Short story of the day:

We currently go out to eat dinner a lot, since the school we will be eating dinner at is closed for the summer. They provide money for us (15rmb, or about $1.50) for dinner and depending on where we go that is more than enough for a very filling meal. I love China for that! I also love the chance to go out and try a new shop on our street every night, and twice a day on weekends.

Well, tonight was no exception to my adventuresome spirit, and my roommates' willingness to join me. We found a shop we had never been in before, which is starting to become scarce as the days fly by. We've started to pick up some of the menu characters and what we like and look for, plus having offline translators on a few phones helps as well... If I know a few of the characters so I get a general idea of what I'm ordering (noodles or rice!) I'll normally try something I don't know what I'm getting. So tonight I saw the character for rice, pickled vegetables, and something I didn't know, so I pointed at that. As a side note, most of the shop owners know very very little to no English, so ordering is always charades, even when we think we know how to say it in Chinese. But back to the story: I was the last to order tonight, since everyone else was getting easily read items or had translated it already, and when I pointed at a dish, the owner said "no." I still don't know if he thought I wouldn't like the dish, or if they just didn't have the ingredients tonight, but because I had just been told no, I suddenly had no clue what to order. So I turned the menu to him and asked what I should get. He pointed at a dish which at a glance I saw had rice with it, so I said yes. I think he was surprised, but he immediately went back to start preparing our food.
Oh, that's the other thing about these shops we go to. We can never tell if they are open or closed. There will be people eating food at the tables but when we walk in they shoo us out again immediately. Or it will be completely deserted and we walk in hoping no people doesn't mean it's closed. And there is normally only one or two people working to take our orders and then go make our food. The most interesting part is that they bring out the food whenever it is ready, regardless of if all the other food is ready.
But to continue: my food was the last to be brought out, but it was fantastic!!! I have no clue what kind of meat I ate tonight, although I'm thinking small animal, since I found small bones in the meat. And there were potatoes as well, which regan said tasted like barbecue potatoes. I devoured the meal, and then wished there was more. Seriously, I've found a new favorite meat, and I don't even know what it is! But I'm glad I put my food choices in the hands of our shop owner tonight, or I would never have had such an amazing meal :) I just thought it was funny how quickly he rejected my initial choice of dish and chose out something perfect for me.