Meal Hunting Part 2

It's been a while since I've posted about food, and all of you who know me, know that I LOVE to eat, thus here is a compilation of the last couple of months of new places and foods we have tried. There may be some repeat places too, but new dishes:

Schillers - Located on the north end of Sanlitun Lu...this is our local German spot that we frequent. They have happy hour every night from 5:30-8:30 and drinks are 2 for 1.

This is Jesse's favorite dish: chicken skewers with salad and fries.

And here's my favorite: Rack of lamb with potatoes (with onion, garlic and bacon!!)

Right around the corner is another good German spot called Schindlers. The food is just as good but the atmosphere is busier and there seems to be more smokers than at Schillers.:

Here is the steak kebobs...didn't know it was gonna come out like this! Not only fun, but tasty too!

A nice-sized portion of steak and potatoes! Now this is what I'm talking about!!

and of course some goulash. I didn't actually taste this since it was my friend's dish, but he said it was good.

Finally some dessert, lil scoop of vanilla ice cream and some chocolate covered apple slices...mmmm good!

Carmen: Spanish Tapas Bar & Restaurant down in the more popular area of Sanlitun. This place had a good variety of tapas to choose from. We only stopped in for a couple things, but will def need to go back and try more!

First up was a spinach dish with garlic and bacon...delicious!

Then some jamon y queso con pan y tomate....can never go wrong here

And finally a veggie skewer...

Da Giuliano: Another favorite on Sanlitun Lu is the pastry place we visit in the evenings for a light and cheap dessert. Each pastry is generally 5yuan (less than $1USD), but after 5 pm one can get 4 for 15yuan (about $2.35USD)....so we go after 5pm :)

 This is 4 of our favorite pastries that we get pretty much every time. Sorry had to take a bite before getting out the camera :)

Athena: Greek Restaurant. This spot is in the Embassy area. I didn't get a pic of the front, but it was very Greek style, blue and white and had that airy, light, nice feel. We ordered a couple dishes to share. Instead of bread on the table they brought us some pita with an olive hummus and a crab dip:

A salad to share with shrimp, avocado and tomatoes. Only drawback was the mayo sauce on it...but it was still good.

 And of course a beef shawarma.

Geba Geba: I've posted about this place before but didn't inlcude any pics, so here are a few:

This dish had a variety of sushi marinated in a tasty soy sauce on top of rice with tempura flakes and an egg on top!

This Udon bowl has become one of my favorites comes with noodles, beef, hard boiled egg, and some veggies. mmmm mmmm great!!

And of course. The sushi. This place always has fresh sushi that is melt in your mouth great!

Kumi Coffee: This place is in the building next to my office and for the first few months we all thought it was a coffee spot (due to the name). One day, one of my co-workers decided to check it out. It's a full on normal restaurant, with A/C (they don't all have a/c), lots of room, not noisy, comfy chairs, and menu full of Chinese and American food! The American dishes include a variety of sandwiches, pizza, steak, salmon, etc. I have yet to try the American food because all of the Chinese dishes I've had have been great. Here are my 2 favorites:

This bento style box comes with any meat (or veggie dish) you want, they have a good sized list to choose from. My favorite is the beef with chili peppers. The box also comes with a daily-changing 2 sides of veggies, rice,  peanuts, and a cup of the soup of the day.

This one I tried for the first time the other day and LOVE it! It has pork, bok choy, onions, pork, and some great tasting flavor!

Ok, that's my quick update for now...there, of course, will be more posts on food since we gotta eat! :) Until next time...

China's National Stadium, aka the Bird's Nest!

On the opening day of the 2012 London Olympic ceremonies, July 27th, 2012, we scored 2 tickets to the very first soccer Winoly Cup ever at Beijing's China National Olympic Stadium! We felt it very fitting to attend an event at an Olympic stadium on the this day...even though the Olympics had moved on to the next host country.

The first ever Winoly Cup pitted Winchester City against Arsenal. Two teams both from England, who left the location of the Olympics to play in another Olympic stadium on the very day of the opening ceremonies....how funny! Neither of us were fans of either team, but still we were excited to see a great game. Also, the two friends we went with were big Arsenal fans so we wore red to go along with them. The downside for Arsenal was they were missing a few of their starters who were at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies as they are participating with the English Soccer team. This proved to hurt them as by the half Winchester was up 2-0.

