Hunan Delight

Hunan Delight
Originally uploaded by blomsieroller.

Spicy spareribs, tangy & spicy green beans, and rice from Di Shui Dong, a Hunan restaurant off Heng Shan Lu in Shanghai.

We spent only 1 full day in Shanghai, visiting Anita Dai, a friend from college. Lucky for us, Anita speaks Cantonese and was able to translate for us. Unfortunately, she was 9 months pregnant and due any day, so her mobility was a bit limited. But she did manage to draw up exact directions in English and Chinese to this fabulous restaurant in the French Concession area of Shanghai, and she even told us what to order. This meal was the result, and I daresay it was our best in China. The ribs were so flavorful, with more whole spices than you could count. The green beans were chopped and served in a spicy tangy sauce. Try chopping green beans, it's a great new texture.

This was our last full day in China. Olympics 2008?

Justin's senior show

Marc
Originally uploaded by blomsieroller.

Over the weekend, I journeyed to Dubuque, IA to see what my little brother's been up to for the past year. Turns out he's quite the painter. I can't wait for some of these to go up in my apartment.

Dubuque was the last stop on my long trip from Denver to Madison with all the stuff I've been storing for the last 4 years. Scary! I've got a lot of junk. Sorting through it is somewhat of a nightmare. Driving a truck by myself for that far was also a bit scary, mostly because I haven't driven at all in the last 4 years, and because I decided to go from Denver to the Quad Cities in one go... not recommended if you ask me. My eyes started to go around hour 13, with 3 hours to go. Yikes.

Juicy Mongolian Lamb

Juicy Mongolian Lamb
Originally uploaded by blomsieroller.

This small unusual dish has a little story behind it. We tried to go to A Fun Ti Hometown Music Restaurant in Beijing, an Uyghur (Muslim) restaurant, but got lost in a jungle of construction. When we arrived in Shanghai, we were told to go to this place. It truly looked different from any Chinese place I had ever seen. China has something like 86 minority populations, and this is one of them. There was singing and dancing, and the menu included such delicacies as "Monkey Head Mushrooms in Chicken Soup" and "Beef Penis Tendon Flowerets with Strong Kidney Mushrooms and Ginseng".

We ordered lamb and bread. Sounds boring, and we thought that it would be relatively recognizable, but we were wrong. It turned out to be a thick, pizza-crust-like bread swimming in a thick broth, covered in braised lamb and veggies. When you cut the bread, the exposed side would soak up the yummy juice. We're still not entirely sure what it was, but it was delicious!

Believe it or not, that's potato!

Believe it or not, that's potato!
Originally uploaded by blomsieroller.

On our second day in Beijing, we searched desperately for a Muslim restaurant that sounded interesting and lively (music and dancing). But once again, our unfortunately timed guidebook gave us poor directions and a sparse map. We wandered around a large block radius to no avail. However, this errand was not entirely foolish, as we got to see an area of Beijing that we otherwise would have missed.

Our wanderings also gave us quite an appetite, so when we finally did settle on a restaurant (Fu Jia Lou in Dongsishitiao) we devoured what was put before us. And what was it, exactly? Well, on the left, you can see chicken and brocolli stir-fry, perhaps a pedestrian choice, but brocolli is rather scarce in Korea, so we were kind of excited by it. On the right, we have shredded potato, boiled and served in a vinegar dressing. This was unexpected. I don't remember exactly what we thought we ordered, but this one was definitely a surprise. This time, I believe the server recommended this dish to accompany the stir-fry. Sometimes, that's the best way to order when you're traveling.

Backtracking

Well, I've returned from my 10-week trip through Asia. Now it's time to go back and make sense out of my adventures.

On this blog, I think I'll concentrate on the food we ate. After all, I gained about 10 pounds on this trip, I want to have something to show for it besides the obvious.

So let's start with Beijing. Beijing, if you were not aware, is hosting the Olympics in 2008. This means that the city is in a state of constant flux, and will never be the same. So if you are at all interested in seeing the 'real' Beijing before they tear it down, GO NOW!!! There are huge neighborhoods being razed as you read this. I've never seen anything like it, at least, not on that scale. Seoul (and Korea in general) looks like "SimCity on fast forward" to quote my friend Justin, but they really have nothing on Beijing. Suffice to say, the guidebook we used to get around the city (Lonely Planet's new City series, The Best of Beijing) was virtually useless. One night, I must have called 6 different restaurants before I actually got one that still existed and was open when the book said they would be. Now, this is not to say that I was trying to make a habit of trusting The Book and only going where The Book told me to go, but we were only in Beijing for 3 nights and had already done the neighborhood walk. We were staying near BeijingZhan, or the central train station, so the 'hood was pretty developed (read: Starbucks).

Our first night there produced this fine meal. Note the purple vegetable. It didn't TASTE purple, strangely enough. The texture was sort of similar to thin asparagus. It reminded me of the Korean vegetable bracken. The duck was, well, rich enough to make me swear off duck for a while. Rich, dark meat layered with fat and a nice slice of crispy skin on top. Yeesh! Take a thin pancake (only 1 layer... the starch will diminish the flavors otherwise), add a piece or two of the duck, dipped in plum sauce, a few thin slices of green onion, fold up and swallow. Delectable. Repeat until you can repeat no more (the two of us were unable to finish... we tried, really!)