Japanese Food in China

About a week ago, I treated Chance and Brenna to lunch for their one year wedding anniversary.  They said that they already planned to have lunch with their friend Vanessa (the daughter of the Dean of Foreign Studies).  I said they should bring her along and I would treat her too.  Apparently, she was upset (not in a real way) that I paid for her.  She thought that as her guests in China, she should be paying.  So, she planned to get her revenge by taking us all to a very fancy Japanese restaurant in downtown Changsha.  By Chinese standards, the place was pretty fancy.  It was an all you can eat buffet of various Japanese dishes (sushi included) and it cost 168 yuan a person (about $25).  Keep in mind that I've been paying 5 yuan for cheap dinners and 20 yuan for nice dinners up to this point.  I really found a great food buddy in Chance because that kid can eat.  Both of us were salivating at the menu and we were instructed to order anything we wanted.  You're supposed to simply look at the menu and say things like, "I'll have two of these, and two of those, and a couple of these...."   The servers keep track of everything you eat even though it's all covered by the initial cost.   A few of the dishes I remember eating were mango, an egg gelatin, prawns, lamb cutlets, clams, bacon wrapped asparagus, assorted nagiri sushi, california rolls, eel maki rolls, salmon sashimi, yellow tail sashimi, tuna sashimi, codfish, roast beef, chicken wings, ice cream with bean curd topping, banana milkshakes, mango milkshakes, and on and on and on.  Vanessa counted the number of dishes we ate and it totaled 32.  We were in heaven!  She seemed really happy that we were enjoying ourselves so much.

These guys weren't on the menu.  They were just in my shower that morning.

Vanessa and Brenna

Chance and I are starting to get excited.

I have no idea why we both look weird in this picture.

The hibachi grill.

Mussels and prawns.

In America, we aren't used to seeing the whole thing.  We just get them already peeled with the heads and legs taken off for us.  Brenna said she had no idea what a shrimp even looked like until she got to China.

Hmm...what next?

Clams were delicious.  They were huge too.

Tuna and yellow tail.

I became quite attached to this little guy.  I'm stroking him to comfort him just before eating him.

This mango was so good.

The final list of food we ate.