Sorry, Crush....

But you taste good.

I feel kinda bad about this, but the food rules are a bit different here in the outlying provinces of China. And certainly turtle soup is not a rarity.

OK, not so much the shell, which like many things gelatinous is considered a delicacy here, but fairly gross for my american taste. But turtle meat turns out to be quite tasty.

Pig's palate, however, is downright disgusting. Trust me on this one.

The other Mile-High club

OK, so it isn't that one, but I just joined another one on my trip from JFK to Dubai, the first leg of my fall trip back to Beijing on the new Airbus A380. This club probably only has a few hundred or thousand people in it so far, and I'm one of them.

 

A shower at 39,000 feet!

Food as always was great - spicy lentil soup, chicken tikka with basmati rice, and Cakebread Chardonnay... one of my favorites.

 

It will be interesting to see what Beijing is like now that the Olympics are over. Did the traffic get back to normal? Does the air still smell stale? Is the CCTV tower finished?

And, can I take tours of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube?

Answers forthcoming...

Sichuan cuisine

The last time I actually went off-site for dinner in Beijing was over a year ago. We used to go out to dinner fairly often, but in the last 2-3 years it's only been for business dinners. Of course, almost everything I do over here is business, but the hotel restaurants are good, and it's nice to just head right upstairs once dinner is done. This trip, we're at least pushing ourselves to venture beyond the hotel, bringing us good Indian food two nights ago, and Sichuan last night. Mind you, both restaurants are in the China World complex where our hotel is, so we don't even need to walk outside - good when it feels like New Orleans outside.



Below are some examples of what's on the menu at South Beauty - pardon the off colors:

Sichuan sweet and sour fish. This was fantastic, not syrupy sweet like a lot of American chinese dishes I've had. Just the right amount of breading too.

These mashed potatoes turned out to be pretty good, with more of a risotto consistency. Not as good as my garlic mashed though...

Everything gets used.

Like I said above....

I've always heard frog's legs were good, but Kermit got a pass tonight.

Mmmm, fins, snouts, lips and ligaments. Sadly, shark's fin soup is considered a delicacy here, but for some reason the rest of the shark is thrown back, or out. For a country that really drains every last drop they can out of their food, this one escapes me. One more bad western trend they're beginning to follow.

I've had beef tongue before, easy enough to find when your relatives owned jewish delis in New York, and I tried chicken feet on the last trip. But the two together... hold me back!

We actually ordered more "normal" food, like BBQ spare ribs which were fantastic, pickled veggies, sliced bamboo, grilled sardines, marinated tofu, dumplings, and sauteed chicken (once again an incredibly tasty dish, but someone else got all the good meat while we seemed to get little more than bones and joints). I'm learning to like Sichuan food best, versus Mandarin or Cantonese, because I've found it to have stronger flavors and spicier ingredients. Hopefully we'll push ourselves to try restaurants serving the other two styles as well, instead of what is clearly the dumbed down versions of all in the hotels.

Disgustingly, this lives up to it's name

Yesterday I had the opportunity to try "stinky tofu", considered a delicacy here and elsewhere in Asia. Let me tell you, the moment they brought it into the room, you could sense its presence. And when the server put it on the big lazy susan and spun it around past me, I thought I would choke.

But still, I had to try it, because from what I've heard, though the smell is vile, the taste is actually pretty good. Unfortunately, not the case this time. It was incredibly salty, which overpowered what seemed like a not-to-unpleasant taste. What I was told afterwards, and after we requested they remove the dish from the room, was that you need to let it sit a while to let the salt soak into the center of the cubes, and that you should also add a little chili peppers when you eat it.

I will take my associates' word for it.

For Mike

Thanks for the shout out on Mike's blog! Back at ya...

Lunch was at a new restaurant yesterday that had Tsingtao draft. The temps have been hitting 90* here on a daily basis, and although I switched from pounding beer to pounding wine at the factory lunches (gan bei!) a few years back, cold beer has found its way back into my heart. But yesterday, one of the drivers who won't drink alcohol, as you need full capabilities to drive in China, started drinking this. When I asked what it was, our manager said "apple vinegar". I couldn't imagine drinking it as a drink, versus cooking with it. But not one to pass up something new, I gave it a try. And I have to admit, it is incredibly good. Kind of like a mild apple juice with just a hint of vinegar to give it a little edge. I have to find it in the states, as it would make a really refreshing summer drink, and I'm sure there's a way to liven it up with some booze.

Sorry Mike, no beer pics yet. But I've got plenty of lunches ahead.

