Showing posts with label chinese_food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chinese_food. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2012

Beijing Duck in Taipei


Beijing Duck is one of my addictions. This delicious fowl is from Celestial Kitchen

You might have noticed that many of my restaurant and food-related posts are about Beijing Duck. There's a reason why - I absolutely love the stuff. I pretty much love duck in any form. It's like chicken but actually tasty (I hear that chicken used to taste good before it got all processed).

So here, for your pancake-wrapped gorging pleasure, is my listing of good Beijing Duck restaurants (well, one's not a restaurant) in Taipei.

duck congee at Rendezvous
台北市中山北路一段105巷18-1號(林森北路100號六條通巷口)
#18-1, Zhongshan N. Road Sec. 1 Lane 105
(closer to enter via Linsen Road near #100 )
02-2563923-6

This is my pick of all the choices. Wonderful, juicy duck that's firm but not dry and bursting with flavor, with a complementary sauce and a bit of red chili wrapped around the onions...and while service is a bit brusque - they basically ignore you if you want anything after you order unless you insist - it's world's better than Song Chu in that regard. Make reservations, go here.



3F #1 Nanjing W. Road (near MRT Zhongshan)

Also fantastic duck, with an atmosphere that's less "kung fu movie" than Rendezvous. The duck was good, the sauce not so memorable, other dishes were also good, very friendly and prompt service. I'd definitely go back.




#14, Lane 15 Zhongxiao E. Road Sec. 5
(Almost right next to/slightly behind MRT City Hall)
台北信義區忠孝東路五段15巷14號
捷運市政府站

Well, just read the review. Amazing duck (although really no better than Rendezvous'; the main difference is that Song Chu's sauce is luscious which amps up the duck while Rendezvous' is slightly more astringent which complements it) but the service leaves a lot to be desired. Good duck or no, I won't go back.

Too bad the service at Song Chu left me bitter, because I loved the sweet, sweet duck

106台北市大安區信義路四段199巷4號
02 2708 4242 
A friend really liked this place on his first visit, but when we all went together we agreed that the duck was a bit dry. It was pretty good, but not quite up to Celestial or Rendezvous (or even Song Chu, sad to say).

All over Taipei!

You won't be getting a high-end gourmet experience with duck from one of these blue food trucks, but at NT250 for half a duck (which is too much for one person but barely feeds 2) you can't go wrong on price, and with the food truck craze sweeping the US, being able to say that you got dinner off the back of a truck and it's Beijing Duck, so you can stick that in your mobile taco and suck it, well, who can resist? And the duck isn't bad. It's not going to elevate you to new heights of culinary rapture but it's just fine for an evening in. Plus the stir-fry of all the non-breast duck with chili and basil is always fantastic.


...and more. I know there's at least one place in Shi-da with carry-out duck only that's pretty decent, and I've seen a place near Taipower Building, but these are the ones I've tried. I've had the duck from Shi-da and it's pretty decent, but I can't seem to track down the address.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

龍都酒樓 ("Rendezvous Restaurant")


Rendezvous Restaurant (龍都酒樓)
台北市中山北路一段105巷18-1號(林森北路100號六條通巷口)
#18-1, Zhongshan N. Road Sec. 1 Lane 105
(closer to enter via Linsen Road near #100 )
02-2563923

I know I've been writing more fluff than thoughts recently, but for whatever reason, these days, despite having a lot of things I want to write about in terms of thoughts, musings, meditations on life, whenever I try it just doesn't come out right or my brain short-circuits.

Hoping that will pass - it always does - and not beating myself up too much for writing fluff in the meantime.

Anyway, last weekend I had the chance to go to the famous 龍都酒樓 in a lane between Linsen N. Road and Zhongshan N. Road, just south of Nanjing E. Road. They're famous for Beijing Duck and dim sum style dishes.

The place caters more to groups, and yes, you should make a reservation.

I can say that the duck is truly fantastic - just as good as other heavyweights like Celestial Kitchen and my personal bugbear, Song Chu. Definitely worth the reservation and price (we had duck and lots of dim sum at two tables with about 8 each, and it cost us all approximately NT650 each).

It's juicy without being greasy, it's flavorful without being cloying, and the little green onion spears are wrapped in a bit of chili pepper to give them a bite. Song Chu's sauce is better, but Rendezvous' is not overly sweet, it's almost slightly antiseptic which is a nice match for the luscious duck.

The decor is like something out of a scene in a restaurant from a kung fu movie - back-lit Chinese medallions, crystal chandeliers, light-colored textured wallpaper, round banquet tables, a balcony and lower seating area. Not usually my style but whatever, the food is good.


