Day 9 - Part I - Time to Change Countries

And it was easy.

I was a little sad we were missing the spring festival in Beijing – I mean Chinese New Year… in China!  But honestly, I knew I wouldn’t really have the energy to hunt out a good way to see it.

I was ready to pack up the tea, the kite, the books and maps and the little bags of souvenirs, and head off to our next adventure. 

I was able to bask in the mild reassurance that I had paid a good deal less for my souvenirs than the same thing at the airport.  Yay for small victories.

And airplane tea in Asia beats the pants off the muddy Lipton over here.  Something I was glad of by the Styrofoam cup full.

Arrival in Tokyo was rather straightforward as well.  And the limousine bus – well,  It was a quick splash-down into the new culture; the bowing as each bus arrived and left, the white gloves of all attendants, drivers and guides, the swept, gumless, spitless sidewalks we waited on, and the silent, spotless busses we boarded.

While the new Beijing we just left seemed a haphazardly built, one-and-a-half-sized giant land.

With smog...

  As we drove through suburbs, farms, highways and approached Tokyo (including passing Tokyo Disney! and the Eiffel Tower replica) I felt I was now in a world at three-quarters scale.  

Really - watch your head in the Subway

That was a feeling which never did quite leave.

Day 8 - Part II - The Mall

Yes, there are Malls in Beijing… and they look strangely familiar.  But the drugstores are quite different.

"...I'd have to go with that repository of human greed and debasement, the mall." - Daria

"Very good Daria, the mall is a beautiful illustration of all these economic principles.  In fact it would make for an excellent field trip." - Mrs. Bennet 

It was shiny, windowless, and full of designer labels – familiar & strange, and the prices were pretty darn close to US comparable.  Food court and everything!

No, Tavin, we are not getting mall sushi, not even Chinese mall sushi.  Or Burger King.  Or Dairy Queen.  I just can’t.

They had those small stalls in the middle with smaller merchants (much like the carts you find around here.)  Thank goodness, there I was able to find a few nifty things that were made in China, but didn’t look like the stuff already sent to the US of A!  And like in NY, London & Boston, (and Tokyo... I would discover in just a few days) plenty of access to the subway.

I figured this would be my best chance find find western style cough medicine.  No drug store here – yet there was, in the shiniest department anchor store.  Good thing, the Pharmacists spoke some English.  They chided me for my son having a runny nose (one even took a tissue out of her pocket, wiped his nose and looked at me – meaningfully).  And then looked confused (incredulous?) that I was in search of medicine for myself.

I weathered the cloud burst of disapproval and managed to get Robatussin.  I was very relieved.  Good news, it did stop me coughing at night.  Bad news, as long as I didn’t lie down.  This should have been a sign.  Denial is a powerful, powerful thing.

Oh and for a quick last glance at how cold it is all winter in Beijing – this is how to pimp your ride.

Notice the attractive packing-tape trim

*For those of you wondering why I didn’t explore traditional Chinese medicine.  Exhaustion and Cowardice.  I didn’t know where to start, and was rationing my energy to keep the trip on track, so lacked the energy to figure out how, who to ask, or where to follow up.  With a guide I most likely would have gone for it, but I also would have had to admit how sick I really was.  And that is where I was being a coward.

Day 8 - Part I - Shopping?

or attempting crass consumerism in Communist-ish China

Today was the day we were out for souvenirs. Tavin and I had planned to find a small souvenir for his class from both China and Japan.  So far nothing had jumped out at us, and partly that was because we were looking in the wrong places (What second grader wants tea?), and partly because the souvenir trade was a bit wan in places you’d expect it (Why are they selling toy cars in the reptile house at the Beijing Zoo?)

The last straw, of course, is that the tourist trade is at low ebb, so many of the places that would be selling souvenirs were now selling Spring Festival (Lunar New Year) decorations.

Lonely Planet directed us to Snack Street, a place to get the souvenirs you are expecting (you know, small cute things, made in China), and a shopping district in general.  We were still waking up early, so thought we’d head out and get the shopping done.  Turns out, that while Beijing for the locals opens at 8am, Beijing for tourists and the leisure/mall shoppers doesn’t get going until 9:30 or 10:00am!  So we were at the Snack Street markets while they were setting up, warming up, and generally feeding each other.  We did snag another yogurt, and they watched us suspiciously lest we wander away with their glass jars.  So other things were on offer… (Pix from Snack street)

While we were waiting for the action to start in the street market, the large bookstore across from the market opened for business.  It looked like a Chinese Barnes and Noble from the outside… and the inside.  Right down to the lowest floor having almost nothing to do with reading books – though here the major distraction was electronics.  On the 1^st main floor lots; of popular reading (all the books had slick photos), though the bent was more towards non-fiction, finance and biographies (including on of Hillary Clinton).  Upper floors had an impressive textbook section as well.  I was able to poke my way around and find a few good children’s books to bring back to a Chinese Teacher who had helped me out a bit with my preparations.

