Lamb Soup

The Marx Brothers were known for their movie "Duck Soup"; the restaurant next door from here is known for its delicious lamb soup.
The restaurant has big, red letters in it's window that say 'yang tang' (样汤). You might think that means "Beware of Ram" considering there is a feeble-looking ram chained to a tree near the entrance. However, the letters do indeed mean lamb soup, and although that particular ram is still intact, I suspect there was a different one there last week.
In China, people like to see that their food is fresh. The best example is when Wal-Mart first opened in China and had to change from only "fresh frozen" seafood offerings and include tanks of live fish which customers could select and take home. In short, like the chicken soup I wrote about in this space before, seeing a live lamb, sheep, ram, whatever in front of a restaurant advertising lamb soup tells the customer here that it is only of the best, freshest quality.
We headed inside, grabbed a table and ordered a round of lamb soup. J's cousin also ordered a stir fry of green pepper and pork intestines, and then a tofu dish which, ironically, was hardly touched. The lamb soup is served with the broth kept rather bland since there is a bottle of vinegar and four different spices on the table with which to flavor it to your liking. I put in a good dose of vinegar, a bit of salt and pepper, a dash of chicken consommé and a spoonful of red pepper. The soup had different lamb bits in it, including cubes of congealed lamb blood, and after getting over the novelty of the whole thing, the taste was quite good. Everyone tried each others soup broth and J's cousin by far had the spiciest, but I thought best, balance of ingredients. I added some more black and red pepper to mine, and ate heartily, nibbling at the tofu and pork intestines too.
As we ate, we could hear a dog whimpering in the back somewhere. I'm always on the lookout for possible dog meat on a menu, but I was assured it was nothing of the sort. It turns out the owner was raising a puppy in the back, and he took us back to see a beautiful two-month old Husky. The dog was friendly and playful. I'm not much for petting dogs (especially ones I don't know), so I just snapped some pics of J's cousin playing with him.
As we left the restaurant, we awkwardly decided to pet the ram out front too, which I also have pictures of. I'm a bit hesitant to say, but I don't know if I'll be able to look back on that photo and not imagine dousing him with vinegar and red pepper.