Ganbei!

I’m currently recovering from my latest adventure in China: drinking with the Chinese. One of my Chinese friends asked me to help her classmate correct a paper which he wrote in English, and to thank me they took the roommate and me out for beer and hotpot (火锅, huǒguō), Chongqing’s signature dish. Chongqing-style hotpot is a spicy and fattening affair, best enjoyed in large groups: a bubbling pot of oil and broth, loaded with at least a cupful of chillies and mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper, sits in the middle of the table, and you order plates of raw ingredients off the menu, cook them in the pot, and then dip them in sesame oil and garlic. The plates of food keep coming until nobody can eat any more, and then you all sit around in a grease-spattered stupor until it’s time to go. It’s great.

We got a private room in the restaurant (which is quite common in China), and as soon as we sat down, my friend’s classmate ordered a case of beer. Uh oh. I gather that women in China rarely drink, because every time I mention to someone that I like beer they get all excited about it. The case arrived, the beer started flowing, and the next thing I know I’m conversing comfortably in Chinese. The Chinese drink beer in the same little cups they drink tea out of, and every time someone says “ganbei,” you’re expected to drain your cup. It’s not too bad, except that the beer was 9.5 percent and “ganbei” was flying around at a frequency of about once per minute. I’m pretty sure that “ganbei” means “hey, let’s get this foreigner disgrasefully drunk!”

Strong beer and weird food cooked in spicy grease are a pretty deadly mix, and I’ll leave the rest of the night up to your imagination. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

Chinese lesson of the day:
我不要 Wǒ bú yào.
I don’t want any.