With No Chinese, I could still hunt down an easy reader version of the story of the Monk with Piggy and Monkey who bring Buddhism to China.  That has everything to do with the universality of bookstore organization in this day and age – and pictures.

And back to Snack St, where at last things had opened up. 

A few tempting tidbits on offer.

Scorpion or Seahorse?

Fried Cicada?
Larvae or Hatched?

   

I caused a commotion by asking for 30 of 1 item (nifty little chinese opera masks).  I didn’t get a discount, but at least by NOT having my heart set on it, I was able to pay something I would get laughed at too hard later.

Oh, and the smog was up that day, and it was really getting to me – so I gave in and got us masks.  They do nothing for germs… just being cloth, and I’m sure they only give mild protection from the smog.  But they REALLY protect from the cold.  After days of cold dry air, it felt so good to have the air I was breathing warmed up.  I didn’t care if I looked like a poser.  I quit coughing so hard and so often.

It was cold...

I said it was Cold!

Day 7 - Part III - Dinner &....

 The Importance of Looking at the Pictures when You Can’t Read the Characters

It was time to eat Chinese food again – and Northern Chinese food specifically, if we could.  Lonely Planet to the rescue again.  And we found a gem in the new apartment villages in the high-priced, and strangely vacant end of Beijing.  There were certainly aspirations here, but the slump after the Olympic boom was showing.  All the same, once we found the restaurant, it was clear, they were bustling.  It had an extremely interesting décor scheme centered on artifacts of a stone age/bronze age culture discovered around (and under) Beijing.

Alec and I have very different strategies when ordering from a restaurant menu – no matter where in the world we are.  While I am trying to imagine the flavor combinations – and deciding based on their appeal and mystery, Alec mostly looks for something familiar.  While I am more often disappointed, I also find true and unexpected gems. This night had a few surprises in store.

The restaurant clearly did a reasonable amount of tourist/expat trade – the menu had reasonable English, and the staff was able talk to us (which is so nice, and makes me feel less a fool for having No Chinese).  And the menu was full of pictures.  That meant I was able to order a heavenly fried fish dish I never would have dared. (A whole fried fish with a gently spicy, vinegary chopped vegetable sauce – lettuce, tomato, cilantro, green chili). 

Baby Bok Choy, quartered and stir-fried
Whole fried fish with lettuce suace (YUM!)

 The hot cucumber juice & soy milk drink for Tavin was less successful.  He tried it, considered it, but in the end the soy overwhelmed the cucumber.

However, the English from the staff and the English on the menu gave Alec a false sense of security.  He went for the ‘Green Pepper Beef’ without consulting the picture.  Back here in the good ol’ US of A, that means bell peppers and a soy & maybe oyster sauce based dish.  Hah!  Here it meant most of the chili peppers that came with your quick fried beef were green, though a few were red.  This was a HOT dish.  And if Alec had checked the picture, he would have seen this coming.

Would you like a little beef with your chilies?
A little broccoli to cool the palate.

Fortunately I had also ordered a lovely spicy, smoky dish of baby bok choy to go with the fish, and plenty of rice was there too.  So between all these dishes (and they would allow us to order no more, or it would have been “too much.”) everyone had enough food.  And stir-frying the baby bok choy cut in quarters… I now do that all the time.  I haven’t figured out how to impart that smoky flavor, but they are always good with just a little something.  

At the end we were warm and full, so we trekked back to the hotel (thank you awesome subway - there was a NASTY traffic jam in that corner of the city when we left dinner).

Day 7 - Part II - Hutong; Cooking Class

               After we returned from the market tour, and warmed up again with some more tea, we made our way to the room for our cooking class.  The high windows around the top of the room made for some decent passive solar heating, and we were soon toasty warm.  Bejing may be cold, but at least it was clear – and there was plenty of sun to capture.

That is all sunlight!

            There were two more people joining us for the cooking class; Genevieve & David.  They were visiting from Montreal, Quebec, but on a several month stay in Beijing, and a much longer sojourn in China.  The problems of finding a short term apartment let in a big bustling city seem to be the same everywhere – New York, Paris, Rejkjavik, Berlin, London, and many other places I haven’t been.

  And there were Joel & Tang - our instructors.  

The finer points of scallions

It turned out the dishes we were cooking that day were Sichuan (also spelled Szechwaun) in other words, spicy dishes.  Here we were way up north, and learning southern cooking.  On one hand it was a bit like US Southern cooking.  We were starting out with green beans and pork sausage.  But that was where the similarity ended.

