A Night on the Town

The great thing about where we live in Nanjing is that a night on the town is only a five-minute walk away.  As we were leaving I asked the woman at the front desk of our apartment for a suggestion for a restaurant with traditional regional food.  She was so excited that we would ask and offered several ideas within walking distance.

Ron and Marilyn Bjorkman, the other BYU couple here in Nanjing, set off with Brad and me for the Deji Plaza, where our restaurant, Dai Pai Dang, is located. We discovered that Deji is an enormous, upscale mall, only about four blocks away.  A walk in Nanjing is part of the entertainment for the evening.  As I think I've already written, traffic lights appear to be suggestions, particularly for bicycles and scooters.  We crossed at a major intersection and joined a large crowd making its way to the other side of the street.  A great traditional Chinese music duo set up on one corner of the busy intersection.  I had to video them for a few moments (couldn't get this to load, but I'll try later).

Arriving at Deji we walked into floor after floor of huge stores and small shops, including Versace, Chanel, Michael Kors -- every internationally-known retailer.  Our hosts told us that not many Chinese shop there, but there were certainly a lot of window shoppers.  We made our way to the 7th floor, only to realize we were in the wrong section of the plaza.  We wound our way to the other side and found Da Pai Dang.  It was a huge restaurant filled with Chinese families.  We were seated immediately and given a menu with plenty of pictures.  We chose some dumplings, fried radish cakes, a duck dish, glutinous rice with pork, beef cooked with noodles, and waited to see what we would get. 

Wonderful!  Every bite a different flavor. A pitcher of mango juice topped off the dinner.  We gain more confidence every time we go out. 

Intersection of Guangzhou and Zhongshan

Duck

Glutinous rice with pork - delicious!