Happy New Year!

Friday, January 31, marked the beginning of the Year of the Horse. We celebrated the Chinese New Year by surrounding ourselves with Chinese people and eating Chinese food in the best Chinese restaurant in Lexington . . . Panda Cuisine (so say all the Chinese people we know).
  

The original plan was to make Chinese food at home, but then I came to my senses and decided to pay $60 to let someone else do it for me. I have to say, it was much more fun for me this way. Because of the huge influx of patrons over the weekend, the buffet was the only option. We told the kids to eat as MUCH as they wanted. Nay, we forced the kids to eat MORE. "We paid $15 for you to eat Chinese food. Heck yea you can have another five pieces of non-Chinese chocolate cake!"

Last year for Chinese New Year, we ate American food in China, as opposed to eating Chinese food in America. Oh the irony!

In our defense, we also visited Xi'an, where we saw the famed Terra Cotta Warriors.

How cool is that?!

 

We biked around the ancient city walls of Xi'an (just look at those clear, blue Chinese skies).

We took silly, touristy pictures of ourselves.

 

And along with McDonalds hamburgers, we ate delicious Chinese foods like quail eggs on a stick, lamb skewers, and mutton bread stew.  

 

Happy New Year! Xin Nian Kuai Le! 

It's amazing what a difference a year can make.

And yet some things don't seem to change.

* To see more of last year's Chinese New Year, check out posts here, here, here, here, and here.

No One Does Cotton Candy Like the Chinese

 It's true.

After a long day shuttling around Beijing in search of sites we never found, we decided to return to familiar territory for a very, very late lunch (which ended as an early dinner) at Hutong Pizza, a locale we discovered on our previous visit to Beijing.

Since we knew the area well from walking its winding alleys last October, we also knew just where to find the cotton candy vendor. These kids TOTALLY deserved cotton candy after walking nearly a half marathon in one day without complaining at all.

It is very possibly the best cotton candy in the world. Light, delicate, sweet, airy, and ginormous, it's hard to beat.

Last week when we visited the National Zoo in Washington DC, Lutece saw some cotton candy and asked the saleswoman how much it was. She walked back over to me and said with incredulity and not a little derision, "It cost $5.00 and it's less than half the size of the cotton candy in Beijing!" That's my haughty little world traveler!

Alamuhan

Last semester, Stayc asked his Chinese graduate students for recommendations of good restaurants in the area. We went to a couple of restaurants that didn't make an impression, but one of the recommendations became a favorite of ours. Alamuhan is a mid-range halal* restaurant near the University that serves Chinese/Middle East fusion dishes. The food is delicious.

Last week, we went to one final (simple) meal there and ordered our favorite dishes. I even remembered to take pictures. This lamb dish is tossed with toasted naan, onions, and middle east spices. The kids LOVE it.

"Tiger Salad" is comprised of tomatoes, red onions, and (spicy) peppers covered in a most delicious marinade. If I spoke Chinese, I would have asked for the recipe. I think I'm going to have to try to recreate this dish at home.

Our absolute favorite, though, are these Sichuan-inspired stir-fried green beans. These seriously delight the palate. Green beans have NEVER tasted so good.

I recently read excerpts from an article by David Sedaris (whose writing I generally enjoy), in which he insults China and Chinese hygiene in general and Chinese food in particular after visiting the country. I can't tell you how insulted and heartily disturbed I felt. Sure there are disgusting habits and foods in China (aren't there everywhere?), but there are too many delicious foods to list. What kind of an uneducated, ignorant, xenophobic lump can't find anything good to eat in China? It is mind-boggling.

* This means that the food is prepared to the standards of Islamic Law (the Muslim equivalent of kosher).

Ode to a Hot Pot

 

In one of my recent attempts to get the kids to review their experiences in China, I asked them to  write a short essay about a uniquely Chinese experience. I told them to write as if they were describing things to someone who had never been to China and had no idea what they were talking about . . . uhm, which would be most of you. In fact, my grand plan was to help them learn how to tell family and friends about some of our experiences in China.

