Until fairly recently, I would never have imagined that I’d someday be a resident of the People’s Republic of China but we received our Residence Permits today! They’re valid until July 31st.

Life has pretty much settled into routine and classes are going well. On Friday afternoons, I have a class that ends at 4:50 p.m. and Richard has one that starts at 6:00. That gives us just over an hour for supper; not enough time to go home and barely enough time to eat out. That’s when we go to the Black Dog.

We have no idea what the restaurant’s real name is but it was dubbed the Black Dog by one of our fellow teachers because the owner’s black cocker spaniel is often there. Cats and dogs in restaurants are not uncommon here.

Like many restaurants in the area, the Black Dog is tiny with just four tables and sixteen chairs. The red metal tabletops are badly scratched. When we arrived today, a group of men were playing cards at one of them. As they got up to leave, one of them grabbed a broom and swept up the cigarette butts that they’d left on the cement floor.

Though it may not sound like the place you’d choose to go out for dinner every Friday, it definitely meets our needs. It’s one of the closest places for us to walk to, the owner greets us at the door each week and the food is delicious. Perhaps the greatest draw for us though is the fact that the extensive menu has been translated into English and the school provided us with a copy. We choose what we’re going to have for supper on Thursday evening or Friday morning so that we can order as soon as we arrive. We usually share a meat dish and a vegetable dish and we each have a bowl of rice.

Our favourite vegetable dish so far is called Three fresh vegetables (potato, eggplant, green bean) in the menu but the green beans are actually green pepper! Broccoli with mashed garlic was also delicious as was tonight’s Eggplant with soy sauce. Since we’ve been eating a lot of pork, chicken and shrimp, we try to choose other kinds of meat when we eat at the Black Dog. Fried mutton with Chinese onion was pretty good but we learned today that ordering the Braised mackerel wasn’t such a good idea. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it was quite tasty but it took a little while to prepare and we weren’t sure we’d have enough time to eat it. That might have had something to do with the fact that when we ordered it, one of the fellows from the kitchen left the restaurant, rode off on his bicycle and returned a little while later with the fish in a bag! He’d obviously rushed off to the market to buy it. At least we knew it would be fresh. Within about ten minutes of his return, it was on our table and even though we had to pick out the tiny bones, we were done in time for Richard to get back to school before his class was due to begin.

The Black Dog menu has plenty of options to choose from but there are several items that we probably won’t try. We’ve eaten jellyfish before and don’t like the texture so we won’t bother with the Cucumber with jellyfish, the Chinese cabbage with jellyfish or the Mature vinegar with jellyfish. Besides, I have no idea what the difference between mature and immature vinegar might be! I’m not attracted by the Cucumber with pig ear or the Chinese onion with pig ear either. I’ll also avoid the Sauteed silk worm with chili and the Spicy pig intestines. After all, my stomach doesn’t do well with spicy foods. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!