I went with a newer group of friends (the one in the picture is the one I know best, his wife is the one looking away) - unfortunately, due to work commitments, my husband couldn't join us. The upside of going out occasionally with a group of locals who are also food lovers and interested in trying the city's best restaurants is that I get to try places that are not often on foreigner radar.  A few savvy long-term expats might know about them, but they rarely make it into guidebooks (guidebook restaurant listings in English make me a little sad sometimes - the world is not right when Kiki gets a nod but 天府, which is quite literally the BEST SICHUANESE FOOD IN TAIWAN HANDS DOWN, is ignored). I get to try the places that locals believe are the best, and it's opened me up to a lot of new options.

And you know, one of the great things about Taipei is that the best restaurants are not necessarily the most expensive restaurants. In fact, they rarely are. You can completely avoid hotel restaurants or places that charge $6000 a head for bird's nest soup (and they exist - I have students who regularly entertain clients at such places) and still forage through the best Taipei has to offer.

Another great thing about eating out with a group of locals is that I have to speak Chinese. I've written before about how having to socialize entirely in Chinese is good for my Chinese, and well, duh. Of course it is. My friend (above) speaks English well, but his wife does not - or she's afraid to, but he insists she really can't and she concurs - and he didn't really start inviting me out to such meals until it was clear that I would be just fine speaking Chinese the entire time. I can understand this: even if someone does speak a foreign language - at least two others at lunch can also speak English well - when out with friends and not at work or in class, the average person will prefer to converse in their native language and having one non-native speaker there, even if that person is a native speaker of a "popular" foreign language like English, can cause discomfort if it means that everyone has to then speak English when, in their free time and with friends they know, they'd perhaps prefer not to.

It happens in business, too: a group of Taiwanese people and their one foreign guest go out or have a meeting, and the presence of the one guest means that the entire language of the group changes to English, not the mother tongue of the majority of the group. I understand completely how someone might not want to repeat that dynamic at a fun Saturday lunch with friends.

I hate to say it, because it sounds suspiciously close to something annoying expat who says things like "oh I only hang out with locals, I get along with them so much better than other [*snicker*] foreigners" would spout, but it's true: not long ago I had another lunch at a restaurant that was not really good (but well-known in foreigner circles) with a group of expats. It was fun, although some things that were said bothered me, but honestly, this was more fun. Instead of conversation topics like "are Taiwanese women materialistic" (sadly, the general consensus seemed to be "yes"), I got to explain, in Chinese, why "Bear Bar" and "G2-Paradise" - two bars behind Red House Theater in Ximen - are such funny names in English. I learned a useful new bit of Chinese vocabulary, too ("G點"). I feel I owe 文昌帝君 for that one. As for the other diners - they were delighted at this tidbit of cultural knowledge. Who says that Taiwanese people are conservative and uptight? That's not been my experience!

It doesn't matter to me if I never go out with that group of expats again, but I honestly do look forward to going out with this group of Taiwanese food lovers in the future.

And I will definitely be returning to 龍都酒樓.


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Quote in Forbes!! (11!!11!!)!1

Here I am!

I mean, I'm not entirely a "food blogger" but I blog enough about food that...hey, sure. Sounds good to me.

This isn't really the entirety of what I said, but it's a good enough quote taken from a much lengthier opinion on Din Tai Fung.

For the record, I do think their dumplings are excellent, but I don't eat there often - I've been once - because while they're really good, there's only so much you can do with a dumpling and I find their prices high. I believe the price has more to do with being able to get away with charging Japanese tourists that much than it does with how much it actually costs to run the restaurant and make a profit.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Song Chu (宋廚) - A Sad Rant About Great Duck

宋廚(Song Chu)
#14, Lane 15 Zhongxiao E. Road Sec. 5
(Almost right next to/slightly behind MRT City Hall)
台北信義區忠孝東路五段15巷14號
捷運市政府站

I have two things to say about Song Chu:

1.) The Beijing Duck is divine. (那邊的北京烤鴨真好吃)
2.) The service is terrible. (他們的服務非常糟糕呢!)

Song Chu is famous for its Beijing duck - most of my students have eaten there at least once and while it doesn't seem to be that well-known in expat circles (certainly it's known, but doesn't seem to be that famous) it's very well regarded among Taipei residents. To eat there, you have to either a.) know someone or b.) stand in line on the first of the month in the morning (get there no later than 10am, and I'd advise earlier) to reserve a table. You can call, but they won't answer. People we know with high positions in various companies seem to eat there often, and I don't believe for a minute that they actually wait in line on the 1st day of the month - they might send their assistants to do it, but more likely they just have some guanxi and don't have to stand around like us plebes. I had to stand around on April 1st to get a reservation for this past Saturday (May 28).

