Chinese food

Yesterday was a day of meetings and meals! Meetings are meetings and are dull to blog about, but food on the other hand. . .

I happened to be in the right place at the right time yesterday to have a formal sit-down lunch with a group of USOC and NGB folks at the Jinchaoxuan Restaurant. I was in the right place at the right time because I couldn't find a taxi to deliver me back to the hotel at which I was staying! Traffic was so bad in the morning when I took off for my meeting that it took my taxi well over an hour to travel the less than 10 miles to the meeting site. After traveling to visit other sites, I ended up at a location of the city with a half dozen taxis cued up waiting for passengers. I handed the card to my hotel (printed in English and Chinese) to the whole row or taxis where I was promptly waved off with a head shaking "No".

Hmm, since I'm no where near a subway station and I didn't feel like jamming myself into one of the buses resembling a sardine can, I decided to take a taxi to a more prominent area of the city and hope to catch a cab from there. Long story short, I ended up having lunch where I was able to get an interpreter to explain to a taxi driver how to get to my hotel.

Lunch consisted of several courses, most of which are shown in the first pic. The order and assortment of dishes served closely resembled the formal meals I had been served on previous trips (and would end up eating again that night for dinner!).

Here's the menu (translated verbatim):

6 kind of cold dishes

Potato chips [french fries]

Two kinds of eating shrimps

The soup with corn grains

Chicken with bean flavor

Scallop with garlic flavor

Beef with chili

Steamed towel gourd with dumpling

Crisp sweet duck (second pic)

Steamed river fish with ginger (third pic)

Vegetables with broth

Fried noodles

Dessert (Cantonese flavor) (fourth pic)

Fruit plate

I really liked the steamed towel gourd with dumpling. The gelatinous orange ball jiggled a bit as I pinched it between my chopsticks to bring it up to my mouth. A tart orange-lemon tasting treat sitting on a slice of carrot and served with the ever-present dumplings found in all Chinese meals. I love dumplings actually! Some filled with green vegetables I can't always identify, others filled with various types of meat- all yummy!

Most of the people around the table would only try a couple of things that passed in front of their place on the lazy Susan, but I tried everything! I'm a bit of an anomaly when it comes to Americans in China when faced with somewhat traditional Chinese cuisine. Not only did I try everything, but I liked most of it! A couple of the cold dishes that served as appetizers reminded me of Cajun hogs head cheese which I never particularly cared for, but I tried them anyway. Not something I'd run out and buy at the grocery store, but for a cultural experience, not bad!

After stepping out of the restaurant with an interpreter at my side, I hailed a taxi. It took about 10 minutes and a phone call to the hotel for directions before the cab driver agreed to take me back to my hotel on the northern end of the city. I was feeling pretty smug about how it's not really all that hard to get around when I started to notice the panic in my taxi driver's face. I guess the muttering under his breath made me pay attention to the fact that he didn't look very confident about where we were going. The muttering turned to frustration as his voice began to raise a little as he read street signs (I think that's what he was doing because I can't speak Mandarin Chinese and he couldn't speak English). After pulling over 3 times to ask other cab drivers and random people on the street for directions, he finally admitted defeat and called the hotel. Finally, I though, they'll tell him how to get there and all will be OK. As his voice rose to shouting and little sputtles of spit spew at the phone, I realized this ordeal was not over. Oh boy, I have no idea where we are and I really have to pee at this point. Just wait it out. . .

An hour and a half later we drive past a building that looks familiar and my heart leaps with joy. I wait for the Cadillac dealership that I know should be around the next block and I start clapping my hands in relief as I see it come into view! I made it!!! Even my taxi driver broke into a broad, bad teeth smile and wiped his forearm across his forehead in exaggerated relief! I looked at the meter which was showing a fare due of 75 RMB (Chinese yuan). That roughly equals $10 for an hour and a half cab ride! He adamantly waves his hands no at the meter and will only accept 50 RMB which is what I assume would've been the original fare for the non-scenic route ride. I pay the man and walk into the hotel in time to join the team boarding the bus for a team dinner at a restaurant on the other side of town! I didn't take pictures of the dinner since it was a formal affair with international officials present, but as you can see from the menu, it was quite similar to lunch:

Six kinds of selected cold dishes

Seafood thick & pumpkin soup

Smoked duck with camphor leaves & tea

Fried shrimps with fruit cubes

Crisp-fried mutton chop

Deep-fried chicken wings with garlic flavor

Stir-fried beef tenderloin with chili sauce

Pot-stewed eggplant with chili and garlic sauce

Fried Chinese kale

Dumpling

Stir-fried rice Yangzhou style

Chinese pastry

Seasonal fruits platter

Man was I stuffed after all the eating and riding around I did! Needless to say, I slept pretty well last night even with the traffic noise right outside the window (more on that and the pollution later!)

That's all I'll post about my adventures for now, but stay tuned because there's more mischief from Beijing to report!