This post is dedicated to Cathy Dau's Chinese Roommate

Not me. The one from UF.

First, thanks for all who asked about my health--I am doing much better. I took a day off on Tuesday and slept all day long and voila! healed.

On Monday since I was feeling quite ill, I wanted to eat something lighter and not fried or spicy. So I walked to this restaurant on my street that is set up cafeteria style. You can order whatever you want--they have cold and hot appetizers, entrees, sides, soup, and complimentary all-you-can-drink soymilk. So I chose some greens, some tofu & fungus deal, and a side of plain rice. 18rmb plus I took a cup of soymilk to go. I was really happy with myself for scoring such a healthy dinner at such a low price that I decided to reward myself with the soymilk before taking my food back to enjoy in the privacy of my apartment. I took one sip and something from above splashed into the cup. Soymilk down. Well, at least it was free. At home when the lids came off, my food smelled pretty good so I got down to business. The tofu and fungus turned out to be liver and fungus. I like fungus, but I don't like liver much. Weird, yes I know. The greens turned out to be swimming in oil. If you look at the middle picture you can see the actual demarcation line between the juices of the greens and the oil. So I just ate the veggies from the middle and built a little wall of greens to keep my oil moat happy. But at least the chopsticks they gave me had pointy ends and were not the dumb stuck-together square ones I hate, because I can never break them apart equally. *Special aside: notice the pink object in the top margin of the 1st picture? Prize for the first person to email me the correct answer.

On Tuesday since I already spent all day sleeping in my apartment, I saw no reason for me to step out for dinner. Well, I was just being a lazyass. After the previous day's meal, I was REALLY hankering for something fresh and I remembered this place that a friend introduced me to a couple weeks ago: Element Fresh. The more I thought about it, the more I thought to myself, "Goshdarn maybe I will get my butt out of the house at least one time today." I went online to see how to get there when lo and behold! they DELIVER! After filling out the order form I was super worried they would not be able to find my apartment so I even included two landmarks near the alley I live in...and then even added a remark, "Maybe I should just meet you downstairs" because the gate hasn't been working lately. I ordered a laffa bread salad which was a mixed green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, grilled chicken breast, green olives, and goat cheese with laffa bread and yogurt-mint dressing for 68rmb. The wait time was 45 minutes and delivery was free of charge--although, I was afraid there was some mystery charge like they like to do in the US. A little while later, someone rings my doorbell and I think it's the building manager come to ask me more questions I don't understand, but in fact, it's my salad! 10 minutes early! Right at my door! I'm so excited that he actually found me because no one had even called to confirm my order! And then the delivery boy even gave me exact change right away because he had the presence of mind to foresee I would pay with a 100 rmb bill! I don't even have to tip cuz it's China! My hands are shaking like crazy as I tear off the lid because I haven't eaten anything all day and the food smells delish! And it tastes as good as it smells! Even better! And for the next 15 minutes it's just an explosion of !!!!!

I wish there were scratch n' taste jpegs. These pictures do not do justice.

Moral of story: $10 salad pwns $3 liver n oily greens.