Preserved Eggs Actually Aren't Bad

Paul, one of our ONS managers at the velodrome, took the entire staff out to eat at one of Beijing's nicer restaurants a couple of days ago. This dinner was just another of the great dining experiences our group has had in our time in Beijing, which just goes to show how proud the Chinese of their culinary history.

This time, everyone at the table got pick something out of the menu that looked good. Krystyna decided that the fish soup looked good, but I need to explain what this "soup" entailed. It's a whole fish, head included, in dozens and dozens of peppers and pepper sauce. They even brought the fish out beforehand so that we could approve it, which Andy, our newly arrived Sports Information Specialist, said that was normal in Italian restaurants.

I ordered a plate that was essentially the ingredients for a fajita without the tortillas. It even had nacho chips on top of the beef, onions and peppers, which was pretty surprising in a Chinese restaurants. But the biggest surprise was the appetizer that Paul ordered. It was preserved eggs, meaning non-cooked eggs (I think, but not sure) cut into fourths and laid into a chili sauce. Eating this stuff with chopsticks was a difficulty in itself, but it was even harder that the other Chinese volunteers at the table thought my struggles were absolutely hilarious The eggs were odd, slippery, and didn't really look like eggs at all, but they were actually very good. The chili sauce was the kicker, and I would be happy to dip just about anything into that stuff.

The best part of the dinner was the education I received from my dinner guests, three Chinese girls who were also working at the velodrome. Yao, who also lives and studies at the Communication University of China, taught me how to toast properly when the head of the press division at the velodrome came over to toast our entire table. Apparently, you are supposed to toast lower on the glass to your superior as a show of respect. That means, as a volunteer at these Olympics, I probably should have put my glass around the bottom of his. However, as a show of humility, the superior will try to toast you lower, which I didn't know how to counter, so I did it wrong. Fortunately, I get an out of jail free card for not being Chinese, so my ignorance was accepted.

It was actually fun to get a closer look at the Chinese culture at dinner, which we haven't had a chance to do since we mostly dine with other westerners. Just one more chance for us to use our time in China for the best.