Beer Fish

But let me tell you the story from the beginning:
Two days after the bike trip we met Lubing by chance in the street and asked her how she was and what she was going to do. She told us she was going to go home to cook something. She asked us if we wanted to join her. Wow! Yes, that would be very nice, we answered. She asked about our preferences. We told her we wanted to eat a beer fish which is a speciality of Yangshuo (we had it a few days ago). Well, she was quite surprised about our wish and told us she hadn't prepared a beer fish in her whole life. But we told her we would help her and we were sure that we could manage it together. That convincede her -but the only condition was we had to pay the fish because a fish costs around 30 Yuan (around four dollars) which is a daily income here!!! Of course we paid all the ingredients...

First we went to the market where we bought vegetable and the fish. In China people attach great importance to fresh food -which means you buy the animals when they are still alive (Chinese can't understand why we buy deep-frozen food and they say this can't be fresh -which is true).
So the fish was taken out ot the water basin and was held in the left hand of the seller and with the right hand he stuck his thumb and forefinger into the fishs roof of the mouth and with the same movement of the hand he tore out the inwards. So the fish was killed and disemboweled at the same time -> this is the way how they do that here in China. They don't need a lot of time for those things, they think very practical here!

When we came to Lubings house she felt a little bit uncomfortable with the situation because she had to "rich" foreigners with here who are used to another life standard. Due to the little money she earns she lives very ordinary. People here live, sleep and eat in one single room. They don't have kitchen, sleeping room, living room, workroom, storage room or other things like that. Here life happens in one single room. And the kitchen is in the backyard and consists of a simple wooden board whith a carving board and a wok.
But Peach and I hid our surprise and started to wash the fish and the vegetable and then cut them...also pay attention to the knife!

Here the cooking place with the wok and carving board...

After roasting the fish and the vegetables (carrots, tomatoes, pepper, chilli, ginger, onions, garlic, etc.) we basted everything with beer and boiled it up for a while..mmmmhhh!
After the preparation we sat down to small chairs in the living- and sleeping-room where we put the wok to a little pot with a fire. They call this kind of food "Hot Pot". Seems logical isn't it?

Also pay attention to the bed on the left side and to Lubings brother on the right (unfortunatly not completely on the picture) with the suit which he was wearing especially for us when he heard that visitors were coming (this is our version...).

This dish was excellent...mmmhhh!
The fish bones were spat to the floor. After dinner they cleaned it...this is the way how they do it here in China!

The beer fish was not only very good but also we were touched by the whole situation. Such a invitation you don't get every day!

I was thinking a few days if I should write this report or not. Lubing wouldn't be very happy to see the pictures on the internet -but she doesn't know how to use a computer so there is no problem ;-)

But I wrote this report because I want to show the reader that there are a lot of people in this world who have much less than we -> but they're happy anyway. For people who don't live in luxury (like we do) social relations are much more important...they look after their fellow man and help each other. Because of this those people are often more hospitable than we are. And this is exactly what impresses me again and again on my trip. We could really learn alot from this people...

Nihao from the beer-fish cooks

05.05.04, Yangshuo, China