Goal setting

During our week of orientation in Shanghai, one of the experienced teachers made a comment about some type of liquor called 白酒 (baijiu). He said it was really common and popular in China, but also said it tasted awful. I quickly wrote a note and passed it to David who was sitting next to me. It said, 'goal number one for China: acquire a taste for baijiu'. This goal was for the most part a joke, but there was a bit of sincerity in it. Our first encounter with baijiu was at the welcome banquet we had our first week here. It was absolutely awful and its taste seemed to linger hours after drinking it. After this initial encounter, I wasn't exactly encouraged to continue with 'goal #1'. But, Dave and I kept on encouraging each other to embrace this part of the culture. So, bit by bit we have been buying it from the corner stores on campus and mixing it with Coke or Pepsi. Now, there is obviously a demand for this stuff (why, I don't know) because all the stores carry it. The corner stores usually carry about six or seven types of beer, maybe three types of wine, and a solid seven or eight types of baijiu; they may carry one or two types of some 'yellow wine' liquor liquid, but not always. Now, at the major supermarkets, there are aisles dedicated to baijiu, some of it in very fancy boxes and porcelain bottles. That's not the stuff we are buying.

Last week, Dave and I thought we were really coming along and were mixing it at more than 50% with Coke. The ultimate goal is to drink it the same as juice or pop, which is what more than a few Chinese men can do. We each drank a bottle that night, don't worry they are only 16 oz bottles. Either way, the hangover I had the next day made me swear that this was a part of the culture to which I would remain a stranger. Not that baijiu is enjoyable to drink, either, it's not. Apparently, because of its high alcohol content and maybe because it's the only liquor I've ever had made from sorghum, but it is absolutely repulsive. I'm not quite in the budget group to be buying the top of the line baijiu, but I don't think the taste can be that different. The other day Dave and I both needed to go to Wal Mart to pick up some things, so our good friend Cao Xingxing came with us. After we came back from dinner at McDonald's, we stopped at a new supermarket near the bus stop by campus. While walking through the baijiu section (two full aisles) I pointed at a jug of clear liquid and asked Dave if he had any plans for the night. He answered "goal #1", right on cue. Yes, they sell liquor in a plastic bottle here, 4500 ml, or 1.2 gallons for those on the US system. It was 28Y, which is $4.10 for over a gallon of liquor. More expensive than water, but cheaper than milk. And yes, its taste correlated with its price. The picture above shows the bottle and on the left with a bottle of coke and Cao Xingxing and QinChen, another one of our friends. This batch seemed to have a bit of a nail polish remover smell to it. And, because we bought over a gallon of it, I guess we will have to bite the bullet and keep on pushing towards this "goal".