That's a wonderful answer. Thanks for that. My hosts were extremely generous people. I was sincerely humbled by the hospitality I was shown there (been twice). Of course there was a language barrier. Once, in Tianjin, I found a McDonalds and got pancakes. There was no way to get syrup. Nobody there knew the word in english, and there was no picture to point at. I tried comically for at least a minute, then gave up and ate them with butter (I was dying to have anything but kimchi for breakfast again).
Here's my host from the trip to Hefei. He was a bit of a nerdy guy, me too, and he took me out to a Hefei night club, taught me how to play a drinking dice game similar to liar's poker. I got good at it quickly, he puked, we got out of there, but not before Gangnam Style came on the juke box and the fake customers hit the stage. Great night in Hefei!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvMVtP-GltQ
Haha, that does indeed sound like a night out at a Chinese night club! Liar's Dice and way-overpriced cheap beer/watered down whiskey until someone's under the table, while the "entertainers" are dancing and singing to old pop songs at strategic spots throughout the venue. Depending where you are and how skeezy the club is, upwards of 50% (I totally made that statistic up) of the "patronage" may be there to get paid, if you know what I mean.
Funny that they wouldn't have been able to get you syrup for your pancakes at the Mickey D's in Tianjin - usually they have someone who speaks enough English to help with something like that, and one would think they'd recognize that the syrup they have stocked is intended to go with the pancakes. If you ever come back and find yourself in the same situation, the word is
táng jiāng.
I thought it was bad form in Asian countries to tell people what they are eating before they try it. I thought this is because it is offensive to not eat or at least try what is put in front of you.
I've never heard this in particular, but it is considered good face to at least try everything on the table, and VERY bad face to refuse something that's been put in your bowl by a host, although you can usually get around it by leaving it, and some other stuff, in your bowl at the end of the meal; an empty bowl traditionally indicates that there's not enough food on the table. If the guest is a foreigner who is new to China, though, there's a great deal of understanding among most hosts that some foreigners will not want to eat certain foods, so a third party telling them what's on the table, or even an outright refusal from the guests, may be accepted gracefully without any significant loss of face.
I think I need to eat out with you. There is very little that I won't eat (animal parts-wise). Sounds like an interesting tour-de-consumables.
Haha, come to China and you'll have plenty of opportunities to eat stuff that's hard to find in the US. Really, though, a lot of Chinese restaurants stateside will prepare and serve this stuff if you know how to ask for it. The trick is in the knowing.
On topic of what I cooked this weekend, lately I've been slicing tomatoes, tossing them on French bread with olive oil, minced garlic, leafy greens, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, often some kind of meat like (pre-cooked) bacon or smoked salmon, and cheese, then baking them in the oven. It's like a classier version of French bread pizza and tastes way better, and they only take about five minutes to prep. Best of all, my wife, who is my biggest critic when I cook (she spends an hour making dinner, I say "thanks honey, it's delicious!" even if it's not. I spend an hour making dinner, she says "it's not very good, why didn't you make it better?" even if I think it turned out excellently), likes these. It's refreshing to make food and receive thanks or praise rather than critique.
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