I Am the King of Ribs

I woke up at 4 AM here. That actually turned out to be a good thing. I made myself some coffee, though it was instant coffee premixed with sugar and creamer (blech), sat down, and did some work. It was actually very nice and productive. I then went downstairs for some real coffee and fruit and then headed up to the workshop around 9.

The workshop started at 10 and it was pretty low key—40 minute presentations followed by 20 minutes of discussion with lots of coffee breaks and a lunch (all fried dumplings, sorry Nina). The workshop went until 5:30. We then went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and then caught a bus downtown to a very nice restaurant.

The food at this place was very good, and it just kept coming. I think we had 10 different courses. For the most part, they were very tasty, though I stayed away from the whole chicken soup (feet and all) and the sea urchin, which looked downright nasty. When I was looking uncertain of one dish, Frank Shu, one of the organizers of the workshop asked if I was a vegetarian. “No no no no!” I told him to many laughs. And when the next dish was brought and I was told that they were ribs, I said, “Now you’re talking.” “Definitely not a vegetarian,” Frank said. “Let the connoisseur have the first taste.” They were very good, though I didn’t have hear to tell Frank that mine are better…I prefer grilled to stewed, but I wasn’t going to complain.

On the way back, the bus had the Yankees-Orioles game playing. I guess every one of Chien-Ming Wang’s are broadcast here since he’s from Taiwan. As I got off the bus, the Orioles climbed within 2 runs of the Yankees in the fourth. I got onto the web in my room to get an update on the score, but was unable to do find it easily. That’s when I realized that it was 9 AM on the east coast of the US and that the game was being shown here on tape delay. Oh well, now I know the Yankees won the game (though are still 8 games behind the Sox). Despite it all, it was nice to see a glimpse of the game…

On the way back to the hotel, I started falling asleep, and I continue to be exhausted. So I’m off to bed…