BBQ Juice

Sounds a bit strange, doesn't it? Well it tastes even stranger! One of the Chinese students in my class, Kui, took a few of us to his favorite restaurant. We drove to San Gabriel. Apparently, there is a very large Chinese population there. He ordered everything for us, including this BBQ Juice. Obviously, it's not really BBQ Juice, but that's what my friend and I decided to call it after our first swig.

Kui told us that he ordered some juice for us to try. When the waitress brought it to the table, it looked like a pitcher of Coke. We took our first sip and looked at each other. We asked Kui what kind of juice it was, but he didn't know the name of the fruit in English. It was a sweet juice with a smoky finish. One of our other classmates told us that the fruit is mixed with several other juices and made into a concentrate. We took another sip and decided that it was not only mixed with other juices, but with liquid smoke too.

I wish I could remember all of the names of the dishes that he ordered for us, but alas, I do not. We had dumplings, soup, chicken, fish and some cold noodles. Everything was so delicious and spicy! He said that he would bring us back whenever we wanted, and we could try other things. He was excited to take us to a restaurant that had the cuisine of Northern China; he's from Beijing. He said that we should go to Beijing to film our "Semester 1" films. I was like, "If you're paying, then my passport is ready. I'm down." Haha. We'll see what happens.