Food Related Products that are SCARING ME!

Please vote...

Which of these products is the BIGGEST indicator that we are on that Handbasket ride to somewhere Hot?

Is it the special banana slicing tool?
(Alec says for $10 it should peel it for you too!)

Is it the candy bar (I know it says energy bar... but it is packaged as a candy bar)
named after a disease (I'm sorry dis-eze)?

Or is it Purina Brand frozen treats for your dog... in the Popsicle section?
(I mean - they'll eat the ones the kids drop, or if you are feeling the puppy love,
chicken broth ice cubes would do it)

P.S. I would include the nearly $8.00 1/2 lb (2 sticks) of clarified butter.  But the $8 does cover convenience cost, and DOES give you a jar you can use to put your own ghee in when you figure out how easy it is to make.

Day 6 - Part IV - A restaurant so exclusive you practically can’t find it!

            On this evening of day 6, after Tavin and I were rehydrated, and our core temperature had returned to normal, we met up with Alec after his long day at the Beijing (rented) office.  I had found a Spanish restaurant that was close to a subway stop, and Lonely Planet said was worth the trek. (Spanish food in China, yeah, sure why not?  In the circle of tourist existence we were in, most North/Beijing Chinese food was either crazy expensive or westernized to the point of “no fun.”)

            We followed the instructions to a “T.”  And still were wandering inside and out, about the ground floor of a quite new sky-scraper, looking lost and confused.  A local kindly asked us, “Are you looking for the ‘Spain Restaurant’?”

See the bright lights guiding us around the building?

          

  Why, yes. Yes we were.  It turned out, the entrance to the Spanish Restaurant was all the way around on the back of the building,

Thank goodness the bar guarding the parking lot was reflective
or I would have smacked right into it

 through a parking lot. 

And no, there was no sign outside. 

I know!?  With that garish lighting and that signage it is hard to imagine how we could have missed it!

Fortunately, the food was worth it, and they even had a wine list of appropriately rough Spanish and European wines (nothing too fine) that stood up to all the garlic & pimento/paprika.

And the decor was actually... pretty Spanish.

            Warm and full, we rode the subway back to the hotel, tucked Tavin in, and went down to the blown glass fantasy of a lobby bar, and enjoyed a night cap of chrysanthemum tea, “good for the throat.”  

Good Night.

Day 6 - Part III - Dumplings & Kites & Taxis

            At the end of my last post I made light of getting to the nearest subway.  It was quite a haul, in the freezing cold (actually freezing again), with 2 kilos of tea, and a kid in need of a snack.  But it did give us a chance to walk through a part of Beijing that had little interest in and no time for the casual tourist. 

            One of the more fascinating building projects we saw under way were the new houses in the Hutong, or the old style parts of Beijing.  The old style walled in communities, villages within the city have been torn up by the acre to make way for the new Beijing of sky-scrapers, malls and streets on a grid plan.  

            But pockets of the Hutong still exist.  Many are crumbling, or at least looking rather worse for wear.  However, we saw some rather impressive houses, shiny new, being built into the existing structure – and they had the walls and the same single store construction, but also had new fangles additions like driveways and garages.  And with the dwindling supply of Hutong space, a sprawling pad like that would be no less exclusive and pricey than a penthouse suite with a 360˚ city view.  In fact I might go so far as to say more exclusive since the house owner has possession of the entire building, access to the ground the building is on, and you can get a penthouse suite in any city on the world, Hutong exist only in China, and Hutong with possible access to plumbing and electricity…. Well, a rare jewel indeed.

            After passing new Hutong construction, we entered into a modern shopping district that was still directed at locals rather than tourists, and the shops were large on a modern, American scale, and many of them contained offices of one stripe or another.  Electronics shops also could afford the main street tarrifs.

            We could see this was a city, despite an ever burgeoning car population, still expected large amounts of pedestrian traffic.  Wide, but shoddily constructed, sidewalks were everywhere.  Pedestrian bridges and underpasses (these better constructed) crisscross the major streets.  And it was by these, and the previously mentioned subway ride that we arrived, chilly and tired at the edge of Snack Street.

           

            It was time to go on a hunt for dumplings.  Whatever faults the Chinese culture might have, they are sticklers for fresh food, and to a certain extent it is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get culture when you bother to go get the food for yourself.  (Packaged food – including baby formula - seems to offer too many chances to swindle the buyer.  No wonder custom dictates that you pick your own fish, live, from the tank.)  

           What this all meant was; to find a dumpling shop that afternoon, all I had to do (in my Chinese-language-free state) was look for a kitchen with balls of dough, a steaming kettle, veggies and other dumpling fillings.  

