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.
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 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.
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.
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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.
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....
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.
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.
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....
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....
After a four-hour delay, we finally boarded the Boeing 777-300ER with the tasty individual cabin and free comfy pajamas (of which I now have three pairs and look forward to acquiring as many more as possible on future flights, because they are so damn lounge-y). Turns out that our airplane wasn't delayed coming in; it had been in Dubai for a few hours. But many other flights coming into Dubai, carrying passengers who were connecting on our flight, were delayed because of the heavy fog. As the purser was telling me, there's no way they would have had our flight leave on time because there would have been only about 50 passengers on board - a waste of time, fuel, and space. So they delayed the flight until most if not all of the connecting passengers arrived in Dubai and were able to make the transfer. As a delayed passenger, I wasn't thrilled with this, but I'm a pretty easy going guy, especially when stuck in a first class lounge where I get to chat with other international travelers (those sitting next to me were from Nigeria, Austria, Egypt, and the UK)... and drink wine for free. But if I was one of those connecting passengers, I'd have thought Emirates was the best airline on the planet. United would have dumped my ass anywhere, uncaring in its attempts - if any - to get me on a connecting flight. Witness a flight back from San Francisco where I was bumped from the business class seat I paid for back to coach because the aircraft was switched and didn't have enough seats in the new configuration to accommodate everybody. Getting bumped wasn't so much the issue - it was that United felt no obligation to reimburse me the difference between what I paid for business and what a coach fare was worth. (I'm still fighting this one.)
Anyway, onto more pics to make fellow travelers jealous....
My father and I are big tea drinkers during the work day. This was available in the Dubai lounge, and I thought, "hey cool, an Arabic tea for me to try!"
Look familiar?
A shot into business class. Not the full enclosed cabin of first, but what I think are almost-if-not-fully reclining seats, with the same control panel and almost-as-large LCD screen of first. When and if I take my wife and son over to China, we may have to go this way for financial purposes of paying my own way, and it will still rock.
The gray wrap in the back is like a little mattress pad to put on the seat when you recline to a flat sleeping surface. Non-slip backing and all. It does actually add a little layer of comfort. Then you have the choice of a regular cotton blanket or a light down-type insulated one. Decisions, decisions...
I know I took a shot of this before on the way over, of some lotions for the flight, but it wasn't until this trip that I realised the "sleep" and "focus" snuff boxes. They were really little aroma-therapy containers with little beady things inside giving off the smells. Don't really think they worked, but hey - they were free, so I took them.
A shot of the phone/remote and the screen. And an empty champagne glass. Mixed with some really incredible Dubai-based orange juice, the homemade mimosas were a pleasant start to the flight.
Some nice perfume & cologne to freshen up, found in the bathroom.
Even though we got toothpaste and razors in the leather travel kit, they always kept them in stock.
A shaving/makeup mirror in the bathroom. I try to shave as little as possible, but I've been on dozens of international flights with uppity business folk who fly in their suits and shave right before landing, on their way to morning meetings in the city of their destinations. A sad life indeed. Believe me when I say I consider myself one incredibly fortunate guy who can go to work in ratty clothes and a 5-day old beard. With my dog.
Self portrait.
It's wasn't just the ***huge*** selection of movies, TV shows, and music to choose from, it was the fact that as soon as I got on the plane, I could start watching "Ratatouille".
See above. A perfect place setting and a fantastic appetizer. I know I'm missing out on a lot of cuisine with my disdain for all shellfish, most cooked vegetables, and mushrooms/tomatoes, but I do really appreciate that I've developed a love for most other kinds of international food. This was the mezze as described in the menu, and was a really great little dish. Seriously, who can pass up on tabouleh?
For dinner, the chicken with zaatar crust. Quite tasty, but the chickpea salad was what really did it for me. Admittedly, the curry on the flight over was more to my liking. But hell, if I had been awake longer, and hungrier, I would have devoured the gnocchi. Next flight, indeed...
A flight ahead of us takes off against part of the Dubai landscape.
It was a mild and foggy and morning...
We missed seeing the Burj al Arab hotel on both flights, but was able to catch just a faint glimpse of the Burj Dubai Tower off in the distance. You may need to click on the link for the bigger picture, and adjust your monitor. But this either will be or is already the tallest building in the world. When completed, it'll be twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Hopefully next time, it won't be as foggy, and I can shoot it from the plane - it will probably be higher than our altitude on landing...
It was a great way to end the trip and get us back to the US. The only problem was that we were deposited back into JFK, a place I loathe within a place I loathe. Fortunately, the ride home took only about 2 hours, covering maybe 60 miles. Funny, when people land in Newark and think that New Jersey is nothing but oil fields and factories, I'm more than happy to let them keep thinking that. But when they get all excited that they're coming to New York by way of JFK, I feel the need to tell them that they haven't really yet gotten to the rest of the mainland states, because the god-awful trip from the airport, across Brooklyn and Staten Island, to at least the NJ Turnpike, can take them another 3 hours just because some idiot trucker didn't understand that a parkway means no trucks allowed.
