She lives a short cycle ride from us and came to collect us at 10 am. We were amazed at her apartment/townhouse. It is on the third floor, the fourth floor and the top floor of a 2 family block. The lower floor family being on the first and second floors. The 'townhouse' rivals anything we have seen in Kelowna and she is obviously very proud of it. The bathrooms were amazing having western toilets, showers, urinals, bidets and jacuzzi baths. The whole house was tastefully decorated with antiques and art work. It was spacious and well appointed and had three balconies. They also have a car and a garage. Her husband owns a computer software and engineering company that develops and maintains agricultural software which they sell primarily to the Zhejiang Provincial government.
Jin Zheng invited her friend Dr Zhong (the one who gave me the white tea for helping her with her English presentation) and her daughter to lunch, primarily I think to help with the English translation and conversation.The visit began with, as usual, a mug of green tea and several different kinds of fruit, including cherries from the States. The fruit we had not tried before was
'hong mao dan'. I did not recognize it but some of you familiar with the tropics may be able to help me with the name. When cracked open and peeled it has the same texture and appearance as a lychee but with a long almond shaped stone.
This smaller fruit is eaten whole, once washed, and is known as 'yang mei'. It is a red bayberry I believe and they make wine from it. Both were delicious as was the 'longen', which means the eye of the dragon and refers to the small shiny dark brown stone in the middle of the fruit. It is very similar in size and taste to a lychee but has a smoother yellow ochre coloured peel.Mr Zheng came home from work to join us for lunch. (There is no day that people do not work here although most do get a day or two off per week now and the weekend is becoming more frequent for office workers, but it is by no means common yet.)
As always, the meal was beautifully presented and included at least eight dishes and three desserts, all of which we were expected to consume. Thank goodness we do not eat out every day otherwise we might grow as big as houses. But to be fair, the food is so nutritious and free from batter and fat that it hardly makes a dent in the scales.
This was not true of the desserts which Dr Zhong had brought from the 'Croissants de France Cafe' As you can see here they are rich and creamy and chocolaty. The one in the closed box is called the 'Wife's cake' and is like a soft sweet croissant. It is therefore a soft cake for an old wife with few teeth!!!. I tell you the Chinese have stories and superstitions for everything.After the magnificent lunch, cooked by the live-in housekeeper, which included a white sauterne wine from France, we repaired to the family room/lounge where Mick challenged Ha Ha to a chess game, which he apparently loves.
When this was over and we saw that the time was now 3.30pm we felt it was time to depart and began our leave taking......... but of course not without an armful of gifts.
A gift of green tea, a silk tissue box cover and three large packets of fruit, the 'longen', 'hong mao don' and the 'yang mei'. We insisted that they keep the cherries explaining that they were fruits that we grow in our hometown. After some consideration they accepted that. We always feel so awful receiving such lovely gifts and, although we always take a little gift with us to the hostess, it is nothing to what we receive in return. I wish I had thought of bringing more Canadian gifts with me. They all spoke admiringly of ice wine which apparently they all love,..... but we were in such a rush when we left I didn't think of it AND I just didn't have room.......Next time!
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