Welcome to Hefei

We landed in Hefei around 7 PM on Sunday and boarded our mini bus to the city. Some guide book talked about how you can travel around China and come across some city of 5MM people that you've never heard of --- that would be like Hefei.

We drove directly to an elaborate Chinese restaurant with a big fountain and large dining hall and met our host "Mr G", one of the branch executives. They had arranged for private dining room with two of the traidional banquet style tables. These are the large round tables that seat maybe 12 people each with a large lazy susan in the middle.

Mr G had ordered up bottles of the local liquor which I have taken to calling the "Vodka-like Liquid" or VLL. They often call it their Chinese white wine.

With this we commenced with the toasing which I have come to find out is a big part of the banquet experience. You get a large glass or small pitcher of the VLL and then a smaller (shot style) glass that you keep refilling from the larger supply.

Mr G first made a group toast, then the participants started the one-on-one toasting, moving all around the table. When it was all said and done I think we had each consumed a large tumbler of the VLL so things were pretty fun.

The food was really good at this restaurant. I was worried after the first dish arrived --- some sort of duck stew with lots of duck parts floating around. My bowl had what clearly was a web foot but I ate around that.

There was also a dish with a lot of bony parts that they could only describe as "wild bird". It may have been pigeons for all I new but it was actually pretty good. A lot of the dishes had some kick to them and I particularly liked the vegetables.