Arrived in Beijing yesterday. A few quick observations. It appears people in Asia do most of their shopping on airplanes. It seemed that about every half-hour, someone was making an announcement about duty free items for purchase, or handing out lists about what's available to purchase duty free, or coming by with a cart for duty free purchases. I opted out.
Took one of those naps when I arrived that's hard to wake out of. Indeed, that nap could have lasted weeks. But eventually I got up to experiment with dinner.
Went down to one of the hotel restaurants, where I was handed a menu with the offerings. Oh my. There literally was more dog on the meu than chicken. And every beef item contained a photo of raw beef, bright red so even I could see it, but phtotgraphed nicely on the plate. I thought, is this just for display? Surely they cook the stuff, right? I didn't attempt it, settling on a floundner that came with the head attahced. Mmm, flounder head. Another observation, Chinese waiters and busboys seem to thrive on looking the other way when you make eye contact. Eye contact as in, I've been done with my flounder head for 30 minutes and would like to leave please. That's a phrase I may have to learn in Chinese, otherwise it might be a long week.
Lastly, a few direct offerings as featured in a guide book in my room in case I want to explore other restaurants in the Haidian District where my hotel is:
On page 63, the Fragrant Valley Passion Restaurant offers these two signature dishes: "Special donkey meat pot, royal donkey meat pot."
On page 48, the Liuyanghe Restaurant offers "soft-shell turtle for good friend."
But alas, it is page 57 that has me the most curious, courtesy of the Red Autumnal Leaves Seafood Restaurant. Each one gets more alarming than the one before: "Australian clam in salt, bullfrog in jar, cowboy bone in sweet pepper, pine mushroom, rice noodles with happy balls and Chinese cabbage."
That poor cowboy.
Well, I'm off to explore the city and make my first contacts. And maybe, just maybe, eat lunch.
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2 comments:
Ni Hao!
Good luck with them donkeys!
Eric
Jason. Unbelievable. I'm so glad that you are the one there making and living these observations. I'm not sure anyone else would be able to be so keen & eloquent. Just visualizing you there making your way through the Chinese way of life brings me so much joy :)
Keep the updates coming.
Dan "flounder & cowboys & dog, oh my!" Roby
PS - I know what you mean about the duty free shoppers. I think it's a lot like the mall... Where people think $5 for a cookie is a great deal.
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