Juniper Armstrong

All right, after my last post I felt it was necessary to prove that I am eating the local cuisine (and not surviving on McDonald's and weird flavored potato chips). This past week I found myself in some great dining establishments and all by chance. One of the fellow teachers arrived this week and we decided to do some exploring of Tianjin. For our first experience, we hopped into a taxi and with my Chinese guide book in hand, asked the taxi driver: "Can you recommend a nice seafood restaurant?" The taxi driver proceeded to call up someone else to ask for advice, while we sat patiently in the car hoping we did not ask: "Can you make us into seafood?" After speeding around town (and I do mean speeding- with no seat belts), we arrived in the middle of a slum-like area where they had built this palatial restaurant in the middle. With that lovely juxtaposition greeting us, we went into the main lobby where there was tank after tank of live goods. It was then that we realized the taxi driver took us to the best seafood restaurant in town. John and I wandered around trying to figure out exactly what we were supposed to be doing, when finally a hostess took us up to a private dining area meant for six people. Then we were led back to the lobby where we walked around with our hostess and pointed to the dishes we wanted. I am not sure what I was eating exactly, but it was GOOD! With dinner over, we walked outside and realized there were no taxis around. After asking the nice hostess if she could call us a cab, we went back outside. Next thing we see, the hostess is running over the dirt and trying to make her way to the main road- they do not have a number to call for a taxi company, you just flag them down. I felt super guilty making this poor woman run around this area for a taxi. She was unable to get one, so she had us pile into a friend of her's car and they drove us to a main area where we could then grab a cab. So there, I do eat Chinese food...and get into precarious situations!