I love lamb.  It is by far my favorite meat, but only when it is prepared Chinese style.  It typically comes in one of two forms: thinly sliced and put on top of your vegetables and rice  or placed in front of you and six of your closest friends who are waiting to devour it whole.    And I am not exaggerating at all when I say whole.  See for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Our dinner was a going away party for two expats that we’ve come to know in our short time in Linyi.  I am sad to see them go, but they are moving on to bigger and better things, as do most expats.  The meal was fantastic.  I have only ever had a leg of lamb or the slices of lamb that I mentioned earlier, but never have I been given the opportunity to pick meat off the entire animal before.   Lamb may be awesome, but every time I eat it, especially this particular time, I always think about how cute and fluffy white they are.  It makes it hard when I picture them being slaughtered and prepared just for my pleasure.  It is images like this that make me want to become a vegetarian sometimes.

And here is what our little lamb looked like after we picked his bones clean.

I think we could have picked more meat off, but at this point we were all pretty stuffed and ready for bed.  I believe that between the entire lamb, 12 beers, two plates of bread, and some vegetables for dipping, the total came to 536 yuan.  That is approximately 78 USD, and between 7 people that cost each of us 11 dollars.  In America, I can’t imagine how much all that would have cost.

I know that it is really hard to see, but this is the area where they cook the lamb. Looks pretty medieval, eh?

I know one thing for certain, I will be coming back to place soon.  It was just that good.