In the morning, at the train station in Beijing, I finally had my first (and last) chocolate croissant of the trip. (A week earlier, I had gotten a plain croissant in Shanghai.) If anything proves how different China is from Europe, it is the fact that I only came across one chocolate croissant on the whole trip.
On my long walk across Tianjin, I passed by several vendors grilling up cubes of meat on skewers. I was very cold and hungry. But I didn’t know exactly what the offerings were. And I didn’t want to deal with the language issue. So I just kept passing by. Finally, in Tianjin’s Old Town, I came across a shop selling hot baked goods. I got a local treat: “fried cake”. It was fried sweet dough. Very tasty, and it warmed me up nicely.
Finally, what I had been looking forward to: Dinner in Italian Style Town! I was surprised that there seemed to be at least as many German restaurants as Italian ones. People know that I love German food. But I had to get Italian food in Italian Style Town. So I selected an Italian place that had a decent menu. Let me tell you, it was a feast! It was such a good meal. I had yet another cutest, sweetest waitress. And she was in the upper echelon of cuteness and sweetness. She had to wear a goofy Venetian gondolier-type hat with an Italian flag on it. That just added to her cuteness.
I started off with Milan beef soup. I don’t know if it’s a true specialty of Milan, but it was delicious, with bits of ground beef. Check out the lightly grilled Italian bread. Nice touch! I also got an order of fries. Not exactly Italian. But as long as I was going for Western food, why not indulge?
For the main course, I had pizziola chicken. Take a look at it. Looks pretty yummy, doesn’t it! I picked off the olives because I don’t do olives. Asparagus is yet something else that I don’t do, so those remaining on the plate. But I ate up everything else on the plate, and it was all absolutely delicious!
One thing I was a little nervous about was the ice I had with my Diet Coke. It was the first time I had any type of water that didn’t come out of a bottle. One is warned to avoid non-bottled water in China. But the first iced Diet Coke I had the entire trip tasted so good. It would have been worth any repercussions. Fortunately, there weren’t any.
The food was so good, and the waitress was so terrific, that I was just delighted with my dinner. On my way out, I met the manager. I told her how good everything was. She was so happy, she introduced me to the owner. He was honest-to-God Italian. I felt like an honored guest. I felt a little bad that one of the best dining experiences I had in China wasn’t the least bit Chinese, other than the friendly staff. But the dinner alone was worth the trip to Tianjin. If I had been in Beijing for an extended time, I’m quite sure I would have gone back another time. All hail Tianjin’s Italian Style Town!
[Disclaimer: Many people have heard me state that I don’t eat red meat. However, I do eat red meat when I travel overseas. This is for two reasons. One, I don’t want to unnecessarily restrict myself when it comes to trying local dishes. Two, sometime it’s hard to get something that doesn’t contain beef or pork when eating overseas.]
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