Arriving in Changchun

I had a very uneventful afternoon flight from Nanjing to Changchun. I like the word "uneventful" when it comes to flights, don't you?

No big bumps, no hard landings, no lost luggage.

Uneventful.....

Yea!

I was met by my good friend Hannah! Hannah and I share a long history together! Please be sure to check out these posts (Here and Here) for a brief history.

I was so happy to be reunited with my good friend and guardian Angel.

She was sporting a new hairstyle, which I've come to expect every time I see Hannah.

After lugging my now-nearly-empty massive suitcases to the car, we sped off, chatting away, catching up, and discussing plans for the following day.

We met her son Michael, and Hannah's sister Helen for dinner at a Hot Pot restaurant.

You know what's coming next ---- YES, the food was DELICIOUS!!!...

It was such an interesting dinner experience, I wish I had taken more photos, but I think that Hannah and the rest of the people there would have thought I was nuts for doing so.

It was sort of like a fondue style of cooking and eating meat (shaved pork, meat, and chicken, along with awesome shrimp). Instead of a fondue pot with a sterno can heating from beneath, imagine a copper bowl filled with water, but with an inverted funnel poking through the bottom of the pot. Very difficult to describe. Maybe stated another way - imagine an upside-down funnel with a lip of metal welded around the edges which can hold a ring of water.

Anyway, this metal-water-holding-funnel-contraption sits in the middle of the table, where a pieces of fiery hot coal heat the water from the inside. The exhaust from the burning coal goes up through the narrowing funnel, and connects to a flue duct system that connects all the tables, and then goes outside!

The server then deposits a big plate of raw shaved meat, some chunks of vegetables, some shrimp, and at last, a Sauce tray. The sauce tray consists of one big bowl of a sort of soy based paste (one bowl for each person). Then there are other mini bowls with spices that you can add to this paste for your liking. There's one that has spicy chili peppers, one that has cilantro, one that has a ginger-type sauce, and I think there was another peanut-oil-spice based sauce ( I stuck to my favorites - the chili pepper and the cilantro!).

After the meats/vegetables were cooked in the boiling water, you'd take your chopsticks, and dip them into the spicy paste! It was SO GOOD!!

Click here to see the video