Hillbilly or sophisticated international palette?

Here’s a fun little math fact for you:

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pigeons + China = my lunch

What a day. We went out to lunch at this restaurant in the Galaxy Hotel. The sign at the entrance said seafood restaurant, but apprently this place is known for their crispy pigeon dish. I kept imagining those annoying ass birds on the UT campus that would always fly straight at you as you walked to class. Sure they’d turn at the very last second to avoid flying into your face, but you would always flinch or dive for cover and look like a complete idiot to everyone around you. Today would be the day I get back at those flying bastards by eating their Chinese counterparts. For those of you curious to know, pigeon has a duck like taste to it. Evidently they're a pretty common snack in these parts of China. Every table I saw had a plate of pigeons on it. We must have taken out an entire flock today. And now that I think about it, I really don’t see that many flying around the city. I’m not really sure who came up with the concept of eating annoying birds, but I bet centuries ago a crafty Chinese businessman was hired for the task of clearing some Chinese metropolis of this winged nuisance… and a short time later the Lee’s Pest Control and Eatery was born.

After the pigeon lunch we headed over to the Shanghai Walmart. I figured if there American prices were already so low, their Chinese prices must have been amazing! China’s take on Walmart was really no different than those in the US. It’s a one stop shopping for everything from socks made in the sweatshops next door to hanging chicken carcasses (now bird flu free for a limited time only). I wanted to completely document my first time in this foreign land of savings and deals, but sadly my freedom of speech was strictly censored. Not by any Chinese state security service but by Walmart management, a force much more brutal in its treatment of its own people. But I didn’t let the man completely stop me from capturing some of the wonderment:

Left: They were having a sale, one chicken for 8 RMB (that's about $1)

Right: As far as I can tell, that's some sort of giant fish that's been gutted, butterflied, and dried out

I’m glad I've been able to travel 7000 miles from my beloved Texas to live the life of an Appalachian hillbilly. When eating pigeon for lunch and going to a Walmart are the highlights of your day, you really need to be expanding your horizons.

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pigeons + Walmart = Cletus