Yes, we do have date nights. Every Wednesday evening Daniel shaves and opens the cologne bottle, I bust out the eye shadow and fitted jeans, and we hop on Daniel's electric bike and off we go.
Three Wednesdays ago it was Cacajas, the Indian place down on Wun Lin Jie, for Chicken Masala, chai tea, and Indu Suan Nai (Indian yogurt, THE BEST desert in town).
Two Wednesdays ago it was Feiyan Tepanyaki (Japanese steakhouse) for cubed sirloin, grilled zucchini, and a personal chef with a tall hat and fast hands.
Last night it was The Vintage Cafe down by the alley, French owned and run, for lamb and blue cheese salad and chicken pesto paninis. Then, because it was a holiday (The Mid-Autumn Festival) we headed to Green Lake Park where Daniel paid 5 kuai for cotton candy from a guy who was pedaling it off the back of his bicycle. When I say pedaling, I actually mean pedaling. As he pedalled, the back wheel ran the motor that spun the sugar into cotton candy. Fascinating and delicious. With our cotton candy in hand, we walked through the lantern-lit park, the only foreigners amidst thousands of local celebrators, and we listened to opera singers reminiscent of ancient times, and we browsed the merchant booths, and we watched the lights (that adorn the eaves of the sloping tile roofs) as they danced off of the still water. As the smells of milk-sweetened popcorn and fire-roasted meats followed us along our way, we marveled at the fact that what would be for some couples a once-in-a-lifetime, long-awaited, and very expensive vacation was for us, simply, date night.
Too bad we forgot our camera.
(and too bad the lamb salad, or maybe the cotton candy from the back of a rusted bicycle, sent me to bed early with stomach pain that would cripple a vulture)