  As you can see in the picture above the stadium is HUGE (you can barely make out the top section). With a capacity of 80,000 it was still pretty packed. With many entrances all of the way around for cars, buses, subway, and taxis, getting to the stadium was easier than we expected. The taxi dropped us off just outside and we followed the crowds to the nest. Again, there were many entrances around the stadium letting folks in that it was probably the shortest lines I've seen at any major sporting event...even the security line with x-ray machines for your bags/purses and security with the metal detector wands went quickly.

In the picture above you can see that the Chinese take security seriously. On the track all the way around were two rows of sitting guards who watched the audience. Also, sitting in the first row every few seats were uniformed guards. They even lined the openings where the players walk out of when they enter the stadium. I was surprised at the amount of security there. I don't believe they even let anyone sit in the 2nd row. We thought maybe the Chinese get rowdy during the soccer games...however by the end of the game we knew they don't. This was one of the calmest games of any level, of any sport that I have been to. People did cheer and there were some horns, but no high-fiving and not much loud yelling/cheering for the entire match. Of course when the goals happened people got to the their feet and clapped and cheered...but still, no over-joy like we see in the US and other parts of the world. 

I had to include the sign above that I saw in the stadium because of the top item...I never walked over to find out what the "love elevator" was and I'm not sure I really want to find out. Maybe one of my Chinese speaking friends can read the characters and tell me if it says something different in Chinese...

In the second half the rain started to come down hard. It was hot and humid during the first half, but when the rain started it cooled off some...but not much. All of the guards had pouches with them that included rain jackets with a hood and slickers. Fortunately, the shape of the stadium allows only the field and track to be rained on therefore most, if not all, spectators stayed dry.

Aside from the goals, one of the more exciting time of the match was when they started the wave :) See video below:

With the rain coming down for most of the second half, there was a lot of slipping and sliding and lots of "almost" goals...but no goals were actually scored. The game ended with Manchester City winning 2-0. We had a lot of fun seeing an event at an Olympic stadium. It is my dream to one day attend an actual Olympic event (maybe Brazil in 2016??) until then this will last me a while in the happiness meter.


A couple interesting observations: 1. No alcohol was served in the stadium (maybe that's why the spectators weren't as rowdy as home?). 2. The food and soda was NOT over-priced like in every other stadium I have ever been to. We got a water, ice cream, and pop corn for under $4USD!

Lai Yuan - Baishishan World Geological Park & Shipuxia

Our project team was taken on a 2-day team building trip to Lai Yuan, roughly 4 hours drive outside of Beijing. The first day included a several hours hike up some lovely rocky mountains/peaks up above the clouds. The views were amazingly beautiful and nothing like we had seen before. We were located within the Baishishan World Geological Park and within it hiked to the Twin Stones and the Buddha Light Summit. Below are a handful of shots along the way...you should be able to click on each to enlarge.

Below is the Twin Stones...looks like the right one is ready to fall right over

 After only a little climb, we turn a corner to find stairs, stairs, and more stairs. These Chinese love walls and stairs!

Once to the top of Buddha Light Summit there was a beautiful 360degree view of the mountain range. Here's a couple shots...and video :) Enjoy!

Day 2 of our Team Building trip was a hike up Shipuxia which translates as 10 waterfalls canyon. It was an equally beautiful day as the first. Enjoy the pics!

 Below, was the top of the hike...a fresh cold spring "waterfall" to fill up your water bottle. I was a little unsure, but it seemed to be filtered and ok to drink.

 And finally, the wonderful view we had on the way down.

The hikes we did on both days were long and a bit strenuous, but well worth the visit, the sore muscles, and the heat!  This was our first trip getting out of Beijing to a non-touristy site. We were literally the ONLY non-Chinese people in the town or on the hikes. But like the rest of China, the people were friendly and helpful with anything we needed.

China BBQ

A couple weekends ago a coworker of mine invited us to go to a BBQ with some other coworkers and her friends. Of course, we said yes! Early Saturday morning we all met up and carpooled up to the mountains...a couple hours outside of Beijing along the Yong-Ting River.

We weren't sure what to expect in a Chinese style BBQ. We asked what was on the menu...answer: skewered pork & chicken, steak, and sides of veggies. ok! sounds good! Once we arrived and found a spot along the river we started to get everything ready. My friend's husband got the bbq pits ready while we got the meat skewered.

Yep, that is a small metal box they just throw the coals into and light the fire...skewers are just put across and cooked right up. :)

Above we had some deliciously seasoned pork and some marinated chicken...not sure what spices/sauces they used, but it was awesome.

My friend's husband broke out the red wine to cook with the steak...also extremely delicious.

