Chinese food with Chinese students

Today is a very monumental day! A group of four of my junior students invited me to eat dinner at the Muslim restaurant on campus! Some juniors have invited me to eat before, but every time they ask it feels just as exciting as the first time. The food was extra delicious! Sadly, I forgot my camera, but try to imagine various Chinese vegetables and a hashed potato cake shaped in a heart.

Speaking of good food, I have really been digging the hotpot here. When students asked me if I had hotpot before, I said, "oh yeah, we used to have hotpot PARTIES in California." Silly, silly me. My experience with hotpot was NOTHING compared to the awesome local hotpot they have here. It's a spicy hotpot with kidney beans called 豆米火锅. It was so good, that yesterday Betsy invited some students over to teach us how to cook it. I think it turned out even more delicious than the restaurant's!

Look at that spicy goodness. The girl, Serena, was the master chef!

I need to perfect this recipe for when I return home. I have not tried it by myself, yet, but I will post when I do!