Wild animal restaurant

My second point is completely different (previous post: Warped space and size in the Chaoshan area), so is here.  Yes, I was invited by a friend’s friend to go with them to Chenghai(澄海).  This is where this group of friends are all from originally, and some of them still are, they were middle school-mates. 

   We went, of course, to eat.  The restaurant specialised in wild animals.  I have no idea how wide a selection is available, I’m not even sure if free range here actually count as wild, because I’m pretty sure most animals are factory farmed near the cities, otherwise there wouldn’t be enough space to breed enough meat. I know the chickens are factory farmed.  Anyway it was a long way down the Shantou-Chenghai road, through Chenghai and out the other side, then make a u-turn in the road and turn right down a dirt track.  All the most local specialities are down dirt tracks.  Why is everything so well-hidden?  So many people would come if only there were signposts.  Ha, maybe that’s why there aren’t any. 

   Well it was hotpot and lots of meat from some wild animal, some green vegetables and some wild seafood (a lot of seafood, especially fish, is reared on farms), it was delicious and I wish I could tell you where it was so you could go too. 

   Also we drank a couple of bottles of bai jiu (rice wine?), which in the company of these particular friends I’m quickly learning to down several glasses of in quick sucession.  I’m much more used to drinking volume at my own chosen pace (Western style), but as you have to wait for an opportunity to drink with other people, it means chance to drink is less, so more should be drunk at one time.  And also, as in every country, it’s a matter of pride to match/out-drink your friends.  My stomach was originally not impressed, but is getting used to the idea.