The ultra-luxurious hospital room where Sheikh Abu Halik resides in Anlin Hospital had its spacious living room temporarily transformed into a dining area rich with Arab style, with precious camel wool carpets spread across the floor.
Sheikh Abu Halik, Lin Jie, An Kexin, Qi Xingfen, Gong Xuepeng, Lin Miao, An Kemeng, and a group of twenty or thirty others sat cross-legged on the floor, gathered around several impressively sized silver platters.
On the platters was a roasted whole lamb stuffed with rice, raisins, almonds, olives, pine nuts, and other dried fruits and spices, accompanied by rich, flavorful sauce-covered roasted camel humps, sweet pastries encrusted with nut fragments, thin sesame-scented flatbreads, fresh camel milk slushies, and various other Arab culinary specialties.
Lin Jie and the others, learning from example, ate according to Arab customs, using their hands to do so.
