Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal (28/12/10)

The mistress put out a spread this morning.

Status: outside air temperature is -4°C and 20°C indoors. I feel full just looking at the food on the table.

I don’t usually eat breakfast but, at her insistence, I hurriedly down my congee, fried egg and homemade soy milk. She also brought out steamed custard buns and steamed meat buns. We are already running late! After a quick call from Jase, we were out the door!

My parents and I being pulled around by way of a cart attached to a bicycle through Beijing’s hutongs while learning its history.

I am told that, on weekdays, the only way to get to subway in Beijing is via “jigsaw car” which is basically carpooling –one of the city’s steps towards a greener China. For $10 per person we could hitch a ride into the city centre without being crammed into a bus like sardines or pay a fortune to hail a taxi. This, in turn, helps the driver pay the various tolls that littler our journey. My main concern was for our safety, but the mistress says she’s done this millions of times and it’s quite amusing to watch her run around asking drivers if they’re heading our way. Luckily, we find one straight away.

The underground is a nightmare! Everybody is in a hurry and seems to loathe my aimless wandering –I’m pushed around as angry people are hurrying to work. I find myself missing my car. We switch from line 1 to line 2 and realize we’re going the wrong way but, luckily, our tickets only cost $2 to go wherever we like and on however many lines we want.

Also, girls should not spit. It is disgusting. I don’t care where you are -don’t spit where I can see you. For that matter –guys, don’t you spit either! It’s still gross!

We have a wander through the sights of Beijing and absorb some of the history that is spread all over the city. If you ever get the chance to come to China, you should definitely leave at least a week to experience the ancient buildings and the rich history that can be found among the high rise buildings and busy streets. I will put up some photos of the places we visit when I get home (to Auckland).

Deep fried foods from “Snack Street” (from left to right, top): starfish, scorpions, sea horses (bottom) lamb, chicken, chicken hearts, chicken kidneys and the pupae bug. Mmm.. This is fear factor stuff..

One of my favourite places in Beijing is Wangfujing(王府井) which is one of the most famous shopping streets in Beijing. However, it is not the shopping which attracts me here –it is the “Snack Street” where a large selection of exotic street food can be found. Deep fried insects (yay protein!), scorpions, and sea creatures can be found as well as more common (and what you may think as more edible) foods such as kebabs and desserts like the “Tang hu lu” (candied fruit on a stick). After a lunch of hot beef noodles on Snack Street (not worth writing about), we wander through the little stalls having fun bargaining with the vendors before having a look at the more expensive departments stores on the main street.

Mother and I outside Quanjude

For dinner, the engineer and mistress take us to Quanjude(全聚德) which is world famous its trademark Quanjude Peking Roast Duck ever since it opened in 1864. Wikipedia tells me that Quanjude sells over 2 million roast ducks served in 400 different styles to over 5 million customers annually. This has been on my “to eat” list for quite some time now so I was very excited. We’ve had our fair share of Peking Duck in Auckland before but nothing compared to this!

We have heard horrible stories, from our friends who have previously visited, of the horrendous prices associated with dining at Quanjude –some spending up to 6000RMB for one meal! We opt to eat in the public dining area where one Peking duck cost us 218RMB and we later learn that private booths go for up to 400RMB per seat (before ordering dishes)–no wonder their bill was so expensive! 

Letting the pro do his thang

 Back: Crispy crispy skin sitting on a tea light. Front: Condiments for the second course –spring onions, sweet bean sauce, MSG, minced garlic and cucumber.

The chef brings out a duck and starts slicing the crispy skin before us while we enjoy a nice, warm glass of soy milk. The first plate brought before us is a plate of crispy duck skin. You can tell that it isn’t, at all, like the duck we get at home –these are bred especially for Quanjude restaurants and are full of fat. It is really crunchy and full of flavour.

My wrapped pancake

The next duck course is more slices of duck –with the meat this time. The plates are placed above tea lights and served with steamed pancakes and various condiments. The waitress shows us how to wrap the duck meat and condiments in the pancake and makes one for each of us before leaving. The meat is very tender and melts in your mouth –we have at least 5 wraps each! There is also a basic soup made from the bones of all the roast ducks which has a lovely, clear taste to it.

Back: Salted duck liver. Front: Marinated duck kidney

We also order a few other dishes to accompany the duck. The first to arrive was a plate of salted duck liver and a plate of marinated duck kidney. The duck liver is much like pâté and is really soft and refreshing. The duck kidney was sliced very finely and had a chewy texture but was a little too salty for my taste. 

Chilli squid with amarallia. Yummy!

The last was a dish that had deep fried squid with armarallia (honey fungus –a type of mushroom) which was one of my favourites. It was full of dried chilli peppers, cloves and peppercorns as in Szechuan fashion. The addition of all these spices made the chewy squid spicy and very fragrant.

My duck certificate!

At this point the waitress brings out a certificate commemorating our Peking duck. It has the date of our meal and the number of the duck we had (we had the 130458^th duck from the Olympic village branch since it’s opening on 08/08/09). Yeah, it’s a big deal.