See - a sign for "dumpling shop" even I could read!

            We stumbled, teeth chattering into one that was cozy and clean, and that smelled of steam and tea.  We ordered a pot of Jasmine tea, and wrapped our hands around it while we chose dumplings using the pictures-pantomime-and-point method of ordering.  In a few minutes we had freshly made and steamed pork and cabbage dumplings.  We went with the pork since our server insisted it was very good for a cold day.  Who were we to argue?

            Since these dumplings were being made from from scratch, Tavin and I had some time to fill as we held our tea and warmed up.  And this was the point at which we became very observant of the Beijing Taxi.

            All the taxis in Beijing are the same car, a sort of boxier version of a 90’s era VW Jetta.  And nearly all are two colored,  With few exceptions they are brown with a second color, mostly blue, green, yellow or red.  While we were waiting for the dumplings, Tavin and I each chose a color of Taxi to watch, and whoever saw the most “won.”  Tavin picked blue because he happened to see one of those first.  Wise move.

            I went with green becaue that was what we saw next.  In central Beijing, blue Taxi’s are dominant.  Tavin walked away with the win.  I never did figure out what the color scheme of the Taxis meant.  Another mystery for another day.

He's ahead, so the taxi game continues even as we savor the dumplings.

            After our refuel at the dumpling shop, we headed up the street to a hole in the wall kite shop (thanks Lonely Planet), and found a place to get Tavin one of his own kites.  We couldn’t get anything on the scale of the mega kites we saw soaring above Chao-Yang Park, but we did get a sweet little dragon kite, and a extremely practical wheel winder to bring home to Unka Grampa.

            After that, we were ready to crash (again – I was really coming down with pneumonia, and didn’t know it, or really didn't want to, so I was exhausted).  We hopped a subway home, walked greatfully into the spacious, well heated room, and suited up for a swim in the warm humid pool.  That was True Luxury after a cold, dry tiring day.

Bad Aphids!

The Aphids tried to invade my garden already.

Aphids tried to get a beach head on my Kale seed pods.

I'm letting this one go all the way to seed since I liked it so much -
more of the same please

I barely have anything growing yet, but that was no reason for them not to stake a claim I guess.
The advantage of a tiny garden is you can go hand remove the pests quick.

I've been doing that with slugs too.

This works fine on a small plot, or if you have many hands available, but I don't begrudge people growing much more with less help other means to remove these pests.  After all this is a particularly amazing year for slugs.  I think they got in 2 breeding seasons this year or something!

1st CSA Bag of 2011!

The first bag arrived... and it is time for salad!

Sweet, spicy, bitter with crunchy & creamy.  A little sour and salty from the dressing.

From the bag I had access to:

Arugula - 1 large handful washed and chopped

Lettuce - 3 leaves washed and shopped

Radishes - 4 small mild ones (I would have used fewer spicy ones)

Walla Walla sweets (1/2 of a tiny, young one)

Apples (1/2 of a Fuji sliced into sticks Half the height of the apple)

Tossed some bread cubes with a little oil - toasted them to crispy crunchy

Some mild super soft rinded cheese (in this case Fromager d'Affinois)

The dressing was white wine vinegar, a bit of chopped parsley, a smashed garlic clove and a small spoon of mustard. Then I whisked in walnut oil (olive would have been fine, but this was sitting in my fridge, begging to be used!)  Added salt to taste.  Skipped the pepper.

It was divine as I munched on the salad while nibbling on the cheese smeared on my fresh croutons, and sipping a nice white wine.

But dessert was there too!

Summer strawberries in Cointreau Marscapone

As many strawberries as you think you can eat in 1 sitting (Half in my case - the other half were for breakfast).

The right size dollop of marscapone cheese (sour cream, creme fraiche, greek yogurt all work fine.  Just needs to be thick and creamy to start -  I was just feeling particularly hedonistic in the face of my first strawberries of the summer.)

Stir in dribbles of Cointreau (or Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur) and sprinkles of brown sugar until it tastes decadent and a tiny bit sour.  (You may need a dash of salt if using yogurt)

Place a dollop over your strawberries, and then realize it looks skimpy, and pour it all on.  You only have your first of the season strawberries once a year.

Enjoy in greedy, satisfied bliss. 

Day 6 - Part II - This Natural History Museum Was Just Remodeled?

We are now on foot.  No more driver for us...

Every guide book I could get my hands on, plus recent visitors all mentioned that the Natural History Museum was being remodeled for the last year or so, and would open at the end of 2010.  I admit, I was intrigued.  So much of the city was torn up and just built over, I wanted to see what a remodeled museum would be like.

