I have been told everything here is a 2000 year tradition. In reading the history of this country that is not possible, but then again neither is Santa Claus. This is the dinner tradition.
The Whirley Bird dinner is a very intense way to entertain customers. I have no knowledge of their personal celebrations.
The Chinese style restaurants have private rooms where the dinner is served. In the middle of the table is a huge Lazy Susan. The host orders for the table and they bring out the dinner in stages. Not sure about the stages. All the dishes are communal and everyone sticks their chop sticks in to get their own food. These are the same chop sticks you eat with. They do not follow the Japanese style of eating from one end and serving from the other end of the chop sticks. They serve rice at the end of the meal. Plain rice. Then fruit.
They also serve very, very weak tea, hot water and crazy wine. Crazy wine is like (and may be) sickly moonshine. My bottle, which I would never consider drinking, has some floaters in it and smells terrible. I know this because it leaked. They fill the crazy wine glasses and slam the drink continuously throughout the dinner. The goal is to get very drunk. They have a toast they holler out and slam the drink. And they toast everyone all night.
I know this stuff from Big Daddy. And he has never met with the gubmint (yes, I am spelling it that way for a reason) so this dinner may be a tad different. I will try for some pictures, I really do not know the protocol for this area. BD did tell me to order a Coke, fill up the glass and take tiny sips to keep it full, when a glass has room they pour in the crazy wine.
So you can see why a Wasp with a weak stomach and no adventure in her soul was hoping to miss this highlight. I feel a BLT on wheat toast is an abomination.
The name Whirley Bird came from an event in the past. Some friends well known as cheaper than cheap asked some of us to help them move. They said they would order pizza and furnish drinks. Well we all busted ass moving them and when we were tired, dirty and hungry they put a bag of potato chips on the Lazy Susan. You had to twirl the Lazy Susan to reach in and get your chips and that baby never stopped whirling. And the hosts decided that we did not need pizza, the chips were enough. Maybe I should write an entire post about these people, they were unbelievable.
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Oooh, pizza denial, how evil of them.
ReplyDeleteTip: smuggle a bottle of Coke in your purse and then keep your glass filled from the hidden bottle.
Or I could get one of those strange containers that everyone carries about and fill it with Benedictine, did I spell that right, and tell them it is medicine. I think that might stymie my attempt to stay sober however. And I have no idea where you would find that here. Maybe Campari and call it cough medicine.
ReplyDeleteYes, you got it spelled correctly. In the past little bit I finally got a local supplier to finally stock this item for me. It took them several weeks to finally commit to stocking and finding the item but I promised them I would purchase. They even keep one specially tucked under the front counter just for me, ah, this is Texas at its finest level of hospitality! While messing around with my iPad keyboard one day I accidentally hovered on a vowel too long and a popup menu of fancy O's showed up! So I tried all of the keyboard and found the Fancy Frenchy French E's for Bénédictine, 2 out of 3. Now Ernest can do É's with ease. Then I thought I should gussie up my name as well, so Érnést, but I have no idea how the French would promounce me. (Hah, I love my m typo, so I left it in place so you could see 'promounce'. )
ReplyDeleteTamie and I went on a big date to On The Border last night while we ran to Amarillo for some business items. She was ready for a slightly fancier meal, but of course I wound up getting 1 and 1/2 meals, so now I won't eat for about 24 hrs to compensate. They make a wonderful fajita meat with bacon and cheese, mmm. I have started walking more on nice days so I am getting in shape a little more than normal.
My younger son and his wife will make it home on Sunday evening for a few weeks so that will be a blessing for everyone, especially Cooper. I have been prepping him as usual by talking about my son and showing Cooper his photo, so I now he has less than 48 hours until his former master comes home for awhile.
Bénédictine is an ingredient in a Singapore Sling, and its available at the 47th floor bar at the The Lounge, Sky Dome Bar, Radisson Hotel Shanghai New World
ReplyDeleteSo finding a full bottle at a lower altitude is another journey.
Marco Polo would have had it much easier in China with a Google
ReplyDeleteBénédictine on the ground:
http://www.shanghai9.net/liqueur/dom-benedictine.html
I think they deliver (?)