#gambei

[madewithardour]

[surferlavie]

3 astuces pour Survivre à un repas en Chine

En chine, la nourriture est sacrée. Même s'ils ne sont pas connus pour leur taux d'obésité, les chinois sont des gloutons.

En fait, ils mangent tout ce qui leur passe sous la main. Un proverbe de la région de canton (mal traduit car il est sensé rimer) dit d'ailleurs qu'ils mangent tout ce qui a 4 pattes sauf les chaises et tout ce qui vole sauf les avions. Bref, les chinois sont omnivores. Mais attention ça ne veut pas dire que c'est forcément le boxon à table. Les repas sont très codifiés et voici quelques morceaux choisis pour vous permettre de survivre si vous êtes un jour invités à un repas chinois.

1/ le test de la baguette. Vous voulez connaître la qualité de service du restaurant dans lequel on vous a amené. Rien de plus simple, jetez une de vos baguettes par terre et comptez le temps qu'on met à vous en apporter une nouvelle. Si une nouvelle baguette arrive dans les 3 secondes, vous pourrez manger les yeux fermés. Si c'est plus long, méfiez-vous, cet endroit laisse un peu à désirer. Si aucune baguette n'arrive, fuyez, vous êtes en danger. Juste pour rire, essayez aussi dans un restaurant en france... Autre variante du test : vous pouvez aussi appeler le serveur en criant "fuwuyan" de toutes vos forces et compter les secondes qui s'égrennent. Le plus souvent vous verrez un serveur effrayé courir à votre table pour vous rendre service.

2/ la table surchargée. La personne qui vous a invitée au restaurant va vouloir vous en mettre plein les yeux. Pour cela, vous serez invités à une table ronde avec un plateau tournant au milieu, et si vous êtes chanceux, vous aurez une petite salle privative avec votre/vos propres serveurs. Ensute, votre hote va commander. Il fera en sorte de commander les plats les plus exotiques (oeil de boeuf, pattes de poulet en salade, soupe de tortue dans sa carapace, nouilles au sang de serpent, etc...). Et surtout il fera en sorte de commander plus qu'il n'est possible de mettre sur la table. Les plats continueront d'arriver alors que la table est déjà pleine. Vous devrez alors empiler les assiettes et faire des montages plus ou moins stables pour pouvoir tout faire tenir. Faire tourner le plateau central devient alors un vrai challenge. Bien sur, vous devrez gouter à tous les plats et surtout ne pas finir un plat (ce sera considéré comme une offense), ni toucher à votre bol de riz (qui arrivera de toute façon en fin de repas quand vous n'en avez plus besoin). Si vous n'avez toujours pas fait d'erreur à ce stade vous êtes vraiment très fort. Ah, et aussi, inutile de vouloir partager l'addition, au mieux ce sera pris pour une marque d'ignorance de votre part, au pire comme une insulte.

3/ le rituel du gambei. Pour la nourriture passe encore. Mais le plus dur sera surement l'alcool. Vos hotes vont vous faire boire. Et pas qu'un peu. Si vous n'êtes pas entrainés, vous finirez par ramper sous la table et ne vous souviendrez plus du taxi qui vous aura ramené chez vous (moyennant un petit détour par le 3ème périphérique ouest pour faire monter le compteur). Là encore, c'est très codifié. Vous ne devez jamais boire tout seul mais toujours trinquer avec quelqu'un avant de boire. Quand vous trinquez, rien de sert de se regarder dans les yeux ou de faire attention à ne pas croiser les verres. Laissez ces conneries dans vos bagages. Ici le plus important est de trinquer en positionnant son verre plus bas que la personne avec qui on trinque. C'est une forme de respect très appréciée. Ils vont vous faire boire du bai jiu (prononcer bay djio) qui est de l'alcool de riz très fort et typiquement chinois. vous le reconnaitrez facilement, il arrive souvent en bouteille rouge. En général, plus il y a d'or sur la boite de la bouteille et plus la bouteille est chère. Au niveau de l'odeur, on est entre la vieille poire de votre grand père et l'alcool à brûler. Si vous êtes chanceux, vous pourrez vous désaltérer avec de la bière à côté, mais rien n'est moins sur.

Voila pour la théorie, ne reste plus qu'à passer l'épreuve pratique.

A vos baguettes !

[istartups]

Cheers!

Cheers!.

​Skål, prost, santé, kampai, salute, gambei, cheers! Want to raise a glass with another happy fellow. How about with someone at the other side of the globe?

Use Cheers! The app let's you take a picture of yourself cheering, input your name and location, and you will instantly receive the picture of someone else cheering, next door or in Guatemala (if that isn't next door for you).

Cheers! with moderation though.

[briansbeer]

Baoji Beer in Xi'an, China

[briansbeer]

Hans Dry Beer in Xi'an, China

[chinaadventure]

Gambei and the Great Wall

Last weekend I got a chance to see one of the seven wonders of the World – The Great Wall of China. They herded the American and Chinese teachers onto the bus at 7:20 am. And we drove four hours to the Ancient City of Xingcheng, which is halfway between Shenyang (where i live) and Shanghaiguan (where the Great Wall is). The Ancient City was a juxtaposition between the old and new, similar to the rest of China. The buildings are Ancient pagoda huts that were built by the Ming Dynasty in 1430. However, unlike many other cultural relics these buildings are being utilized as clothing stores, where you can hawk with the sellers for the latest fashions. It's quite an image walking down these streets of old pagoda buildings with these sellers hawking their wares out of the stores, and the occasional Shaquille O'Neal poster hanging on walls lining the city.