Note: Upon further inspection -there appears to be some kind of prize draw set in 2014 where I can collect my prize using my duck certificate. Looks like I might be back in a few years..

The engineer and his mistress

When eating with chopsticks, it is imperative that everything is brought out in bite sized pieces. When using flat, Korean chopsticks, it is even more important. Well, for me anyway –I taught myself how to hold them and, as a result, can only use round or square ones.

My family and I are staying in Beijing as guests of my dad’s old friend –lets call him the engineer, and his MISTRESS (The engineer’s, not my dad’s..).  Apparently it’s common to keep one.. I am typing this in their study on the 21^st floor of a 33 floor apartment building, the view is absolutely breath taking! Since hosting the Olympic games, Beijing has been busy improving itself in every way –bigger buildings, better roads and it’s much cleaner than I remember (although it doesn’t compare to home!)

View from the 21^st floor

Their home is beautiful and very well kept and they are every bit the perfect host and hostess. We are told that Beijing is super duper cold, but only outside –all buildings have central heating indoors and kept to about 20°C so our winter coats are only needed for brief moments outdoors (will need them for sight-seeing tomorrow).

Korean BBQ above an electronics store

We are treated to a Korean BBQ just a few minutes walk down the road which, we are told, is one of the mistress’ favourites. I’ve had my fair share of Korean BBQ back home and, I have to say, even though the experience seems more authentic here (the Chinese do know how to put on a show) Chinese beef just doesn’t compare to what we get back home.

The restaurant is wonderfully furnished and even though the temperature outside is -7°C, it is wonderfully toasty in our private booth and I don’t take any notice of the chill.

Roasted corn tea “Oksusu cha”-reminds me of good ol’ corn on the cob

We start off with a roasted corn tea (known as oksusu cha in Korea) which is apparently well known for warming and protecting one’s liver. It reminds me of corn on the cob or rice bubbles that have just been popped –it smells better than it tastes though..

Small cold dishes

Various dipping sauces

Before the main course, many tiny cold dishes are brought out to whet our appetite. A plate of soy beans marinated in BBQ fish sauce and various pickled vegetables (no, I wasn’t game enough to try the pickled onion. Sue me). We were also given a variety of dipping sauces for later on.

Sitting back and letting the pro do it.

 

Back in NZ, we’ve always BBQ’d our meat at our own tables but here, the mistress insisted on getting a waitress to cook it and cut it up for us –“they know how to do it properly and it’ll give us more time to talk” she tells me. A BBQ plate and charcoal is brought in along with a pipe to suck away the smoke.

Shin meat on the BBQ plate

The engineer orders an all beef platter which seems to use most parts of a cow –shoulder, shin, rump steak, belly and even tongue! The belly is my favourite (I like a little fat on my meat) although, in my opinion, not as good as pork.The engineer is told off for telling me about the ox tongue but I’m not scared (it’s not like it’s raw onion or anything) –it’s actually really tender and I really recommend that everybody try some.

On another note: I have noticed that the mistress has a collection of identical dress in different animal prints. It’s pretty cool..

..anyway..

Ham sushi and cold soba noodles

The engineer and mistress went overboard with accompanying dishes and ordered 3 carb based meals –too much soju perhaps? We had some steamed rice which was mixed with corn, cold soba noodles and ham sushi. Soba is a type of thin noodle made of buckwheat flour and is black in appearance –it scared the engineer and he refused to try it. It was served in a sweet and slightly sour broth and had bits of cucumber floating in it. I felt it was the perfect accompaniment to the fiery sauces and the fatty beef. The sushi had ham, pickled radish, egg, cucumber and carrot –I decided I could get this anywhere and only had once piece. It was average.

Spicy seafood broth (top) and steamed rice (below)

Other accompanying dishes included a steamed egg dish and spicy seafood broth. The steamed egg had small bits of tomato and chives which, I felt, wasn’t as good as my mother makes but that broth was delicious! The broth was flavoured with clams, onion, wintermelon and tomato. It was full of flavor yet clear and brought a strong, spicy kick with it.

Savoury steamed egg

At this point I am told there is more food for supper at home should I get hungry. Don’t think I’ll be needing it..

Snakeskin fruit –see how it resembles snake skin?

Snakeskin fruit peeled. Looks suspiciously like garlic but don’t let that put you off –it’s ah-mah-zing!

One more note: I discovered this awesome new fruit at Changle International Airport today –SNAKESKIN FRUIT! I was told that photos aren’t allowed so I had to buy a few –I wanted to try them anyway. They are crazy expensive at $48RMB/pound and the two cost us $13RMB. Man, was it worth it! This is one of the best fruits I’ve ever had. It is from Indonesia and tastes sweet and crunchy. It’s as if an apple, a pear and a fig were all involved in some horrific accident which left them looking like garlic and tasting of heaven (forgive this analogy, I’m very tired).

I am able to post less and less as it’s hard to post to blogspot in China but I have been taking notes daily and will definitely upload them as soon as I can (which may be when I get home to Auckland).