Sea Slugs & Durian

It's interesting how I came here with expectations of the things I wanted to do and the things I wanted to eat. I have not had the time to see what I have wanted to see and I have not had the chance to eat some of the things I wanted try. Today changed for me when it came to what I got to 'eat.'

Having finished my portfolio, my two Russian friends and I headed for Walmart so I could buy a 500 gig hard drive. As we were walking through Walmart Vika said to me, "Look, there is that fruit - Durian." They had taken segments of it and packaged them separately. We smelled it and it was SO bad. She said, "Would you girls like to try it?" Olia and I looked at each other and said, "sure, why not."

We walked through walmart and even Chinese people were staring at us. We walked into a tea store and the clerk brought a bad and put the Durian in it and closed it. They couldn't even stand the smell :) We were going to take it back to the school and challenge others to eat it with us but we decided the 12 floor ride in the elevators might kill us all. We opted to try it on the street instead.

Attached are photos of the Durian, my "While tasting" photo and the "OMG It is so nasty" photo. It tasted like spoiled vadalia onions. We each had a bite, made faces - had a second bite and tossed it. Olia instantly gave us hand sanitizer to kill the smell and Vika handed out coffee candies to kill the taste! Can't say I'll have it ever again...however, it has made me belch all afternoon. And just a Durian FYI ~ it tastes the same as when I ate it! YUCK.

Tonight we went to Ghost Street for a Peking Duck Dinner. I had Jellyfish & Cabbage Salad, Braised Sea Cucumber (Sea Slugs), huge Snails in Sichuan Peppercorn Sauce and many other dishes. I LOVED the Sea Slugs and Jellyfish! Really! LOVED them both. Attached you will also find pictures of the inside of the restaurant. It was a really cool traditional Chinese style house.

What a great day and wonderful night. I found out I am receiving a Level 1 Certification!!! Woo hoo! It was such a great day. I am seriously contemplating if this classifies as my PD#7 (Perfect Day #7), I will know by morning, but I am thinking it is really close and just may squeak in there to be #7.

Funny, the things I so wanted to try I have not, the things i did not plan on trying, I have. It was a wonderful day. I even got a pair of sandals with about 2 dozen (or more) stones adhered to the inside sole. When you step on them the stones are placed at different heights to push on the acupressure points. They are awesome. I found them in a pharmacy where they sold everything from dried sea slugs to these pods that people love to eat that are grown only in Yak poop in the Himalayas. It was a cool store to say the least.