The Ancient City of Xingcheng was one of only four Ming-dynasty cities to retain their outer walls when the Manchurians attacked in 1644 (ending the Ming Dynasty and starting the Qing Dynasty). It really is amazing going to these places and seeing history like that. In America our history doesn't start until 1777. Chinese history is 5,000 years old and going to these places makes me feel like such a drop in the bucket.

After Xingcheng we went on another long bus ride to our hotel in Shanghaiguan. The Hotel is decorated in true Chinese fashion: red pagoda style with red paper lanterns hanging from the outside of the room. It's also true Chinese style in that in the second week of October with temperatures hovering around 35/40 F, they still don't have heat. Heat doesn't turn anywhere in this country, it seems, until November 1. And rain or snow will not change this date. So although the hotel room was cute and quaint it was freezing. Luckily at this point, I have layers over my layers and I can handle it. After settling in the hotel room we boarded the bus for dinner.

Dinner started off normally, but then beers, literally by the crateful, appeared and the college equivalent of frat initiation started in the form of beer chugging known as gambei.

Gambei started when one of the Chinese staff/teachers (I don't know who most of them were) started loudly yelling cheers and everyone plinked beers. Then two seconds later he yelled cheers again. Pause. Repeat. We cheered about 12 times in a 3 minute span. Then someone yelled “gambei” and he starts chugging the thing until his face turns red. Everyone is yelling, one girl starts trilling with her tongue like “tttdddddddddd” in encouragement. I actually really enjoy trilling, so I was helping the trilling crowd, when someone yelled gambei to me. And the next thing I know everyone is staring at me and yelling gambei. And now they are trilling at me. I stare at the warm beer in my hand and the last thing in the world I want to do is chug the thing. But I take a deep breath, when in Rome do as the Romans, and chug with all my might. I am chugging like a crazy frat kid, I can't breathe, my mouth is filled with warm gaseous beer and if I take another gulp I'm going to explode. I finally put the thing down to see my damage. Nothing, not even half done. I barely made a dent. Everyone is looking at me sadly. Now before I sound like a complete brain dead follower, let me tell you about gambei. It has a lot to do with respect. The head Boss here, Mr. Son, has to beat everyone with gambei so he will keep face. My friend Christiane told me one of the most important things you can show your employer is you can gambei. Gambei and respect go hand in hand. Another teacher, Judy, told me they made her gambei a coke because she doesn't drink alcochol. My gambei experience aside, I am witnessing the intense pressure that these young Chinese staff members are under when they are gambeied by their supervisors and made to chug whole beers. It is not a fun atmosphere in my opinion, it is highly stressful and competitive.

So I gambei myself so I don't completely lose face. This time I open my throat, the way Sunai instructed me to do in college, when I was still drinking miserably. And I do gambei the entire thing. There are loud trills and oh my god, I swear, I am a poster child for peer pressure. I don't get to appreciate my magical moment though because my stomach feels like it's going to explode and there is a crazy burning up my esophagus. I think I'm going to throw up and the world is spinning around me. I mutter something about getting fresh air and attempt to get out of there alone to puke my brains out in solitude. Unfortunately, the teacher helper Crystal is two feet behind me. I sprint ahead of her and projectile vomit into an alley. A second later she's about 10 feet behind of me, away from my projectile vomit, and I can hear her voice in the distance asking if I'm OK. Fine, I lie, wiping the vomit from my lips. I am not down with the gambei. And I am not attempting it again. I make my way back, a bit lightheaded and watch as everyone gambeis the hell out of each other. Every single person is donning the Asian red face like it's going out of style. I am content to watch in silence. I've learned my lesson about trilling and I am not trying to bring anymore attention to myself. At the end, the most senior English teacher competes with the Big Boss, Mr. Son, for the ultimate gambei experience. I watch hazy eyed, thankful that I am sitting far away and not getting gambeied myself.

The next day we get up early and head to Laolongtou, the only part of the Great Wall that goes out into the water.

Laolongtou (Old Dragon Head) goes out about 20 meters into the Bohai Sea. On the wall is a sea fortress built out of the same rock that you can walk through. The sky was a beautiful crisp blue and the wind was a little harsh. From the sea fortress you could see the waves beating against the large rocks on the shore. It was beautiful, but different than the Great Wall I had imagined. If anything, this reminded me more of a sea fortress. While I was looking at the Wall, a girl comes up to me and says “Hello,” this is fairly common. I an am an American and sometimes strangers like to introduce themselves, i.e. Practice their English. “Hello” I respond. “Where are you from?” she asks. “America” I say. “Where are you from?” I ask her. “Inner Mongolia,” she said.. A smile dances on my lips, this Great Wall was built over one thousand years ago specifically keep the Mongols out. It all seems so far away when I read about it. But actually being here, and meeting Mongols, which always sounded so foreign to me, although I guess they are very similar to the Chinese, made it all so much more real.

The second part of the Great Wall, Jiumenkou was my favorite.

Jiumenkou is surrounded by apple trees ripe with fruit this time of year. In front of the entrance to the Great Wall area there are crowds of village people selling these apples. On both sides of the Wall you can see the bright red, almost fusha fruit dotting the yellow, red and orange leafed trees. Jiumenkou's old grey brick path leads up through these towering, majestic mountains. And I stopped, my racing thoughts and the anxieties of my life, I took in the towering mountains dotted in orange and red and shooting up towards the sky, took in the awesomeness of the Great Wall, this old grey cultural relic lining 5,000 km from one end of China to another – and thanked God that he had given me the opportunity to experience this majesty.