The restaurant itself was filled with chic, nouveau riche Chinese, noisily spending money and stuffing their faces. My new found friends were intent on spending as much money as possible. Soon, the pijou (beer) started flowing. We did a few rounds of the "Gambe!" toast (shouting Gambe! Then draining your glass.) Then the food was brought. A steaming pot of spiced oil shaped like a ying yang symbol was placed in the centre of the table, with various delicacies set around it for dipping into the steaming hot oil. Ducks intestine and Ox's stomach are a few of the treats I recall.
Then came the most interesting treat.
A glass of rice wine, but no ordinary rice wine. I was told it cost 150 yuan a glass. That's nearly twenty American dollars, for one glass of red liquid. It was put in front of me, I dutifully downed it. Then another. And another. At that point I noticed the grins on the faces of my new friends. I asked what was in it.
It was made from tiger's penis. They told me, with perfectly straight faces, that it was better than Viagra, and no matter how much I drank it would give me a rock hard erection all night.
I dismissed the idea. More beer was drunk, more toasts made. It was at that point that the two guys revealed why I'd been brought there. They wanted me to enter into a partnership with them. Be the front man for a new business. They were old friends, the guy who spoke the poorer English was a big noise in the local communist party. He was a guy who could "get things done". More toasts were made, apparently we were all now brothers and would make each other very rich.
Yeah, right.
Now way was I getting involved in some dodgy Chinese business. But, they were spending all the money, so I played along! We went on to a few more bars. It got to be around 1 in the morning. We were all thoroughly plastered. And experiencing incredible horniness. The yarn about the tiger's prick liquor was true. My face was red with sexual desire.
