Jumping shrimp
by chris
Today Joy 女王 and Chris 猴王 went to Taihu Lake (太湖) and West Mountain Island (西山岛) and ate jumping shrimp.
First we went to a long, wooden pier that leads out over the lake. You can see big schools of tiny fish among the seaweed in the calm lake water.
For lunch, we drove by a number of 农家, farmer’s homes that are partly converted into restaurants. There were about six of them by the road, and being such a quiet day, one farmer’s wife was outside each house frantically beckoning us to her restaurant. We ate big platefuls of delicious seafood, including one dish of shrimp that were still alive! They were cooked but not so cooked that they actually died. The shrimp were semi transparent and soaked in a liqueur that drugged them long enough that they more or less stopped moving after a few minutes. At first of course I was wary, but they turned out to taste really good.
I also ate 螺, which is a kind of snail I ate several times at Joy’s house in Fujian. They don’t have a lot of taste but they come in a really good sauce. To eat them, you take a toothpick, stick it in and slowly pull the snail out of its spiral shell. If you are skilled enough and in a hurry you can eat about ten in a minute. At that rate it would take you an hour to fill up on them.
After lunch, we went to Shigong Hill (石宫山), a park by the lake with a small Buddhist temple and a playground. We went in the temple and saw the four god kings that you see when you go to most Buddhist temples in China, and big Buddha and his big belly. In the yard was a number of stumps for those training in kung fu to step on. You are supposed to close your eyes and balance or walk from one to another. I could do it a little but I think I need more practice. The playground had old swings and some rope things that are hard to cross but worth the exercise.
And on the way home, we looked at some expensive villas that are for rent and for sale. Some of them are empty and can be rented by the night, so we thought it would be a great idea to rent one for Christmas and have our friends come for a party. We will ask our friends (contact me if you want to come!) and have a big Christmas party at Taihu! 好兴奋啊！