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| Suburbia meets countryside |
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| The fishing place |
Today was a most interesting day. It was a rare public holiday for the Mid-August Festival and I was invited by Ren Zhou Kun (my tai chi teacher) and her husband David (his English name) to join their family to go fishing.
I wasn’t quite sure what this meant, or where we’d be going, but was very interested in going.
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Ren Zhou Kun, daughter-in-law
and granddaughter, Melody |
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| David, his brother and son Barry |
Being a Chinese festival, the group included their son, daughter-in-law, grand-daughter, the parents of the daughter-in-law, number two brother and his wife.
We set of in two cars though the outer suburbs of Quzhou and about 30 minutes later arrived at a small weir with a kiosk-type building and a number of people already fishing.
I had been prepared for a much rougher location, and it was all very civilised. the owners also provided bamboo chairs to sit on.
It reminded me a little of the kiosk aea at Kinderdyke in Holland except much smaller.
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| Detail of float and bait |
Anyway David set up the rods, lines and floats, baited the hooks and we started.
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| Yours truly with 1st fish |
The baits were like small food pellets with tiny elastic bands around them so the hook just went underneath the elastic band – simple but effective. Probably not possible in Australian ocean fishing though with strong currents.
It wasn’t that easy though, the fish weren’t biting much and it was hard to detect a nibble. In a short time however David caught one, but it was a while before anyone else did. Eventually I caught 2, approximately 1.5 kg each and we had 4 by the end of the morning.
By now it was time for lunch, so we packed up and set off for the low hills to the south of Quzhou, a place called Shishi (石室).
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The hillside restaurant at
Shishi (石室) |
After fighting our way along narrow, heavily trafficked roads (everyone was out for the day) we arrived at a relatively new restaurant on a hill in what will become a fairly densly populated area soon if the roadside billboards are an indication.
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| The family beginning lunch |
We took our places at the table and shortly afterwards, the food started arriving. This looked like it was going to be quite a banquet, so even just tasting each dish would be overeating – I wasn’t wrong. here follows the approximate menu: Spicy fish; pork, diced bamboo shoots and soya beans; braised tofu with mushrooms; bamboo shoots with another vegetable (the dish tasted very much like artichokes); spicy mixed preserved vegetables; goose stew (chopped up goose with lots of bones); freshly roasted peanuts; tomatoes and chokos (I think); green gelatine pieces coloured & flavoured with a local plant and sprinkled with sugar. The stand-out dish for me was what they called Shanghai hamburgers – steamed buns surrounding a dish of hot braised pork. The idea is to grab a bun, break it open and put pieces of the pork in. It tasted great, but a bit too fatty for me though.
All in all, a great day, and I was very grateful for the hospitality shown to me by everyone, especially Ren Zhou Kun and David.
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| Spicy fish |
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| Pork, diced bamboo shoots, soya beans |
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| Braised tofu with mushrooms |
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| Bamboo shoots |
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| Spicy mixed preserved vegetables |
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| Bok Choy and garlic |
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| Shanghai hamburgers |
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| Green gelatine sprinkled with sugar |
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| Tomatoes and chokos |
