We Ate Ostrich Today!

Check One off --

Da Bucket List

I have wanted to do this someday and had it on my bucket list. We actually ate Ostrich meat tonight at a nice Chinese Restaurant with a group of Doctors from a large hospital here in Jinan. They were great fun and so nice to take us out in gratitude for some favors we had provided to them, when we were invited to be visible Americans inside their clinic when some VIP guests came though on tour. We agreed to do this because we are friends. They simply reciprocated tonight. It was great fun too.




But, first, a photo of my bread making day on Tuesday afternoon. I wanted to be creative in the kitchen and made some really good bread and a couple of hamburger buns for dinner that night. They were excellent hamburgers with all the trimmings. This just goes to show that you can do anything in China. If you cannot buy it, get it, or if they do not have it anywhere, just make it yourself. You can do it.

NICE HAMBURGER BUNS EH? My bread really turned out to be the best I ever made... and I am not bragging. It is a fact.
The meal was simply scrumptious.... That's China!

It was a little heavy to pick up a piece of watermelon with chopsticks. Dr. (Professor) Zho sat at the head of the table... He is the head cardiologist in the new hospital wing and has examined and treated me a few times.

The hot soy milk drinks tasted just like you would think raw soy milk would taste like and made things interesting and they made for some great toasts...all around. They look like milk shakes, but they are far from such.

This is the spicy Ostrich chunks mixed with potatoes and peppers.

Doctor Tricia has an Ostrich chunk on her fork... Oh yes, we taught them how to use forks.

One of the dishes we tasted was squid which was served with squid meat rolls along with bunches of squid tentacles. Dumplings and a watermelon, fruit plate ended the meal.

So, check 1 off my Bucket List. We were treated to such an interesting formal, yet fun, dinner party with the Hospital staff. They took us to a private room in a nice Chinese restaurant. The highlight of the dinner was the dish of meat which we struggled to identify after first tasting it. It tasted pretty good. I asked if it was several meats including if it was dog? and they said no. Finally after a lot of feathered, long necked, large Australian desert bird descriptions, we learned that it was Ostrich meat and it was really quite good. Even Dana ate it. It was a little stringy and could have passed for turkey breast, but not exactly -- and with the added spices, it was well camophaged Ostrich.

We also had black, spiny sea cucumbers in a fish soup, sea worms with cucumber salad, Deep fried Pork short ribs, sliced pork sausage, scrambled eggs with little red, popping fish eggs mixed together, tender bamboo shoots sliced, sweet and sour shrimp. We ate pickled summer squash, followed by hot soy milk toasts of love, happiness and prosperity, all around. They had some trouble understanding that we did not want alcohol, beer, wine, tea or coffee. We announced that we did not drink those drinks as it was bad for our health and they are all doctors, so they agreed and drank what we drank. The Sprite we finally ended up with, was great until the doctors stated that it contained a lot of sugar. I said: You're the Doctor! and they all laughed.

We finished it all off with a fruit plate and then a plate of Chinese green vegetable dumplings dipped in garlic and vinegar. It was really fun as we joked, laughed and enjoyed the party, trying all the time to speak Chinese, much to their delight. I learned how to say "You look as Beautiful as a Flower" before coming and used that one everyone including the male doctors. At least, they understood me and they laughed. It was fun. Then they took us home in their mini van.