Phoenix wrote about hot pot (so not an "ode" really, but you'll forgive my poetic license):

Let's go to a hot pot! WHAT IS A HOT-POT?!?! A hot pot is when you get a pot to boil food in and choose which food is raw and which is cooked. You can make a dip by combining solid (ground nut, cilantro), fluid (some weird thing that takes away spice), and liquid (soy sauce). You choose food and either eat it raw or cook it. The most common food is spinach, mushrooms, crab, beef, tofu, and bamboo. I believe I can take bus 75 to a hot-pot restaurant. So now can we go to a hot-pot?

Why yes . . . yes we can.

Ever since our first visit to a hot-pot restaurant, we have all been itching to go back. On a chilly Saturday a couple of weeks ago, we finally carved out the time (and the money . . . a good hot pot restaurant is NOT cheap).

We even brought iPods along to get us through the last part of the meal. You know the part. The part when the kids are done eating and the parents are not, and the kids are done behaving, but the parents still want to sit calmly and peacefully and nibble and chat. Yep. That part. iPods are really good for that part.

Bowties

Not the cloth kind, or the pasta kind, but the pastry kind . . . the best kind of all. Delicate, flaky, with a hint of coconut flavor. A favorite treat.

p.s. Photo taken while walking on the street holding plastic bag and eating bowties.

How to Puff Rice

We came across a puffed rice vendor a while ago. She and her husband were selling puffed rice as well as puffed corn, which is different from popped corn. We bought a bag of each. It's hard to resist it when they puff it right there on the spot.

It's fascinating to see the small ancient contraption working its magic. The man turns it over a can full of hot coals. The puffed rice or corn then shoots out the attached red tube into a bag. You'll be happy to know that I asked him if it was alright to take a picture of the process and he said yes. It would be weird to take a picture of someone without asking their permission first, right?

p.s. Right after we walked away there was a small explosion behind us. Puffing rice can be a dangerous business.

Once More for the Heros

The kids are munching on cookies.

A couple of weeks ago, we took our second and last (I assume) hike up Hero Mountain. You can tell how long ago it was by the length of Lutece's hair.

 

It may well have been the clearest day we have ever seen in our fair city of Jinan. You could actually see the entire city and beyond. It really was quite amazing . . . for China. So I took lots of pictures, and can you believe I'm actually posting those boring photos of our city on this blog? I want to remember what it looks like.

 

Also, there are a couple of noteworthy points to be made. First of all, see that hill in the middle of the city? There are a few of those hills in the city (not just on the outskirts). Normally the smog is so bad that you simply can't see them. Also, since we live in the middle of a city, you really can't see much beyond the buildings that immediately surround you. Still, every once it a while, on a clear day, I am amazed to see one and I wonder anew that the Chinese haven't seen fit to build expensive homes on them like Americans would have done.

This picture is of the backside of the mountain. You can see that it isn't nearly as developed as the central area, but it's getting there. They say that if you don't like the way China looks now, just come back in a year and it will look different. So true.

We visited Hero Mountain the Saturday after Tomb Sweeping Day, so there were flowers covering the base of the monument.

One of the unique and delightful things we noticed early on in our time in China are the polished stone sides of mountain stairways. (Staircases going up mountains are also uniquely Chinese.) The stairs aren't polished. Why are the sides?

The kids figured it out pretty quickly. Seriously, the sides of staircases all throughout China are polished by the bottoms of children. It's awesome.

We also took one more look at the Old World Market near Hero Mountain and ate some of our favorite candied fruit.

The market was freakishly crowded, and I had a minor anxiety attack being squished in with so many people, but we bought a few tiny gifts so it was worth the discomfort. Still, I'm glad I don't have to go back. I'll send Stayc if I think of anything else we need :).

