Zhong Shan (中山）

This is a raw unedited look at my day. Its around 9 minutes long and if you don't know me this is going to be really, really boring but if you're curious what I'm seeing on a day-to-day basis this would give you a partial idea. Its really of value only to the family ;)

The day is Monday October 1st and the location is Zhong Shan (中山), China(中国) where Diana's parents live. In the morning, 8am-ish, Diana, myself, and her parent's walked about ten blocks to a rather fancy restaurant located on the 5th floor of the nearby mall. At the restaurant we met up with her Grandparents, her dad's friends, her mom's friends and various other familial-type relations the extent of which I don't know. We had a traditional Chinese breakfast, "Dim Sum".

Dim Sum describes both the type of food served and the style in which it is served. Dim Sum consists of several small dishes served in a rotating fashion. In the US these dishes would be similar in size and portion to an appetizer. The dishes are items such as vegetables, buns, dumplings, sliced pork, ribs or other 1-3 bite items. Essentially anything that you can pick up with chopsticks and eat within a few bites is a Dim Sum dish. Its not uncommon to order a dish that has only 3 buns in it despite the fact that there are 10 people at the table. You simply order 11 various dishes so that there is enough variety for everyone. Also I should note that the rule is to order one dish for every person plus on additional thus for 10 people you would order 11, its tradition and polite.

The style of Dim Sum is also a defining feature. We were in a private room at the restaurant so we ordered from one of the waiters. A few people at the table took charge and selected many small dishes from a large menu of available items. The items were then brought in one by one throughout the course of the meal. The items are placed on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and we all just dug in ;). If a dish placed in front of you doesn't look appetizing just spin the lazy susan until something looks good! Had we been in the main dining hall we could have either ordered from the menu or waited until one of the many food carts came to our table. A food cart has several various dishes on it (same as the menu) and looks similar to the 50s-era desert carts.

Anyhow.. that's Dim Sum. Insanely popular and extremely good.

After Dim Sum we went to the Supermarket to pick up some fruit and veggies. This is the majority of the video. Its really nothing more than me letting the camera roll while I walked around the supermarket.

I definitely need to point out that Monday was National Day and the week is called "Golden Week". National day is like USA's Independence day. Almost everyone in the country is off of work for the entire week. Its packed everywhere!

Finally.. I screwed up. This wasn't Monday it was Tuesday the 2nd. My camera said Monday because it was still set for Pacific Standard Time, 15 hours behind, and I believed it. Whoops!