Back in the China Grove

We arrived in Beijing last Monday afternoon, going through Dubai again. It's Saturday morning now, as it's taken a while for me to get a post in. Windows Live Writer - a Microsoft program I actually like - wasn't able to connect to my blog. Maybe the government here thinks I'm saying bad things about their food. So I'm finally able to just access Blogger directly.
Almost every time I've come to China, I've packed some gummy bears, one of my favorite treats, based on the advice of a friend many years ago who spent a summer in Russia and said to bring a part of home you know you can't get when you travel. For him it was peanut butter and toilet paper. For me, it's Haribo gummy bears. With the way Beijing has become such an international city, I'm sure I could find them quite easily here, but it's easier to buy in bulk at home. This time though, I didn't have time to get any before leaving, so I picked some up in the Dubai airport. In addition, I was in the mood for Skittles, my second favorite way of creating cavities.

I've found that Coke tastes way better in Europe and Asia. Skittles, on the other hand, do not. Though the packaging is pretty cool.

We're leaving a week before the Olympics start. This city, and the surrounding areas, will be a nightmare to navigate with all of the security and traffic stops. And, in a way, been there done that (pardon the horrifically unreadable layout, it was only 1996, early in the interwebs years....). There's definitely a lot of nationalistic spirit here, and although the air is still covered in a thick haze, the stale odor that's usually ubiquitous/omnipresent/all over the friggin' place is so minimal you barely notice it. Granted, I'm hardly an athlete, but as a visitor it's a nice change from past trips over here.

More foodie posts soon... While I've been gone from home, our house was struck by lightning, frying our brand new TV, satellite receiver, DSL modem, alarm system and sprinkler system. So some of my time has just been calling home to help wife find all the right stuff to work with the insurance company. Will be a fun way to spend the first few days home.

Some China trip recaps...

I've been back almost two weeks, right into the thick of it at work. So I'll briefly post a few pictures. The rest of the trip was uneventful, fortunate given all that's going on in China with Tibet, the Olympics, etc. One constant is the good food at least.

 

My favorite side dish - huang gua. Cucumbers in a black vinegar and garlic sauce. Ask for these the next time you go to a chinese place, even if they're not on the menu.

 

The CCTV building nearing completion. I'd be very surprised if it's not finished in time for the Olympics.

 

Szechuan bean curd with spicy sauce. Looks gross, tastes better.

 

The gate in Dubai. The walkway on the right is for the current generation of planes. The higher one on the left is for the Airbus 380. They're way ahead of the curve over there.

 

Air traffic control in Dubai.

 

Dubai from the sky. A lot of desert.

 

A champagne cocktail and mezze, right after takeoff.

 

 

Some neat shots from the plane - pardon the blue cast.

 

As close as I'll ever need to get to this city....

Another great meal in Lang Fang

Our secondary factory - one whom I hope will become our primary someday - took us again to a fantastic restaurant in Lang Fang. Many of the dishes from our last trip were ordered again, they're just that good. But to make you jealous...

 

A spicy fish soup that has a kind of Thai influence.

 

"Chinese pizza" - you can often find scallion pancakes in American chinese restaurants. This is the same dough but with pork inside. Very tasty.

 

Most chinese restaurants have a lazy-susan center so you can spin around the dish you want. This restaurant has one that's motorized, so you tend to horde what you want so you don't have to wait for another full rotation. Not a good way for keeping intake in check.

 

We've got two free days left before we go, though there's still a lot to be done. We just won't go back to a factory again. When I leave China, this is the restaurant and the people I'll miss most. But I'll carry a few extra pounds to remember everything by.

Things I've tried on the trip so far.

Deer tendon - gross.

Chicken feet - not too bad actually, but not meaty enough.

The "true" version of Kung Pao chicken continues to amaze me in how good it is over here.

I'm in the Qingdao area for a quick trip to a new factory - home of the original Tsingtao beer, and Haier Appliances. There's actually quite a German influence here, evidenced in the architecture. I was here on my first trip to China in 2000, as this is where our manager lives, but spent the whole weekend laid up in the hotel sick. Not a problem this time around, however it's cold and rainy while we're here, so any pictures I look to get won't be very impressive.

It's also a huge seafood city, being right on the coast of the Pacific. This is where I had sea cucumber for the first time.

And last.

Airplane food done right

I see no reason to ever fly United Airlines to Beijing again, even with the addition of at least 12 hours total transit time, especially with Emirates (currently) at half the price.

Indian-spiced mini sandwiches with cucumber slices and a little chili sliver. Total nummers....

What amazes me about the food on Emirates is that not only can you get it whenever you want throughout either the 14 or 9 hour flight, but when it's served it does not taste or feel like it just came out of a rubberizing microwave. I don't know how they do it, but the food never tastes like it was made in an airplane.

Back to Lang Fang today....

Hello, Dubai...

Another 24-hour trip to China, through Dubai again. TSA confiscated my hand lotion, because it was not in a "commercial container", or at least one that had writing on it. So I went on a mission in the duty-free area to find something to help my addiction. Found some, but thought this would have made a better purchase:

A $400 bottle of Johnnie Walker.

Maybe next trip....