Three of Anns friends arrived for a reunion of US/Canadian "Made in Hong Kong" friends (Angela from Halifax, Donna from Fort Lauderdale and Rosena from Seattle) who go back 30 years. Now when 4 Honkies get together there are three things that happen. There is a Cantonese speaking contest and a game of Mah Jong (the Mah Jong game is due to finish in 3 days!) - and there is eating, eating and eating.Now if you have never been to a Mah Jong game the sound goes something like this (think loud with a Cantonese movie DVD on in the background)
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"Chuck ma"
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"La"
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"Mow wa"
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"Yet lay"
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"Pong" - seemingly very important in Mah Jong
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"Sawa sawa"
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"YAH!"
etc etc
And of course they must eat. First night we celebrated Anns birthday a week early at Maestro. A 5 course delight.
Then the next night we had prime rib at home 
When you come to DC you must see the sights (especially Rosena who had not been to DC before) so on Sunday they went off to see the White House, Capitol, Mall, Washington Monument, WWII monument etc. 
A stopover was made at the seafood market but the queue was too long so they missed out on oysters. Then there was stop at Zatinaya - for messa and some wine (with Ann not drinking as she was the driver). Then down to Georgetown for a night cap but it was too cold so home they came - they had just missed Georgetown getting into the top 4 in College basketball with M street full of people - so back home for more Cantonese, food and wine and off to bed sometime around 4am!
Imagine the appetite after all that walking. So now its Monday and off they go to the Korean and Chinese markets to load up enough food for Africa and have a combination Korean/Chinese hotpot with a Sashimi starter. The photos tell it all. Liver, ducks feet, beef, squid, oysters that weighed about 200 gms each, mushrooms in a dozen varieties, beancurd and do you like the fish head - dont you???.
