just in case there was any doubt...

we have not stopped eating, although the ASA (the big important conference that is the primary excuse for this whole excursion) is starting to interfere a bit. Yesterday I spent with my cousin, his wife and their adorable kids while all the socioogist types hobnobbed with the VIPs. In the evening, 4 of us went to Chinatown and ate lobster, crab, chow fun with conch, jellyfish, and other yummies. It was the first Chinese food I've had that tasted like the actual Chinese food I had during my brief trip to actual China. I was delighted not so much by the authenticity (I also like American Chinees food) as by the fact that I can still remember what I ate in China (12 years ago now).

The other interesting thing about the meal was that we sat RIGHT next to a big stack of aquariums (aquaria?) containing soon-to-be-food. This wasn't as disturbing as I'd feared, except periodically when a disembodied hand brandishing large metal tongs (or a net, depending on the species of catch) would suddenly appear, poke violently into the midst of the crabs (lobsters, fish, whatever), chase them around until it caught one, then withdraw just as suddenly amid a swirl of dirty water and feebly waving limbs (fins, whatever).

The waiter also brought our (blue, twitching) lobster out for our approval ("two and a half pounds, very good lobster sir"). This was directed at SHamie who looked a bit bewildered (perhaps he's more used to approving the wine selection). Only after the waiter left did Ang comment, "that's two and half pounds, at eighteen dollars a pound, you realize," at which point I think I probably looked a bit shocked as well. but ohhhhhhh, it was sooooo worth it!

Only two more days of eating! We have to hurry!