Fried eggplant and pigs, in no particular order...

We've been in Wuhan 3 days now. Finally I feel like I'm living in the
"real" China, as opposed to the China the wisks by behind the tinted
window of Mei's dad's air-conditioned Ford Mondeo, or bustles below ma 5
star hotel window. It's only when one walks the streets of Mei's Wuhan
neighborhood that one truely appreciates just how different, and yet at
the same time similar, this culture is.

Rather than document a day by day of our doings in Wuhan, I'll jot down
a few observations about life in China, and Wuhan in particular. And
where better to start then the food? Having thus far only experiences
restaurant (and the odd street hawker) fare, I approached my first home
-cooked meal with much anticipation (of course, as my critics have been
quick to point out, this in itself is nothing out of the ordinary :). I
was not to be disappointed. Let me outline last night's menu for you.
First up, a crispy roast chicken literally glistening under a glaze of
spices and tangy sauce. This presented a test of will power for your
author as he sought the self control to leave room for the rest of the
meal... Dish 2 was a steaming plate of fried eggplant in chili sauce.
Many of my readers will know I'm partial to a certain eggplant hotpot at
KC Cafe a world away on Wellington's Courtney Place. Let me tell you,
these garden fresh eggplants make KC Cafe's offering look like a stale
McDonalds cheeseburger next to a flame grilled Whopper (not the most
classy comparison I know, mainly just wrote that to annoy Ian... ;)
Let's move on to dish 3 - freshly caught Black Fish out of Wuhan's East
Lake. Grilled to perfection and served in a juicy ginger sauce with
sliced bamboo. But wait, there's more. What meal would be complete
without the requisite side dishes? A heaping plate of spicy Chinese
sausages, a big bowl of squid sauteed with bok choi, and a steaming bowl
of tofu soup... Alas I fear such a feast on a nightly basis was never
designed for a sluggish Western metabolism.

Moving on, Wuhan is a pleasant (as pleasant as 8 million people crammed
into a teaming metropolis roasting under 25 degree heat can be) urban
spral situated on the banks of the Yangzee River and a big lake
imaginitively named the East Lake (no doubt the dummy translation, the
actual name is no doubt far more poetic). The riverbank along the
Yangzee has been done up into an incredibly flash marble promenade
interescted with fountain gardens and monuments. An evening stroll as
the sun sinks over the myriad of barges plying their trade on China's
longest river is a sight to behold. That's when you realise this place
isn't so different after all - young couples walk hand in hand, kids
race to the playgrounds dotted along the river, Mei complains about
something or other... This could just as easily be sunset over Darling
Harbour in Sydney, or even Palmy's good ol' Esplanade.

I'm starting to pick up a bit of the lingo here. For example, "fei"
means "fat", as in "fei mao" ("fat cat"), or "fei Zhu Mei" (somewhat
obviously, "fat Mei" :). Another one I quickly picked up travelling with
the Zhu's is "shau", pronounced "sow" as in the female pig. This means
"stupid", as in, for wont of a better example, "shau Zhu Mei" (I'm sure
I don't need to translate this here... more colloquially, we might say
"dumb j00" :). Even better, I also learned that "Zhu" (pronouced "Joo"
as you all know) sounds the same as the Chinese word for pig! Thus one
is in the unique position of being able to call Mei a pig and not get in
trouble >:p

That's it for this collection of random thoughts. Some more photos from
the SuHang area are up, apologies again for the slow upload, this
connection ain't the fastest.