Girls Nights Out and Chinese Food 101

I forgot to mention in my last post that I attended book club. We read the book My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccoult. I rated the book about a 7 out of 10. It was very sad and I could really relate to the character of the Mother and Father. I really thought that they were so much like my own parents. It was very nice to talk about the book, but I did miss the banter of my old book club at home where we would talk about the book for about 2 minutes and then get down to more serious things like our love lives and kids. There were about 15 women, mostly Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 German, and 1 Estonian. The funny thing was that one of the Canadians has a house in Scottsdale, Arizona!

On Friday I got to enjoy another evening with girls. A couple of the wives of husbands from Jonny's company went out for a yummy Chinese dinner. I thought I would make you salivate and take a few shots of our meal. Unfortunately my favorite dish, which was cold cucumber in a scrummy garlic sauce was not one of my snapshots, but check these dishes out!

This is a scallion pancake and it is very yummy!!! They prepare it on a grill right in the middle of the restaurant.

I think the veggies are the best part of the meal.

They all have amazing flavor!

This veggie had a nice soy-tasting sauce.

Here is a very famous Sichuan dish, Ma Po Dofu (we call it Tofu at home). It is very spicy and very yummy.

This is what we call in the U.S. Kung Pao Chicken. It doesn't have waterchest nuts like home, but it does have this numbing spice called 'star anise', which I think is very cool. It makes your mouth feel like you have had a few shots of Novocain.

With our dinner we also enjoyed a dish called Bo Bo Ji, which is a chilled, cooked chicken in a sesame sauce, this great dessert which was taro root dipped in a batter and deep fried with sesame seed on the ends, and we had this warm, yellow liquor that is very similar to port, but lots more alcohol that perfectly tied the meal together. It was the best meal we have had so far since we moved to China and it cost us less than $8 a piece!!!

After dinner we headed to the local Irish pub for a change.

The girls having a few drinks.

Part of the reason we were all out is because the husbands had a work party. They really whooped it up and joined us for a drink after their festivities ended.

Jonny and Rock looking very cute with their mask on from the masquerade party.

Jonny, David (the Australian owner of the Shamrock), and Brad. Brad had a little mishap at the party and has a gash above one of his eyes. We are not sure what eye it is because David was a little 'band-aid happy'.

Rock, Sadie and Costa Rica Antonio.

Molly and Reed waving their 'pinkies' at the camera.

Here is my lovely husband with me after a night with the boys.