Well this is interesting. According to my notes, the first thing I had to eat on Day 10 was garlic bread. You would think I would remember having garlic bread in China. But I don’t. (It must have been overshadowed by the fantastic Italian meal I had the previous evening in Tianjin. Also, it probably wasn’t all that memorable.) I very much recall the fried squid rings I had while exploring in the Houhai area in the afternoon. Hot and tasty!
For dinner, I was excited to go to Crescent Moon, a Uyghur Muslim restaurant. There were 2 waitresses. One was clearly Asian-looking, probably Han Chinese. The other wasn’t Asian looking at all. My guess would have been Greek. Most likely, this waitress was Uyghur, an ethnicity related to Turks. I needed to use the restroom after wandering all day. I went through the door labeled for the restroom. I found myself in the frigid outdoors. I found the (very dark) men’s room up a cold, dark alley. Weird. But this is why we leave our own world to explore others. Right? Right!
There must have been some confusion when I ordered. (Like that would have been the first time confusion occurred on my trip.) I ordered a beef dish and a vegetable noodle dish. But I got a beef dish and a beef noodle dish. I did not complain one bit. Both dishes were scrumptious. Above was the beef dish I ordered, fried beef with green peppers. Delicious. Below is the beef noodle dish I got instead of the stir fried noodles with vegetables I had ordered. Incorrect, but also delicious!
Afterwards, I realized the dishes I ordered (as well as the dishes I was served) were probably more standard Chinese than anything particularly Uygher. I mean, they were no different from meals I could have gotten at a Chinese restaurant in the US. So if I had to do it over again, I would make an effort to get something a little more Uyghur. Maybe a lamb dish. Nonetheless, it was easily one of the best meals I had in China. I washed everything down with Xinjiang pomegranate juice. The autonomous Xinjiang region in the north-westernmost China is the Uyghur homeland. So maybe the juice was the most authentic Uyghur food I got.
Well, the record certainly wasn’t perfect, but I was having much better luck with meals in Beijing (plus neighboring Tianjin) than I had in Shanghai and East China. And coming up next was my grand finale and greatest triumph of Chinese cuisine! Stay tuned for the Day 11 Food Diary…
[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. Of course, avoiding pork is not a problem at a Muslim restaurant.]
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