Sichuan has a few extra condiments.
Hey look - there's our photographer and his camera!

We made: 

Dry-Fried Sichuan Green Beans

Sichuan Pickled-Chili Fried Lotus Root 

- and -

Garlic & Sichuan Sausage Fried Broccoli

Our efforts made an excellent lunch, and a relaxing way to spend the day, yet still take in a ton of new stuff. 

After all that we headed back to the hotel, and, yes, hit the pool for a nice warm soak and a chance to breathe in humid air.  I’ll stop repeating it after this; I’ve travelled much rougher than this, and will again, but if you are going to nurse pneumonia, and share a room with 2 other people, and not give it to either one, and get through the trip successfully denying you have it, a soak in a nice hot tub of water while breathing humid air after dry, cold polluted Beijing air is just about the only way to go.

Quick Kale Goodness

I had a request for this one... and realized it is not on the blog.

So, on the fly (sorry no pictures)  But if you want to see what it should look like, Google Images has TONS!

Crispy Kale

Ingredients:
A stack of any Kale leaves (this work well with curly & flat sorts)
a sprinkle of salt
a tsp or so of oil

Equipment:
Large, shallow pan (1/2 sheet pan is my favorite)
Salad spinner (optional)

Prep:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F


Rinse and dry the kale, hold the very bottom of the center rib firmly in one hand.  Wrap the other hand near the bottom of the stem, and pull it towards the top, stripping the leaves off.  Tear them into  palm sized pieces. (At this point you can cover the leaves, and pop them in the fridge for later in the day.)
Drizzle the oil over, and toss to coat all leaves with oil.  Sprinkle with salt - toss again to spread around the salt.

Cook!
Spread the leaves evenly over the large pan.  (If you have lots of leaves or a small pan and end up with more than 2 leaves thick you'll need to do more than one batch.)  Pop the leaves in the hot oven.  At ten minutes and check crispiness.  If the leaves are crispy like chips, you are done.  If they are still a bit floppy, let them cook until the leaves are crispy.

Munch Away!


Variations:

Try season salt

Try steak seasoning

Try different combinations of salts, herbs, and oil to create something amazing!

Try using baby kales, just check 'em at 5 minutes.

Hint from a friend:  Crumble this up and serve over a tomato soup and you'll look like a genius!  (I'd like a creamy one with grilled cheese on the side....)

Another Hint from a different friend:  If you keep burning them, USE A TIMER, or set the oven to 375˚F or even 350˚F if you are just having that kind of life.  It's a forgiving recipe.

B-L-(Fried Green)T

With a nod to Lulu's  (which is inaccessible to me most of the time, since it's in Charlotte, NC), it is time to bring the Bacon, Lettuce and Fried Green Tomato Sandwich to your table.

See, you put it on healthy bread,
then you have it ALL!

Remember these guys?

Fried Green Tomatoes in 10 Minutes Flat

Did you freeze any?  Time to break them out!

They are destined for a sandwich.

You need tasty bread, lettuce and Bacon!

Get you bread toasting, and do this with the bacon:

This is where you'll fry those tomatoes...
Does this mean it's a 1-Pot meal?

And THEN, the sandwich goes a little "choose your own adventure."

A little mayo on the bread is needed to keep the whole thing moist.  But what kind of mayo do you want?

1. Plain - great if you are in a hurry.

2. Garlic - crush a clove of garlic, and stir into a couple of tablespoons of mayo (garlic powder will also do in a pinch)

3. Spicy - stir Sriracha into mayonnaise at a ratio of 1 part Sriracha to 2 parts mayonnaise (so 1tsp Sriracha + 2 tsp mayo = 1Tbs Spicy mayo)

4. 2 & 3!  Spicy Garlic Mayo.

5. The most time consuming - pimento cheese instead of mayo (in addition to???)

Ingredients: - per sandwich

bread - 2 slices (or 3 for a club sandwich* if you are feeling fancy)
lettuce - the right amount
1-2 slices of bacon (depending of the thickness of the bacon)
1 large slice of dredged green tomato - frozen (or fresh, that's allowed too)
mayonnaise or sandwich spread of your choosing

Cook:

Heat up a skillet over medium high heat.
Get your bread toasting.
(mix up your fancy mayonnaise)
Fry your bacon until crispy, drain on a paper towel.  Leave the fat from the bacon in the pan.
In the rendered bacon fat, fry your tomatoes 3 min on each side.
Spread your mayo of choice.
Place the hot tomato directly on the bottom slice.

Assemble --> Bread - mayo - lettuce - bacon - tomato - (mayo) - bread.
If you are going the club sandwich route, you'll need to decide on your own arrangement.

*This is the audio from a Mitch Hedberg routine - nightclub ready, but not little people safe, and possibly not work safe either.