When we arrived, it had the comforting "imposing facade (tm)" that Natural History Museums built in the last century (or slightly earlier) all seem to have.  But the street frontage seemed strangely fortified, 

and we had to enter through a small gate next to a guard shack.  

That reminded me of where I was.  Just to keep me comfortable, there was only one door open in the long low of front doors.

The early highlight was the REAL FOSSILS in the dinosaur display.  

In the U.S., fossil bones are cast, and then the real fossils are kept in storage.  This makes good sense for several reasons - the fossil bones are easier for researchers to access, the bones stay in much better shape (they are not really up to the job of being part of a skeleton any more), and other museums that don't have the bones can still get a pretty cool cast of the skeleton to put on display.  

All the same, I admit, I was crushed when I found out most museums hoard their bones, and we are just seeing a copy - a good one, but a copy.

If fact the dinosaur display was rather up to date and interesting.  I was intrigued with how much this part of the museum had in common with U.S. displays of the same.  

There were some cool scenery effects on the wall - including one part that showed all the layers that go into "fleshing out" a dinosaur leg, bone under ligament, muscle and then skin, as well as the giant plants and rocky cliff effects.

There were also an "interactive" video games - One had "you," represented by a little running guy, trying to outrun pursuing dinosaurs.  You got your character to run by pedaling a stationary bicycle.  Just as at home, any information was lost as excited kids just pedal as fast as they can.  

The other, a weight comparing game was attempting to show just how heavy dinosaurs are, but like everywhere else I've ever been, all the kids wanted to do was see how much they way, and wait for the cartoon T-rex catapult the cartoon mouse off the screen.

It comforted me that Chinese kids have the same reaction to these games as American kids.  Museums tap into the "active"... but I think we educators are missing the "inter."

From the dinosaurs we moved on to a truly fascinating display of bugs (there are some BIG BUGS to be seen), and a slightly sad display of taxidermied animals.  The animals were clearly real, and antique, but a bit worse for wear.  The main reason for the wear and tear seemed to be allowing visitors to get almost nose to nose with these animals.  (Clearly the animals hadn't been remodeled) 

That was a unique experience - no glass, no unbridgeable gap - all these antelopes and buffaloes were so close I could touch them (and clearly many people had).  So, yes it had been hard on the displays, but in a world full of protective distances it was fun to wander the fake woodland trails and look up close at all these animals. (These paths were in a rather trampled state - I'm guessing not remodeled either)  I was a bit saddened at the number of African Plains animals.  I had been hoping for more Asian animals.  But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.  The British museums aren't exactly overflowing with local fauna either.  19th century Playboys with guns all seemed to have ended up in Africa, regardless of where they started.

At the end of these animals we passed by a pond display - Apparently the water fowl got nothing in this remodel.

The "pond" glass is dusty or shattered. 

After all this excitement (both here at the Museum and at the Tea Market), it was time for a snack.  We found our way into the gift/snack shop.  Once again despite being in a Natural History Museum the gifts and doo-dads were largely unrelated to anything Natural or Historic.  They were just random trinkets.  This seemed most odd as the huge amount of the educational and cutesy zoo/natural history merchandise is manufactured in China.  Maybe the consumers just aren't willing to pay the same ridiculous mark ups for fuzzy red-eyed tree frogs?

Anyway, Tavin and I fed ourselves, though Tavin discovered the dangers of Pokemon ice-cream.  The cup is much more exciting than the ice cream, and the space inside is some how much smaller than the cup's outside dimensions imply due to raised bases and the like.  But - hey - now he knows why his mean mommy won't let him get merchandising ice-cream in the US.  Same problem.

I on the other hand got my hands on some more delicious bottled tea.  Unsweetened, but flavorful and delicious.  Why is so much US bottled tea only available in "plain - bitter" and "super sweet - with or without calories" (a rant for another time.)

We also discovered the bathrooms had not been remodeled.  But hey, they were working.

We made our way to the basement for the Human Body exhibits.  This area had the nice comforting feel of any US Museum remodeled in the 1970's - 1990's.  Same materials, hard flooring, drop ceilings, florescent lighting, worn displays half broken from overuse and spotty maintenance.  (I have been to a lot of science museums.) 

There were some truly unique touches that made me very glad we got to see them.  The Womb Room - those strange library chairs many of us saw at different liberal arts universities  - or in Men In Black came to mind. 

