The last 3 days here in Nanning we have been guests of a friend of my fathers ( though not staying with him ). He is a writer of some limited fame here in China and has also turned a number of his short stories and novels into TV mini series. At any rate he has been treating us out to dinner and showing us around Nanning the past few days. Like many friends you will make in China he is extremely gracious and insists on showing us all around the city despite being very busy with work. Though he has more money than the average Chinese. Today he took us to a particularly nice lunch. Situated in a sort of artists compound that a friend of his owns. This consists of a number of small out buildings where artists can rent rooms to work out of the way of the noise of the city. It's a very pleasant place! The buildings are embedded in a small tropical jungle like environment with paths and small ponds winging all about the place. We ate in a small pavilion outside. The friend of my fathers had ordered a huge number of dishes. This is something you may have experienced if you have ever been treated to dinner in China by a friend. They like to order a banquets worth of food for 2 or 3 people and bottle after bottle of beer. Usual more than you can finish. You can see here some shots I took today. I have labeled the one with food:



(1) Bowl of corn on the cob, sweat potatoes and whole peanuts all roated
(2) A whole chicken cooked Hinan style in oil, garlic, ginger. Fresh from the field!
(3) Cucumber cooked in oil, with garlic and vinegar
(4) A very good Tofu dish cooked with the consistency of corn
(5) Chinese style omelet cooked with vegetables
(6) A traditional finely sliced potato dish cooked in oil an herbs
(7) Bitter Mellon
(8) Fresh fish from the lake near by (Not shown)
(9) + (10) Two more fresh vegeatabl dishes (Not shown)

This plus about 4 large beers and traditional rice wine. All these dishes were cooked on a wood fire stove we were told.

http://tiny.cc/u9aAK
http://tiny.cc/5duql
http://tiny.cc/meG1x
http://tiny.cc/vAc3c
http://tiny.cc/nuK92
http://tiny.cc/uFcB4