Expensive Muslim Food?!

The poker night last night was fun. The guys are cool, and they didn't make me feel out of place for being the new guy. I certainly didn't win, all thanks to one poor decision I made towards the end. Lee, the guy holding the tournament, was the one who knocked me out, and deservedly so. He was the only one who really put any pressure on me, and he was also the winner in the end. I was just happy to have a guy's night out, away from the apartment I live in filled with long hair everywhere, and clutter everywhere the girlfriend has been.

Just before tutoring, I also picked up my robe, which I suspect they did nothing to, and my pants, which were fixed properly. I paid despite my suspicions, simply because it was still cheaper than buying the button back in Canada. Alex and I walked around Hou XiXi, since the clothing is all dirt cheap due to some upcoming construction, kicking everyone out of their shops. They have to offload a bunch of their inventory, so I saw sweaters for 10 yuan (a buck and a half), tshirts for 15-30, basically all sorts of clothing being sold nearly at cost. Good quality too, not something that will fall apart in a week.

After tutoring, Jessica and I went out to a large Muslim restaurant. Most Muslim restaurants are little, cockroach infested holes in the walls with cheap food (Oh, how I love them). This one was a large building, complete with servers, beverages, and even an English menu and a manager that spoke some English. The food was also unlike most Muslim restaurants... it was expensive. To be fair, we ordered way too much food, so the bill came to something over 100 yuan, but even if we had ordered a sane amount of food, it would've hit 60 or 70 yuan without much trouble. The food was reasonable, and the beer was somewhat warm, but it wasn't a bad meal in the end, or so I thought at the time (explanation is coming).

I walked out feeling too full, with an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach (can you see where it's going yet?). We got home, and I assumed I had just drank too much beer, that my stomach was literally overfilled. The problem was that hours later, the feeling hadn't gone away. I went to bed with that same unpleasant feeling, and fell asleep. About 2 in the morning, I woke up, and knew what had happened immediately.

I made a rush to the toilet, and enjoyed my first case of real, bonafide Chinese food poisoning. Like clockwork, it had happened within that signature 4-6 hour range. Not knowing which end of your body is going to spew undigested food out next is an unpleasant feeling, to say the least. I know it's either the chicken or the lamb I ate, because Jessica didn't get sick. The moral of this story is: When Muslim food is expensive, you should probably be careful. I'll stick to the cheap hole in the wall I've been eating lunch at every day, thanks. At least there, if I get sick, I'm only losing a 5 yuan meal. And for the record, my cockroach infested hole in the wall has yet to make me sick in the least... and I eat from the open bowls of chili sauce and vinegar they have sitting there all day and night.