It even has sound effect, and the sperm floor applique is a nice touch

Plenty of plasticized bodies and body parts - missing much of the glam of the "Bodies the Exhibition" and what not, but very informative.  The preserved developing feotuses, the plasticized reproductive organs - it was biology geek heaven, and again caused me to wonder about the American/Western squeamishness about parts of development and our bodies to the detriment of our health - both physical and mental.

After that we were ready to walk on to our next destination - or maybe get a cab?

Yeah right - it was freezing cold, and we speak no Mandarin - or any other Chinese.  And we had no clue about hailing a cab in Beijing - and there was no Hotel to do it for us. 

We walked to the nearest Subway station and headed north.

Day 6 - Beijing: Two Ways - Part I - Way 1, We have a Driver

Ooooohhhhh, Posh aren't we.  You get to have a driver.

When we let friends know we would be traveling to Beijing, it turns there were connections there.  And for the small price of transporting a few books of music, I would have a chance to get driven somewhere by somebody's personal driver.

Back here in the good ol' US of A, we all figure that if one owns a car, one would drive it.  There are a few exceptions of course, but the idea of having a driver is strange enough that we feel it deserves a movie/play as an oddity.

Elsewhere, driving is less, um, burdened with regulation.  The streets are less burdened with signs, lane markers and static configurations.  Also the variety of vehicles may be broader than we are used to.  In Beijing, all of this is true, along with a viscous dimension-tearing mix of highways we would recognize jammed in, over, through and around the above mentioned street system.

It turns out that many who live in Beijing, and other similarly (un)drivable cities feel the same.  Coincidentally there is often a raging wealth gap between those who have and thus have cars, and those that have not, so might as well get a job being a driver.  

Along with the craziness in driving, many of these cities (Beijing included) have next to nowhere to park, so a driver is essential.  He (without exception as far as I have EVER seen) stays with the car when parking it in essentially a No Parking Zone, or may take the vehicle and park it quite a distance away, showing up at a predetermined time, or at the beckoning of a phone call.  Yes, these days all drivers have cell phones.  This turned out to be good for me.

What this all means, is that while I might get behind the wheel of a car in some foreign countries (Canada, Australia or maybe outside major cities in most of Europe), I do not have what it takes to brave the mean streets - and really don't have it when it when the most common sign in the back streets is "No horn honking!"

Earlier in the trip, I had been pondering how in the world to get to MaLianDao - the Tea Market (or Tea City) in Beijing.  It was a long way from our hotel - almost diagonally across the whole sprawl, and no subway went anywhere near it.  I was leery of taking a taxi that far, since I am basically helpless in any dialect of Chinese, but when the offer of borrowing a driver for part of a day came up - this seemed my chance!  (Having done this once, I'll be braver when I don't have pneumonia)

The driver seemed to understand what I wanted (it helped having the name of MaLianDao in characters, and a bi-lingual map), but he still called someone who spoke quite excellent English to make sure everybody did understand everybody.*  So we had the Driver until 11.

I was right about the Tea Market being at the other end of the world.  And the fact that Beijing is a city of ring roads made it even further.  (Yup, no freeways through the center, where the Palace lies).  So it took us ages to get there.  Tavin took some interesting pictures of the sights, from the back seat,  along the way.

 





  But we made it!  And there was the statue of Lu Yu.  I'd run into this Sage of Tea in Bridge of Birds, and found him a fascinating idea.  But, I'd never given him much serious thought, nor wondered particularly hard if there really was a Sage of Tea.  Turns out there is, he really is Lu Yu, and I got to see his statue at the tea market.  Awesome.

Sadly I only had a tiny bit of time.  I was in the cave of wonders with a ticking clock.  Even if I'd had all the time in the world, I would have been largely faking it anyway, so I just followed my nose.  It took me to a tea shop that was a space in the hall basically outlined by the packing cases of their wares as the walls, with tables and all accoutrements to taste and enjoy the tea, and containers and vacuum packers to help you take home your tea in the best possible shape.

Mine did make it home is fabulous shape.  And thanks to a gift of a tea pot at a different point in the trip I have vessels worthy of this grand libation.

I made the most of my 20 minutes (OK it turned into a few more), and sampled a nice handful of teas.  I knew I was missing SO much, but I had a Jasmine tea that was nothing like anything I had ever had before.  An oolong that was a revelation, and a disc of the fabled Pu'Er tea.  If I'm ever in Beijing again, I'll find myself a great tea guide and do that again, over several days if I can.

Next - Are you sure you just remodeled?  The Science Museum.

* I have been told in Korea, this is actually a service offered by their taxis.  The driver will call a number on his cell phone and a three way, bilingual conversation will ensue to make sure everyone knows what is going on.