This evening we had a dinner for the students in my course here in Toronto.

We decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants.

The Dragon Pearl is considered one of the best Asian food buffets in Canada.

You can visit my Dragon Pearl post to see some of the decor of this restaurant. This evening I will focus on the food and a Chinese show.

I will not share pictures of all of the courses, but will share a few. I started with a bowl of soup and then visited the salad bar.

I then had a plate of grilled food followed by the sushi course shown above. I enjoyed the sushi, especially with the nice spicy tang of the wasabi paste. There were many sushi choices and I tried to take a little of each. The buffet at Dragon Pearl is so extensive so it is impossible to try everything in one visit.

Next up were some Chinese dishes. Some chicken, shrimp, beef and different vegetables and also the dish above.

This is the classic way to eat Peking Duck. I like the crisp skin of the duck. You take a pancake and spread some bean sauce on it. Then add some cucumber and scallion strips and a piece of Peking Duck. Then roll up the pancake and enjoy the delicious taste.

After a nice bowl of ice cream it was time for a traditional Chinese show.

They have a short show on Thursday evenings at the restaurant. It only lasted for 10-15 minutes, but was very interesting.

The one man show was of the Chinese dramatic art called bian lian.

Bian lian is also known as face changing. The performer danced around the small stage and would periodically change the mask that he was wearing.

The mask change was barely noticeable as it was done quickly with a small motion or maybe even just a head movement. I lost track of how many times the mask changed, but these pictures show a few of them.

The masks depict different characters from Chinese opera. The dance of the performer would change to match the character of the mask he was currently wearing.

Bian lian is rarely seen outside China, so I am  glad that we picked the right time for our course dinner.

I was even able to pose for a picture with the bian lian performer.

I had a wonderful evening out with my students and am looking forward to a nice weekend after the course ends tomorrow.

Steven