"You like spicy?

These three words signalled my first lunch experience here in China. "The boys" here in Shenzhen took me out for Hunan cuisine at a little local place. They ordered a chicken dish, a beef dish, a tofu dish, and some vegetables. When the plates hit the table, there was a snapping of chop sticks like I've never seen. I wondered where my plate was before the food arrived, and I quickly discovered that I don't get my own plate. Everyone eats right out of the serving plates. All my OCD had to go right out the window, as I had to stab my own food right out of the dish with my chop sticks like everyone else. And the slurping...oh the slurping. The other interesting point was that the chicken dish, while tasty, seemed like a whole chicken had been pretty much ground up for the food. Much time was spent spitting out shards of bone. Oh yes, the spitting. That was the other great thing. You spit out bones, you spit out seeds from the watermelon. If you need to unload it, you just spit it.

This place is pretty intense. I took a couple of pictures on the way to the restaurant, so I'll post those tonight. In the mean time, I've got to fight this Hunan food off long enough to avoid having to use the "squatty potty" down the hall. That's an experience for another day.