So. Every time I go to Phoenix I always eat this shrimp & mayonnaise thing. It's shrimp smeared with mayo & it's mixed with candied walnuts that have sesame seeds on them. This is a warm dish, not a shrimp salad. I've never understood the warm mayonnaise thing, or what mayonnaise is doing in Chinese food anyway, but it's actually pretty good. Warm mayo in person is not nearly as vile as it sounds in the abstract. I don't know which of my relatives is responsible for this dish appearing at every restaurant meal. Maybe it's everybody. Maybe there is something about living in Phoenix that makes you really want to eat shrimp with mayonnaise & walnuts whenever possible?

All I know is that I was eating it about 40 minutes after stepping off the plane. "Wow, I must be in Phoenix!"

Actually, the last time I was there, about a year ago, someone clued me in to the fact that you can actually get this dish in lots of places, including the Bay Area and Hong Kong. (They were like, what is wrong with you that you think we only have this here?!) The Hong Kong part was what made me suspect the mayonnaise must be a Brit thang. Where else could it have come from?