But if you have to suffer in JFK, Emirates is the way to go.
It's good to be home. And nice to know I'll be heading back in about 4 months....
Looks like our aircraft coming in was delayed. It was incredibly foggy when we landed, but that was in the middle of the night.
So I don't get how foggy in the morning could be any worse.
But, there are worse places to be stuck for two hours, what with all the free wine/champagne/booze, dates with almonds (I picked some up at duty free), and all the hummous and pita pockets filled with spiced lamb and yoghurt I can eat.
Which is a lot.
But many fingers are crossed that we get the same Boeing 777 aircraft we got on the way over with the awesome cabin. Otherwise, the next 14 hours are going to suck.
We went back to the restaurant in Langfang yesterday - another great meal where I ate and drank too much, and got cajoled into singing "Let It Snow".
Shark fin soup - a delicacy that comes from these.
Not so good in my opinion. I prefer the rest of the fish.
Most times I've flown to China, it's been on United, flying from Newark to Chicago, then on to Beijing. The car service picks me up at 4am, and I'm at the hotel at what is roughly 2 or 3am the following morning, so it's about 24 hours door to door.
Because the main flight is so long - about 13 or 14 hours - we fortunately fly first class, either by paying for it outright or by upgrading if possible. Thanks to help from a travel agent, the fares have been much better than just going online and booking it, trade secrets and all.
But now, even with airline bankruptcies and the populace's general hatred of flying, the airlines are still charging outrageous prices for service. So, with a United ticket hovering around $22k, we decided to look elsewhere. Dubai, actually.
We decided on an Emirates flight that goes from JFK to Dubai, then on to Beijing. A much longer trip, but at half the price of a ticket on UAL. I hate the drive to JFK, which can take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours, but we left around 6p so traffic was pretty good. The flight leaves at 11:30p, so I figured I'd spend most of my time asleep. That is, until I got seated.
This is the first class cabin on certain Emirates flights. Fortunately, mine was one of them. It's actually an individual cabin, with electronically-controlled sliding doors and all. No roof, but who would want one when you have this to look at?
Oh, and it's not just a nice little TV to watch pre-selected movies on...
Nope - a 22" LCD. Controlled by:
A wireless control panel that also controls your chair and cabin environment, and...
a phone-slash-remote stored in the arm rest. Also doubles as a controller for the video games available.
And what can one watch on this display? A rough estimate would be about 200 various movies and TV shows. Not just recent movies that you could likely catch on other flights (I caught much of "Transformers"), but also a whole library of classics, anywhere from "North by Northwest" to "Finding Nemo".
Thirsty? Push the button to raise the refrigerated drink selection.
Care for a small traditional snack? A delicious date and some imported Arabic coffee with saffron.
If you can find a valid reason to work, will there be enough space for your laptop? Probably.
Ready for some sleep? Just press the button and the doors close and lights turn off...
But not until you've chosen what you want for dinner. Only when the rest of the cabin is served? Not here - just give them 20 minutes to heat up your food, and dine whenever you want. Which is fine, because it will take you at least that long to figure out what you want anyway:
Start with some of the best champagne ever? Why not?
Maybe they'll have wine from one of my favorite vineyards...
Feel guilty about overfishing for caviar and force-feeding for foie gras (which I am)? Then just have a more traditional appetizer. Plus it'll just taste better than any other airline, and most restaurants.
Curry you say? How could I not?
I'm always hesitant to eat bread on airlines, because it's so often hard as a rock. These rolls tasted fresh out of the oven. Oh, and is that an actual metal knife I see tucked in the napkin?
Some dessert, if there's any room left (there wasn't).
Unfortunately, I did need to get some sleep, as there was still a lot of traveling ahead. After a few hours' rest, it was time to change out of the complimentary lounge-wear (which I kept) and freshen up:
Seat backs up and tray tables stowed. Welcome to the richest place in the world:
On the way to the lounge for a 6-hour layover, but not without some window shopping first. It was even busier on the way out at 2am.
A fine place to lounge indeed. But wait... what happens if I get hungry, again?
Just some appetizers here. To complement the multitude of dishes like:
Chicken jalfrezi, lamb rogan josh, blue cheese ravioli, and vegetarian spring rolls. Plus the best lemonade ever, with a great mint taste.
The second flight, from Dubai to Beijing, was about 8 hours, and was very well serviced and also had great food and entertainment selections, but was a more common business-class type of cabin. I slept through most of that flight. After some Thai-style spicy chicken before landing, of course.
I've been pretty good this trip in doing my best to not eat too much, but I have the feeling there will be no stopping me on the flight home.
Two words... In. Sane.
