Dalian Trip – Post 3

I’ve been in China for about a week now, and I would say that I’m adjusted to the jet lag now, but it still doesn’t help that sunrise here is about 4:30AM.

I’ve slowly been picking up Mandarin phrases, such as, “where is the bathroom”, or how to properly respond to the cashiers at my local market (so far, I have a 1 out of 2 record). It does help that many words are pronounced similarly to Cantonese.

Speaking of markets, I was impressed with the dizzying selection of Oreo types and flavors.

I ended up choosing “Grape & Peach” and Green Tea Ice Cream flavor. “Grape & Peach” was meh, and Green Tea was not bad. Unfortunately, the lack of truly sweet snacks means that Oreos are affected. For regular (Chinese) Oreos, although I could feel the cream, I couldn’t taste it! =(

Oh, and watch out for those durians! My arm accidently brushed against one, and I initially thought nothing of it. Later when I got home, I found that the durian had actually cut the skin, causing slight bleeding. Nothing a tough guy like me can’t handle though.

I tried street vendor food for the first time. It’s called something along the lines of, “egg with cold noodle”, even though it’s called cold noodle, it’s fried on a griddle. For only Â¥5 (that includes an extra egg and ham), it’s not a bad deal. I didn’t even have an upset stomach the next day!

I also ate at KFC for the first time – only about half of the menu is the same in the US, and they even deliver! Any way, I tried their Black mushroom beef rice dish, for Â¥21 (the average Dailan resident spends Â¥10-12/per meal). It was decent for what it was, even if it didn’t look anything like the picture (see lower right menu pictures)

My next outing was to Labor Park, which no one seems to know why it’s called that.

Other than calm walking areas, there’s a small amusement park/fair attractions, and giant football…errr soccerball structure. Again, no one seems to know why it’s there.

Anyway, the last thing for this post is that I finally found some chocolate that’s actually (kind-of) sweet.Unfortunately, it’s imported, which means %100 tax and a Â¥12 price. That means it costs as much as a typical meal!

Oh well, at least Lil Jon would be proud of the flavor I chose.