Dining in Langfang

Langfang is a township outside Beijing, near two of our factories. There is a popular restaurant here that excels in countryside cuisine. Like many other restaurants, you can choose much of your food first, before even getting to your room (more on that later); but here, you can go beyond picking out the fish or shrimp... or sea cucumber, turtle, pig's knuckle, beef tendon, and many other things I avoid... and pick out individual side dishes. Many people I work with here know that I like spicy food, and prefer meat dishes, so we're always looking for something new to try. But meat is not really a delicacy here - it's all about the seafood. And fortunately, when they make a seafood dish I wouldn't otherwise eat even if I had to, here it's so good that I actually look forward to it. The pictures here combine my current trip as well as one from this past March.

 

The TV above the elevators that lead to the multiple floors of multiple dining rooms, showing the goings-on in the kitchen. You don't do this unless you trust the food you're serving.

 

The menu is downstairs, pre-presented like in the old automats. Only much of it is still alive.

 

Not today, my friend, but soon you will be mine...

 

 

Sea cucumbers. I was once brave enough to try them.... Once.

 

Walking to the room. It's laid out much like a hotel, with each room being a dining room, often with a flat panel TV. I keep forgetting to ask if they have closed-circuit so you can watch the kitchen from the room. (My father/business partner is in the life vest.)

 

Lobster sushi. Yum.

 

Traditional big meals, around a rotating centerpiece. You just move it to what you want to eat. China is trying to move towards using serving utensils instead of just picking up food with the chopsticks that have already been in yours and everyone else's mouths, particularly after the SARS scare a few years ago, but you can't turn 6000 years of culture on a renminbi. It's been hard enough here for people to move to plastic chopsticks so they can save on wood and bamboo (unfortunately they don't have the gripping surface so the move has met much resistance).

 

I think this was something's stomach. The picture was as close as I got.

 

Drinking is big here in China, a way to help promote "guanxi" or relationships. Mostly done at lunches with us. The Tsingtao beer is the same brand you can find in the US, only 100 times better because it isn't pasteurized - much fresher and tastier. But you don't sip alcohol here with your meal, that's what tea is for (you don't drink the water). It's for "gambei", which means "empty glass"... i.e., shots. A few years ago I moved from drinking beer to red wine here, which is actually quite good. The beer was just too filling to keep shooting. Wine snobs would have a heart attack to see people gulping it down, but it's a much more tolerable way for me to keep up the drinking without feeling like my gut is going to explode.

 

This is mau tai, sort of a Chinese grappa. I will do one shot of this if I have to. Otherwise, I feel like it's wasting something that could otherwise fuel a car.

 

This is one piece of eel from a separate dish, and what I can best describe as barbequed sardines. The eel was good though the sauce was a little thick, but the sardines were phenomenal. Great sauce, meaty, and easy to work around the bones. You eat everything except the tail, skin included. We're already planning a second trip there in another two days, and this will definitely be ordered again.

 

This noodle dish gave us a choice to add different toppings and sauces. I went for edamame, minced pork, and a fantastic garlic sauce. This is the sort of dish I could eat all day here.

 

When you order the fish downstairs, this is how it's served. In some restaurants I've been to here, if there's any meat left, it goes into a fish soup that's served a bit later. Then, in some instances, the bones of the fish are deep fried, and you eat them like french fries.

 

Last but not least is one of my absolute favorites. You know those annoying birds in the cities? Not here... this is a pigeon delicacy. The meat is very rich, but there's very little of it. Also, as in most poultry dishes here, you're not just given the meat, but the bones and cartilage as well, so you kinda have to work around everything to get at the meat. And the little dish has just salt and pepper that you dip the meat into just to coat it a little bit. Heaven I tell you.

 

I don't have any pictures of the vegetable dishes, but they are usually really good too. Some are similar to what you may find stateside, but my favorite ones are very simple, what is called peasant food. Like sliced cabbage and celery in a garlic sauce, or pickled radishes and peppers. I'm already looking forward to the next visit.