What's for Dessert

I told you it was pineapple season, but did I mention that it is also strawberry season (and has been for three months now!) We are actually at the tail end of it. You pick them out one by one and pay by the half kilo. This bunch cost about $2.50, so not extremely cheap, but well worth the money. Unlike the grocery store variety in the States, these are small and bursting with flavor . . . not yet genetically engineered to be big and red (and tasteless). These strawberries are like the ones we buy at our farmer's market in Lexington. Yum!

Revisiting the Favorites

As you may have guessed from our recent visit to Qianfo Shan (Thousand Buddha Mountain), we have been revisiting our favorite places in Jinan before we leave at the end of this month. Spring has been a good month to get out of the apartment and walk around (not least of all because it has been warmer outside than in our apartment).

The first time we discovered Black Tiger Springs was in the winter. We have walked along it's banks many times since then, and it is even more delightful in the Spring.

Lutece and Phoenix now know to bring small, buoyant jars and containers with which to amuse themselves while Stayc and I sit on the rocks and talk.

On the way home from Tiger Springs, we decided to bid farewell to one more of our favorites . . . our favorite Sichuan (Szechuan) restaurant.

We will sorely miss this delicious food. American-Chinese food is just not the same.

Pineapple Season

We are deep into pineapple season here in China. You can find them in every market, but it's best just to buy them from one of the many street vendors selling them. At first I didn't buy them peeled like this because it made me nervous to have someone else touch our food. I would buy them whole and peel them myself at home.

I finally succumbed to the peeled variety though. How nice is it to have someone else peel your pineapple for you with such efficiency? I pick one out, the girl whips out her super sharp knife, and she begins shaving off the skin quickly and meticulously.

Then she uses one of these fantastic little "pineapple clippers" and cuts out all the knots one by one. A perfect pineapple to take home for dinner.

Stayc saw a street vendor selling the clippers the other day, and he bought me one to take home. From now on, it's only fancy pineapples for us.

Repeat Customers

This is one of my shortest travel food posts (Thank goodness!). Not that Shanghai doesn't have an abundance of good restaurants and tasty foods, just that we weren't there for very long, and we didn't go (much) out of our way to sample the cuisine. It just wasn't that kind of trip.

That didn't stop us from appreciating a few favorite foods while in Shanghai . . . few being the operative word. We found things we liked and we stuck with them. No time for trial and error.

The bakery across the street from our hotel provided our breakfasts all three mornings we were in Shanghai. It was a great find. We all chose two items each morning from the plethora of baked goods and then ate them while walking. On the last day, we also sampled a few items from another bakery down the block that we were told had "better quality" goods. Wrong! We were glad we stuck with our first choice.

We ate xiaolongbao (soup filled dumplings) on three separate occasions (well, maybe two depending on how you count). I had read good reviews for two places located right across the street from each other, so our last excursion with Shawn was to test the dumplings from both locales.

The dumplings (crab/pork and pork/egg) from Jia Jia Tang Bao were smaller and more delicate, especially good with the ginger dipping sauce.

 

But all of us preferred the larger pork-filled dumplings from Yang's.

Yang's only makes one kind of dumpling (pork), so ordering is really easy. It's finding a seat that is especially difficult. We had to hover over customers that looked to be almost finished so we could snag their seats when they left. Everyone was doing it.

 

The dumplings were worth the hovering though. The fried bottoms keep the hot soup inside nicely.

 

I'm only sad the kids didn't like them because they got really hungry watching us eat them no less than twice on different days. Poor kids.

We also indulged in our favorite ghetto street food more than once. On our way back to the hotel on Friday evening after a long day of sightseeing, we saw a line of locals waiting to buy fried pork cutlets. Assuming hordes of Chinese people can't be too wrong (when it comes to food anyway), we joined the throngs and brought the sliced cutlets home with us, along with a few large bags of fresh fruit.

Dinner on Saturday night? The exact same thing.

How can I leave out the chocolate cake. If we could have eaten it again, we would have. Really. It was that good.