We ordered some other food to go with the duck, as one does. Some sliced fish in a slightly sweet, slightly savory goopy sauce (it was good, really), sweet potato leaves, onion pancake and other things. The other food was good, but not great. If I'd been taken out to a basic Chinese banquet hall and fed it, I'd think it was just fine, but I wouldn't write home about it.

The duck is really where it's at, and also where things went terribly wrong.

When I made the reservation - an hour and a half standing in the sun dodging scooters with the other duck-seekers - I told them our party size (nine) and that we "weren't going to order too many side dishes, we want lots of duck. Basically only duck." "We can do that!" the woman taking the reservation said.

So I figured, you know, they're professionals, they should know that a party of nine who orders relatively few dishes (which weren't worth a two hour wait) and wants to mostly gorge out on duck is going to need two ducks.

Yes, I should have been more specific and said "two ducks!" - but then they also should have asked (they didn't).

So we eat the food, and eagerly await our duck, and one duck's worth of duck arrives. And it's delicious. It's amazing. It's juicy and fatty without being greasy. The plum sauce is truly memorable. Everything is fresh. It's tender. It's better than Celestial and much better than Wei Fu Lou. I ask for more duck.

There is no more duck, because "you only ordered one duck when you reserved."

Err, no, I didn't. I said I wanted enough duck for nine people who didn't plan on eating a lot of other things.

"But we called you to confirm your reservation and you didn't say two ducks."

"You didn't ask and I thought you guys were true professionals and should be able to handle this sort of thing."

"When a table makes a reservation, we always give them one duck unless they ask for more. You should know that."

"How? Nobody told me that. Nobody said 'one duck'. Nobody informed me of this policy. You certainly didn't tell me when I reserved the table."

"I'm sorry but that's how we do it, and we don't have another duck. You can always order more food."

"I don't want other food. I didn't come here to eat mid-range sweet potato leaves. I can do that anywhere without having to wait in line for two hours to reserve a table. I want to speak to the boss. I am really not satisfied. I expected better."

"The boss isn't here." (Either she was lying through her teeth - which is quite likely - or the owner of the place never actually visits and lives off the profits in some hideous granite and marble monstrosity on Ren'ai Road, which I concede is also likely.)
Well.

We didn't really get an apology - a mumbled 不好意思 doesn't count. We didn't get anything that would have made me satisfied. Call me spoiled but if I'm going to go to some effort to eat somewhere, I expect satisfaction equal to the time and money spent. I realize this doesn't always happen in Asia unless you're in Japan (and not even always there - try ordering a sandwich from a set menu but asking them to leave off mayonnaise or something), but, you know, I really was not happy.

I'd say "they've lost my business" but it doesn't matter - they're famous. They have a line that unfurls down the block every first of the month. My decision not to eat there again doesn't really affect anything (sort of like how I'm on Dingtaifung strike because as good as their dumplings are, they're shockingly overpriced).

It's a shame though. The duck is truly sublime. If they'd offered some little olive branch to keep the customer happy, this would have been a rave review. Instead it's a rant...and that sucks for everyone.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Chinese New Year With The Wangs



My next few posts will be reporting on various things we did and experienced during the Chinese New Year vacation, which we spent almost entirely in Kaohsiung and Kaohsiung County (forgive me: I still haven’t gotten used to saying “Greater Kaohsiung” or whatever they’re calling it these days).

We spent the first few days in the city of Dashe (大社 or “Great Society”) with our friend Sasha Wang and her family, including her parents and sister, Iris. On Chinese New Year’s day, Sasha’s grandmother also came over.

Dashe is a small town that looks like every other Taiwanese town. It has its famous local produce (green jujubes, which were quite fortunately in season), its main old temple, its one “scenic” spot worth a visit, and several streets worth of pearl tea stands, convenience stores, breakfast hamburger restaurants, lottery stores, blue trucks and the requisite Café 85.
When we first arrived we were treated to a bowl of delicious, crisp jujubes just picked by a family friend. “I feel sorry for you northerners,” Mr. Wang said as he handed us the shiny fruit. “You have to eat all the so-so jujubes that we don’t want. We get the best ones! Once, I sent a case of these jujubes to my cousin in Taipei and he said ‘they’re great, but they arrived mostly rotten”. You can’t pick them right off the tree and still get them to Taipei, so you have to eat ones picked too early and they’re not as good.”



I felt lucky to have the chance to spend a few days in Dashe; it’s the sort of town you wouldn’t think to visit, and would have no reason to visit, unless you have a friend there. We suspect there's at least one foreigner in town because the city seems big enough to support a cram school or two, and there was one (one!) Taipei Times at the 7-11 when we went for coffee. "There is probably one expat in the entire town," Brendan said as he bought the paper, "and I took his Taipei Times!"

