chinese food

yesterday after soccer practice jen and i stumbled upon a chinese restaurant. i say "stumbled upon" because as in all of bishkek, the sidewalks were terrible outside of the place... but also because we thought we were going into a kyrgyz style restaurant.

we sat down and attempted to order. menu all in russian. blank stare from the waitress. speaking slow and loudly in english didn't work. typical eating out experience for us.

it took someone who was sitting at the next table, who happened to speak english, to come over and explain to us that we couldn't order plov (rice with meat) or shashlik (meat on a stick) because we were in a chinese restaurant and not the typical kyrgyz/turkish/uzbek style place.

the chopsticks on the table should have given it away but are sometimes a little slow.

he helped us order as we threw out the name of "american" chinese dishes and he translated to the waitress:

sweet and sour chicken... no.

kung pao chicken... no.

orange chicken... no.

egg rolls... no.

fried rice... YES!

spicy mystery meat... YES!

spicy mystery pork... YES!

green tea... YES!

after about five minutes the food started to arrive. REALLY wish we had our camera with us (note to selves... never eat out again with the camera).

the first dish was spicy mystery meat. came out on a hot plate (the way that fajitas are served in the states) shaped like a fish. hot, greasy slices of meat. some of it cooked medium rare. some of it cooked medium. all of it tasty! mixed with the meat on the hot plate were onions and green peppers. very good.

the fried rice followed. another tasty find. jen loved it so much that we ordered a second helping of it.

the final course was spicy mystery pork... a big plate of thick, under cooked, bacon slices mixed with red chili peppers and other spices. i don't know how to describe it other than to say it was layer, upon layer of somewhat cooked bacon drenched with spices.

it was heavenly. and as my friend rex likes to say... "good and good for you."

spicy enough to make the back of my head sweat but not too spicy for jennifer.

we finished almost the entire plate and excitedly took the leftovers home for "lunch tomorrow".

we have learned that the key to eating in central asia is to not ask too many questions and to not spend too much time examining what you are eating. just shovel it into your mouth... if it taste good chew... if it doesn't taste good... just swallow.

overall a wonderful eating experience and i am sure the spicy pork dish had nothing to do with my diarrhea this morning.