After we ate the delicious food, some broke out cards and played "poker"...which is just what they call card games. Not sure what the game actually was, but it looked like a variation of spades. The rest of us headed down to the free water "park" they had alongside the river...with a type of ropes course to get across the water.

Jesse and I did not risk attempting to get across...because that water did not look too clean and neither of us wanted to come close to falling in! But it was great entertainment watching other folks try and succeed and many try and fail. 

After a long day of bbqing, good food, good laughs, and lots of sun it was time to head back. On the way home we stopped by a temple that the pregnant couple with us wanted to visit since it is said that if you worship there you will have a baby boy. We shall see if it worked...

Xi'an and the Terra Cotta Warriors

I know it's been a couple of weeks and I'm sorry for the late post, but here's the story of our adventure to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Thursday night, May 31st we head to the Beijing West Train station to catch the Z53 train to Xi'an. Roughly a 12 hour train ride we take off around 8pm to arrive in Xi'an about 8am the next morning. For 442RMB each (roughly $65USD) we get a soft sleeper ticket. Pictured below is the soft sleeper room: 2 lower beds and 2 upper beds (each ticket says which bed you are assigned), with a little table and pot you can fill with hot water which is provided at the end of each car.

Once we arrive to Xi'an we exit the train station and head South down Jiefang Lu to X Yi Lu where our hotel, The Bestay Hotel is located. For 169RMB a night (roughly $26USD) we get a bed, TV, desk, toilet and shower. Not the biggest place, but it's clean and has all that we need.:

After we put our things down at the hotel, time to head to see the Terra Cotta Warriors! We walk back to the train station to catch Bus #306, which for 7RMB (just over $1USD) per person we ride for 1hr out to the Terra Cotta site.We have arrived early so not many people there. To get to the entrance gates, we must walk by several kiosks of food, snacks, sodas, trinkets and other little shops with various items. Once to the gates, we pass by many locals offering tours, we say no and buy our tickets, 150RMB per person. The site is quite large, has 3 pits, a building that shows a 10min history video of the site and Emperor Qinshihuang, a museum, and plenty of garden area. We decide to start at the video room, then the museum, then go from pit 3 (the smallest) to pit 2, and finally to pit 1 (the largest) and most well known.

Pit 3 was larger than we had expected (622 sq yds), it had horses and several warriors in an oddly shaped pit. It was said that this pit was the command center for the soldiers in the other pits.

Pit 3:

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Pit 2 was much larger than pit 3 at 7,176 sq yds. Because of its L-shape I couldn't get a full pic of it. Much of it was not completely excavated. As you can see in the pic below the roof that was built over the soldiers is still there but sunken in. Some parts were excavated and we could see parts/pieces of soldiers and horses many were broken or toppled over, etc in this pit.

Pit 2:

       

Pit 1 is, of course, the largest at 19,136 sq yds. Walking into Pit 3 was amazing, then walking into Pit 2 was a lil more amazing, and finally walking into Pit 1 was unbelievable. Imaging the time, the effort, the labor, everything that went into building and making each warrior, each horse, each chariot, digging the pits, making roofs, covering them up, etc. Unbelievable! Here's some pics of this Pit, and how close we could get

Pit 1:

       

       

       

       

       

       

We spent most of the day walking the pits of the Terra Cotta and its museum. This marks one of the places I have always wanted to go to but never thought I would. If this was the only thing we did during our trip to Xi'an I would still be happy...but we still had the evening and one whole more day.

After the Terra Cotta Warrior visit, we headed back to our hotel to clean up and head out to Tang Le Gong, the Tang Dynasty Dinner and Show. Prior to the show, dinner is served. We eat a lovely variety of dishes while listening to a live band playing traditional Chinese music. As dessert is served the show begins. There is a mix of story telling, dancing, mock fighting, and of course a live band playing music from the Tang Dynasty with original instruments from that period. It was a beautiful evening and a wonderful way to end our first day in Xi'an.

Day 2 in Xi'an we wake up early and grab a taxi down to Da Yan Ta (Big Wild Goose Pagoda). This pagoda was built around 652AD with only 5 stories. It was rebuilt later to the 7 stories shown in the pic below. And yes, we climbed to the top to see a great view of Xi'an.

After we left Da Yan Ta, we visited the Shaanxi History Museum, and walked around the city of Xi'an seeing the Bell Tower, the city's wall and moat, and what appeared to be an art district. After a long day of sightseeing we headed to the train station for our 12 hr over-night trip back to Beijing. All in all it was a quick trip to Xi'an, we LOVED seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors, and we will need to come back to hike in the beautiful Xi'an Mountains.