Monday, June 6, 2011

Fish Village

Following our hike through Jingdong Grand Canyon, we were all quite hungry. We were also quite far from any restaurants. However, we were in luck. There was a village nearby whose name translated to Fish Village. The center of the road through town was a river (mostly dry when we were there) with buildings on each side. 




The tradition in these country villages is that a family will cook for you in their own kitchen and serve you on tables in front of the home. This village, however, had a very forward thinking family that is counting on the influx of hungry travelers from the canyon. They have built an actual restaurant complete with a bar and both indoor and outdoor kitchens.






Since we were a tour group (even if a very small one) our hosts must have decided to really impress us. We sat at a huge round table with a lazy susan in the middle and in a very short while it was full of a wide variety of dishes. One of the unique things about this style of eating is that everything that is served comes from the village itself. The egg dish was from eggs hatched from the family chickens. Others are raised for the meat. The fish was caught in the local streams as were the tiny little prawns. Even the donkey meat was raised in the village. Yes, we gave it a try. It tastes like beef but has a much tougher texture.






There were home grown vegetables and home made tofu. The food was delicious and try as we might, we barely made a dent in it. The experience was unique and we felt lucky to have had this opportunity.


When our meal was finished we spent a few minutes looking around the village. There were some older gentlemen sitting in the shade and I found them intriguing.






Fish Village was definitely an experience we will not forget. The hospitality of the villagers welcoming westerners (whom they would seldom see in person) was most appreciated and very impressive.

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