Having a new baby it’s tough to get out right now so for my make-up assignment, I watched an episode of “Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations” on the Travel Channel where he visited several stops from Shanghi up to Zhongdian. If you’ve never seen the show, Antony eats his way through a country and does some sight seeing (usually food related) along the way. His first stop in Shanghi was a restaurant known for their dumplings. Apparently all of Shanghi is known for there soup dumplings, and they showed how these were made. His next stop was to Yangcheng Lake where they sell the Hairy crab. These crabs sell for $40.00 a crab and are considered special because of better water quality. The season for these crabs is September-December and many people travel just to get these crabs.
Next stop was Dali. First visit was to the Erhai Lake where they rely on cormorant fishing, using birds, to catch the fish. Then to main market in Dali, which has major influence from the Bai culture. The main foods there were “stinky Tofu” and pork.
After Dali Anthony headed to Lijiang. Here he visited the Falconers. I found it interesting that after a bird works for ten years they are set free. Here Anthony ate a lot of bean dishes he said were surprisingly good.
Anthony then braves 18,000ft above sea level to the top of Dragon Snow Mountain. This is home to the largest Tibetan scroll. His last stop was in Zhongdian. Here is the largest population of monks in the Hunan province. There are 700. It is also home to a very large prayer wheel that anyone can push.
This was a great show and I didn’t feel completely lost watching it after our classes explained the history of some of these places and the traditions. It was pretty neat to watch and I recommend it highly.
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maybe we can make our students try something interesting?!
