Lunch with Bill and Julia

We washed the chopsticks too.
Firstly, I was delighted to see that two of my favourite blogs, Peter and Minty's www.movetobulgaria.blogspot.com, and Claire's www.auntiebulgaria.blogspot.com, have new posts. Minty had not posted anything for ages, so we were wondering what had happened. Secondly, my own blog has now had more than 6,000 "hits". That is pretty good for a blog that has only been going for two months.

Bill and Julia are our dear friends. It would be difficult to imagine our years in China without them. Even though Bill and Julia are younger than us, Irena and I always enjoy their company. We are always laughing when we are together. 

Of course, this is China and so one of the most important things the four of us do is – yes, you guessed it – eating! Bill and Julia love Irena’s cooking, so they often come to our apartment for a meal. We often go out to a restaurant together and so that means leaving the ordering to Julia!
On Sunday, after church, we had yet another lunch with Bill and Julia. This time it was in a big restaurant around the corner from our apartment. The first thing you do in a real Chinese restaurant is to wash the crockery. Yes, it is true. Your bowl, plate and spoon come packed in plastic wrapping, so you would think that it would already clean, but no! You have to wash it in tea. Well, really it is not “tea”, but something called “wheat tea”. It was a yellow colour and tasted of wheat. In China, all kinds of things are used to make “tea” and the things that are not used much are the clippings of the leaves from certain bushes.

Wheat tea and durian dim sum

The prawn dim sum were good; the durian ones were not so good. I liked the sweet and sour pork and the rice soup was yummy.
A key ingredient to many meals with Bill and Julia is, of course, the naughtiest poodle in all of the Middle Kingdom, Diudiu. “Loud”, “bossy”, “stubborn” and “greedy”: those are the adjectives that come to mind when describing this doggie.   

"Tea" - well, it was delicious
I have lost count of the number of times we have had meals with Bill and Julia. We would never have experienced the amazing variety of Chinese food without our dear friends. So what is my next gastronomic ambition? To introduce Bill and Julia to the joys of Bulgarian cuisine, in Bulgaria!
       

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