A first - rabbit stew!

We wanted to try someplace new for dinner last night (by our new rationale, we remind ourselves that is a lot cheaper to try something new in China than in the US). It is fairly easy to get into a rut, and go back to the same restaurants for the same food. We know we like it, the owners know us, so it is comfortable. But especially on a weekend, having something different can be a treat.

So we walked over to a fairly new restaurant outside our complex gate called Bahotu. The "tu" in the name refers to rabbit, and when we walked in and asked what kind of food they have, they told us plainly - rabbit meat!

So we sat down at a table and ordered a standard pot of rabbit. They brought out a huge cauldron of soup, filled with mushrooms and rabbit meat. It was analogous to hot pot, except without the chili oil. The meat was boned, which Rachel loved, and fairly good. Not an excellent flavor, but good. We ordered some lotus root, potatoes, and tofu to throw in the pot, and ate until our hearts content. There was a lot left. It was really rabbit stew for 4, not for 2...

Then we came home and watched Food Inc., a documentary that was suggested to us on the American food industry. It paralleled Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, which I read last year, so it was nothing new to me. It was a bit of a shock to Rachel, especially given our imminent reentry into American society. The idea of the mass-slaughtered meat made her shudder.

Funny that she would feel worse about that than the alley-slaughtered, meat-hook stalls we have in our neighborhood.

It's all a matter of perspective!

Tonight we go to see the CDIS school play - The Importance of Being Earnest.

-alan