journey To The West, of which the 1970s Japanese TV show, Monkey, was based on. (Born from an egg on a mountain top!)
Haidilao Hotpot
Unfortunately, the Xuzhou hot pot restaurant we were going to had closed down, so we ended up going back into one of the malls to a different hotpot restaurant - Haidilao. Not usually a hotpot connoisseur, it was my first time visiting this chain, China's largest, with branches now around the world. Originating in Sichuan, it's know for it's good customer service. We eventually found an elevator to take us up to the ninth floor, walked past some bizarro Alice In Wonderland eating establishment, and managed to get a table. One thing I wasn't aware of was the hotpot broth was tomato based. This was something I'd never seen before, certainly not in China's north. Half was spicy and the other half regular. We ordered various vegetables and trays of meat from an electric tablet menu, then went up and got our dipping sauces, including the staple of sesame paste with chives and coriander. Of course one has to have cold beer to accompany hotpot, and Haidilao just happens to stock a very nice witbier. Suffice to say, a food coma eventually took hold, but not before considerable effort trying to fork out quail eggs with chopsticks from the soup.
All-in-all a great day of exploration, culture, and eating!
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