Living on a Narrowboat
So, this weekend is Dragon Boat Festival.
The festival is a celebration of the advent of ‘summer’ (we’ve already begun celebrating here with torrential rain).
Out come the Dragon boats, wine and dumplings.
It’s a three day festival.
Maybe there’ll be some rowdy Chinese puking and throwing dumplings everywhere, (just like it was England), or, maybe there won’t.
We’ll see.
Ok I’ve found out some more about the festival. It falls on the 5th Lunar day of the calendar.
Tommorrow.
These look like a dragons claw. I call them dragons claw fruit.
The children think them ‘hen hao’. I will sprinkle them in my porridge in the morning…
With some members of Linestart.
Had been out doing interviews at potential new school contract with the other members of Linestart pictured here.
This was a kind of fish dish, which you have to very careful not to choke to death on. The bones are sharp and plentiful. I’m not usually tempted by this kind of fish, just because of the bad experiences I’ve had in the past (a lot like women). This time I stayed away also.
We had some other dishes on the rotating table, a pork and peppers with Sichuan sauce, bitter cucumber and egg, green beans and chilli’s, as well as some jasmine tea, rice and a prawn and Sichuan sauce style dish.
It was very much like Sichuan.
Didn’t over eat, and went home to do my lesson plans.
Invited to night out in Kunshan to round off Friday I guess.
Went to place called Fubar which was an English style pub at the top of a three storey waterfront cylindrical tower block.
Pretty posh. Nice beer.
Played Scrabble which was pretty unusual.
Moved on to place called the Whale bar in Kunshan which had a live band playing and was a lot more lively.
More bar-ish, no scrabble boards in sight.
Had a few drinks and a shao kao to top it off. Nice.
Last night went to the KTV, which I had been warned about. Had the full room laid on by one of our pupils, as much weak beer as you could possibly wave a stick at, or a microphone. They had a little booth, you could stand in or you could walk, or sit.
Was fun, much more fun than doing it in a pub full of people.
Since there seems to be so little about this on the Internet, I’m going to introduce you to a well researched list along with exact locations of some of the finest, cheapest or most popular eateries in the city.
Beni’s Fish Restaurant
1 Mesilat Yesharim, Jerusalem
Located in the Abu-Kosh district of town along with some other popular restaurants, Beni’s serves fresh fish Kosher style.
There wasn’t a massive selection on the menu and no starters. I had grayling, surrounded by humus, garlic pita, tadziki, boiled eggplant and french fries.
The fish is fresh, topped with paprika and coriander fresh from under the grill. Took about 20minutes in all.
A fish supper with a bottle of water and coffee came to 87 shekels or £11.
Armenian Tavern
79 Armenian Orthodox Patriarchal Rd, Old Town, Jerusalem
Listed by the Lonely Planet guide, I checked this Café because it’s right near St. David’s tower and the Jaffa Gate, making it an in-out job.
One of the best meals I’ve had was a veal in red wine sauce sauteed with shallots and mushrooms at this hotel in Dodge City when visiting the Rushmore Memorial. Just thought I’d let you know.
Anyway, back to matters in hand, the Armenian Restaurant has a terrific waitress/owner you could visit just for her. But, the food is good also.
I had Vine leaves with mince and meal stuffing, served with a creamy sauce, pita breads and mushrooms. The rice and pita soaked up all the sauce and my plate was clean by the finish.
It’s a nice restaurant to visit because of the authentic decor and prime location, wooden panelling and sepia photographs, historical, almost like a gallery in itself.
Stuffed vine leaves + 2 beers cost 75 Shekels or £9.
The Minaret – Lebanese
Located slightly outside the main walls, the Minaret is set slightly back from the road in a small arcade.
It serves authentic Lebanese salads, dishes and sweets. Obviously quite popular, there were a few people of different nationalities, English and Italian and American. Some dishes were sold out went I got there.
The food came quickly, I had a pita with olives and gherkins as a side starter. Every time I’ve eaten in Israel they’ve brought out this salad like a starter, be it humus and a few pita or fried eggplant, olives etc. until the main meal arrives.
I had a Sinai, which is ground lamb and meal combined in a large meatball with garlic, coriander in a tomato sauce.
Simple but effective.
Washed down with a Retzina the meal came to 70NSi or about £8.
Also had some Jelly Babies – 1NSi.
KML 31.779 35.222