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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.

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 7

In the morning, it was the apple’s turn to be picked from the fruit bowl in my hotel room.  Then I was off to the Temple of Heaven.  It was another bitter cold morning in Beijing.  So I was thrilled when I stopped into a gift shop at the Temple of Heaven and saw these hot filled steamed buns (bao) for sale.  I got one, and it really hit the spot.

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China 2015, Day 6: Beijing, Day 1, Part 2

Central Beijing:  Legation Quarter, Dazhalan, Tiananmen Square (Reprise), and Donghuamen Night Market

In the early afternoon, I left the Forbidden City through the northern Gate of Divine Prowess knowing that it would be incredibly hard to top that experience.  Nonetheless, I still had a whole lot of Beijing to [Read more…]

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 6

Before I left the hotel for my first day out in Beijing, I had a banana from the fruit bowl that had greeted me in my room when I arrived the night before.  On the frozen tundra that was Tiananmen Square, I was dying for something hot.  Surprisingly, there were no food vendors on the square.  So I did without.  In the Forbidden City, I got what turned out to be a very popular treat at Beijing attractions–a (bunless) hot dog on a stick.  It was a little funny to see the locals chowing down on these.  Later in the afternoon, I went to a Chinese fast food restaurant and happily got an order of “Golden Nuggets”.  I’m certainly not going to go to McDonald’s in China.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy some nuggets!  I washed them down with a Mirinda.  I looked this up to find that it’s an orange soda originally from Spain but now produced by Pepsi.

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 5

While strolling along the Bund in the morning, I saw a store with a Magnum sign across the front.  Like I was going to pass that by.  So as on Day 4 I had a breakfast appetizer of French fries, on Day 5 I had a breakfast appetizer of an ice cream bar.  Not just any ice cream bar, of course.  A Magnum.  All they had were ones with nuts, but I didn’t even care.  I was getting my Magnum bar.  (If you didn’t already know that I go mad for Magnum bars, now you do.)

Later in the morning, I did have something a little more breakfast appropriate.  I went to a coffee shop called Costa Coffee.  I had seen a lot of them around town.  I found out later it’s the Starbucks of Britain.  I figured they were probably a large international (non-Chinese) chain, but I bent my rules a little by going in.  Really, I wanted to use their WiFi.  I got a blueberry muffin and a Victoria plum lemonade.  A drink flavored with a fruit named after Queen Victoria.  Yes, it was British alright.

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