Yep, Heads in All...

Jessica, you are going to be so proud of me and at the same time...disappointed.

So, many of you know that I work for a Chinese company, right?

Well, for the next couple of days I am in training in our Houston office for a new software program they are implementing.

Okay, when my bosses come to Dallas to vistit and we plan to dine out, I will usually suggest Italian or Mexican. Well, tonight was their choice and you may have already guessed it.... I was treated to real authentic Chinese food. I'm not talking PF Chang's type Chinese food. I'm talking about 10 different entrees coming out with whole animal heads on the platter. Stop laughing at me!!!

Anyhow, I made a point of sitting by one of my American bosses so that he could guide me. As I sit down, he nudged me and said, "If I don't eat it...you don't eat it." I felt a little safer, but then I also knew that he was used to eating authentic Chinese food too. I was in for something reallllllllllllllllll different.

First we started with hot egg drop soup. It tasted pretty good. Then, we had 3 different meat platters that the waiter brought out. One was duck meat. A whole head of what appeared to be a rooster or hen was at one end of the platter and it was staring directly at me! Another platter came out with lobsters on it. There was a lobster's head at each end of the platter. I was tripping out! Okay, I know that most of you have tried lobster and just LOVE it! Well, up until tonight, I had never tried it. But, because my American boss was guiding me and was being so kind to serve up my food on my plate, I felt obligated to go ahead and try it. Another platter came out, it held this very flattened fried fish (of course with it's head sticking out on the platter!) and vegetables on it. Ready for this??? I tried this too. No kidding, the server would come to the table and pick up the empty platters and bring 3 or 4 back. There were a lot of different vegtables to try as well. One platter that I was REALLY happy to see was a steak platter with this sweet barbeque sauce on it. I remember helping myself to four servings of this one.

Anyhow, I couldn't wait to be dropped off at the hotel so that I could call and tell Dirk about this experience! He was proud of me.

Okay Jessica, two things...
I know that you are proud of me for stepping out and trying this.
But, girl...I forgot to bring my camera to Houston. Can you believe this? I changed purses this morning (at 3am!) and left my small camera behind! I had made a comment during dinner that I wished that I had my camera to take pictures. One of my coworkers said that I should use the camera on my phone. Guess what? I had NO IDEA how to use the camera on my phone. So, she (my co-worker) figured it out and took some pictures for me. Unfortunately, only a couple of them turned out. After Dirk told me how to send them to my email, it only took me half-an-hour to forward (text) them to my email so I could post them for you all to see. No, I don't like text messaging! Anyhow, I have posted the pics below but they are not great quality.

I hope that you all will be able to see the chicken head and the lobster heads. My boss thought it would be cute to put them closer together. In fact, he tried to stage it to make them appear to be kissing. It didn't work, so he just arranged them to looking at the flower which was also on the platter.

Again, not a great quality picture, but the head is what is poking out on the platter!


Okay, as I was telling Dirk, I really did enjoy this experience and it was really sweet for my bosses to do this for me, but I'm not ready to go back tomorrow. Hahaha. Yes, I'll try this again one day. In fact, I have tried a similiar experience a few years ago with an Asian co-worker, but it was nowhere near this extreme with the heads in all.

They're are treating me to lunch tomorrow, I wonder if they'll let me pick since it's my last day here???