Back home

I am back at home in Oakland. Very tired, as I did not sleep much on the plane over. I had written another entry from China, but it got eaten when I tried to upload it, as blogger was unavailable.

It mostly was about the difficulty of getting Fried Fish without Pork on top. By odd coincidence, after writing it I went to another restaraunt and asked for fried fish. I said "no pork, no shrimp, no ... just fish. And vegetables". The waiter repeated "just fish". Of course when it arrived I poked at a suspicious chunk in the sauce with the back end of a chopstick and asked "what is this". Of course the answer was "Pork". So I sent it back, and they got it right the second time. It is not just a language problem, there is a cultural inability to understand why someone would not want want pork on their fish.

I also mentioned the Jewish tour of Shanghai, which started at my hotel, and included the Synagogue I mentioned earlier. A very interesting bit of history, unknown to most Chinese (and to most Jews I expect). I would urge anyone visiting Shanghai to get in touch with Dvir.