Nice surprise

I really wanted some tanghulu this past weekend. It's the strawberries with a crystalline sugar coating. It didn't happen. Aiyun sent me a surprise in the mail that arrived today.

They're haw apples coated in sugar similar to tanghulu. Awww. So sweet of her. They taste great, but these have seeds. A really cool surprise though. So thoughtful. Actually, she let me know this is tanghulu as well, just made with a different fruit.

I had yoga after work today. Still super worried about my neck and shoulders. We did some specific neck stretches in class. I tried to take it easy. Tomorrow night I have an acupuncture appointment. Curious to see how that goes. As long as I'm here I figure I should try to embrace some eastern medicinal practices.

Headed into the city to meet my buddy Matt for dinner at his place. A good friend and I've never been to his apartment. Maybe I'm not the good friend that I thought I was? Can't do anything else but try to rectify that.

I've got some events coming up that I'm really looking forward to, Xian in two weeks, then Shanghai to meet more of Aiyun's family, then a whole week off for the mid-autumn festival. Maybe eat some moon cakes.

Hoping to play golf this weekend. I haven't been on a course in about a month now. I hit some balls last weekend, but felt inflexible and was snapping everything hard left. Need to get loose and let the club whip through the hitting zone. Perhaps the yoga will help. Need to practice more on my own.

Just left dinner with Matt. It was a "street food" sort of evening. Take a look and guess what these are...

Yeah, those are lamb kidneys and testicles. Sheep balls anyone? Umm. No. That's a hard pass for me. However, I opted for some lamb scewers that had some bell pepper as well. Call it lamb shishkabob. I'm glad that I've opened myself up to trying some new things to eat, but I can't see myself with testicles in my mouth. Low hanging fruit. Make your snarky joke as you see fit.

We shared a cucumber salad and Matt order some sort of long skinny fish. Mackerel I think. Cool thing. We ordered the barbecue items from one restaurant and had it delivered down the street to another restaurant where we got the salad and cucumbers. The owners of the second restaurant didn't mind at all. I guess it's a thing here. I can't see that happening in a restaurant in the states. We also got a huge plate of crawfish (sorry, not pictured). So good. They were covered in garlic, chili peppers, and butter. Not a lot of meat in each one, but it was worth it for the flavor.