food

We haven't gone too far afield to this point, but we have had some interesting experiences.

Thursday for lunch, we went to McDonald's between some of our office visits. As most parents can attest, this is not usually the first choice of cuisine when dining with our children, but since it was already after 1 PM, it was actually pretty satisfying. Not exactly like Mickey's at home, but close. And we spent about $11 for all 4 of us.

Wednesday evening we went to a Chinese restaurant near the hotel (the description sounded funny to us too - a Chinese restaurant near the hotel? Isn't that like saying the Baptist church in Dallas, or the lake in Minnesota? But that's what we're calling it). Since the menus were in both Chinese and English, and pictures were included for most items, we were able to function without our guide. We still ordered some "losers", and also ordered way too much food, but our total bill was still about 350 Yuan ($50+) for 12 of us - 6 adults and 6 kids, so we're definitely going back there! We stayed relatively safe - chicken, beef, shrimp, broccoli, rice - eschewing the chicken feet and exotic seafood.

A delivered pizza and a lunch in the hotel restaurant have been adequate and only to be repeated in the future for expediency, as doubtless they will be. Breakfast each morning has been very good at the hotel, with lots of options, and lots of things for Seth to point to to have. The only thing he's refused to this point are fruits, I think. A bit odd, especially given Shiyan's snack advice! He's definitely a carb man like his sister. So maybe we'll start with fruit by itself today.