My last day in China featured my now legendary triumphal dinner. But first, in the morning I migrated from the Beijing DoubleTree to the Hilton at the airport because I had an early flight out the next morning. After checking in, but before taking off for the Summer Palace, I relaxed in the lobby lounge with some fried spring rolls. Nothing like good American-style Chinese food in China!
China 2015 Food Diary, Day 10
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!
China 2015, Day 10: Beijing, Day 4
Western and Northern Beijing
After a day in Tianjin, I was on the homestretch of my trip with 2 final days in Beijing. On these 2 days, the weather warmed up enough that I felt comfortable unzipping my jacket and leaving off the hat and [Read more…]
China 2015 Food Diary, Day 9
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.
China 2015 Food Diary, Day 8
When I got off the train at Badaling to see the Great Wall of China, I stepped into an arctic blast. By the ticket office, a woman was selling pancakes from a counter window. It wasn’t a fancy affair; it was meant to be eaten by hand. It wasn’t the most flavorful thing. But it was warm, and that’s all that counted.
After spending time at the Great Wall, I had lunch in a restaurant in the tourist village at Badaling. I must have been sat in the section for foreigners because the tables were set with forks. There were no chopsticks to be seen.