The upside of this is that we got to spend a few days in a sleepy Taiwanese town devoid of tourist hype or "Must See" destinations. Everything gets easier when there's nothing in particular that you have to see. It was fascinating to see a town from which the produce we eat in Taipei comes (rather like pineapples from Guanmiao, strawberries from Dahu, Lishan apples, Mingchih peaches or custard apples from Taidong) - a town that is, honestly, "flyover country".

For real - the High Speed Rail tracks go right through the edge of town. You cross under them to head up to the Guanyinshan Scenic Area. I spend a lot of time on the HSR and never really think about what the towns the tracks pass through are like so this was a fascinating glimpse from a different perspective.


The Wangs are masters of old school hospitality - the kind that people raved about in countries like India and Thailand before the tourist hordes showed up. We had our own room, delicious meals ("we can eat out if it's a bother" - "it's NO bother...they WANT to feed you") and while Sasha's parents don't drink coffee, Sasha knows that we're hopeless addicts and made sure that 7-11 coffee was the first thing we got every day. We both had a lot of fun in a town without much to see

The Wangs don’t celebrate Chinese New Year the way you’d expect. They follow Yi Guan Dao, which as far as I can tell is a type of Buddhism that still mandates praying to ancestors, eating vegetarian even for laypeople, and lots and lots of prayer on special days (more than you'd normally expect).

On New Year's Eve, we woke up and enjoyed rice porridge with various vegetarian additions including a dried product that I would have mistaken for beef jerky had I not known that it couldn't possibly have been. We then piled into the car and drove to Zuoying, where we helped burn ghost money ("you two are sooooo cute!" "Are we doing it wrong?" "No...it's just so funny to watch foreigners do that") and met Sasha's extended family, including her "Have Fun Uncle" (he likes to have fun - mahjong, wine, cards and other things that Sasha's parents don't indulge in), her grandmother, her older sister and her nephew.



Not that Sasha's parents are uptight; they're not against others eating meat, drinking alcohol or gambling, and as good old-school Taiwanese from the country, they're quite good at the occasional swear word or colorful comment.

"They always remember my English name," Sasha said, "because it sounds like 'What the ****!?' in Taiwanese." "What's that?" I asked, and Sasha told me (it's "sa shao" if you're curious) in front of her parents, who chortled heartily. Later, her father told us "not to tell anyone in Taipei that I'm a '大社人'", which he said in Taiwanese, which sounds just like the Mandarin 大色狼. Go ask someone if you can't read that.



...and their neighbor agreed. Foreigners burning ghost money is hilarious.

While the family cleaned the house we went into Kaohsiung - we offered to help and were roundly rebuffed - and visited Pier 2 in Yancheng. I'll write about that later.

For dinner, we ate a steaming, delicious vegetarian hot pot with faux duck, faux fish balls, faux squid and all manner of vegetables and beans. The imitation meat was excellent (some of it actually tasted like the real thing) and made mostly from mushroom, tofu and bean ingredients processed to bear a resemblance to meat.




We then watched a bit of the CNY television programming on Formosa TV - the Wangs, being from Kaohsiung, are rather deep green (lots of pro-Chen Chu and anti-Ma invective) before they went upstairs to pray. The ritual called for three prayers - one at 8pm, one at 9 and one at 10. We could have watched but Sasha insisted it was really not all that interesting, and so instead we stayed downstairs to watch the flamenco dancer on the left talk to the Snow Countess that Flash Gordon defeated on the right, mediated by the famous guy in the bowl haircut whom you'll recognize if you've spent even a week in Taiwan.



At that point, an uncle and aunt dropped off Grandma, who "was too tired to climb the stairs to pray". The Wangs own a four-story townhouse-like house, so this seemed reasonable. She retired to her room on the ground floor for a bit, but then came into the living room to talk to us.



Except that Grandma only speaks Taiwanese (and some Japanese). I only speak Chinese and English. She can't read Chinese (except characters on mahjong tiles). We did have a conversation, but I'm not sure how.

I learned a great many interesting things from Grandma. First, it's not that she can't climb the stairs to the top floor, though that is hard for her - she just doesn't really like to pray that much. "Sometimes it's OK...but they do it too much. I can't be bothered" was the gist of what she said.

I told Sasha this...her reply? "Finally, Grandma tells the truth! We always knew it because we don't really like it either! She can admit it to you!"

Grandma also told me that it was OK not to have kids now, but later we should have two (in this way, she's like my Grandma L.). "Three is too many; you can carry two but you can't carry three, so three is just a lot of trouble."

Knowing she had at least three children, I said "Sorry" (不好意思 - paisei).
"Don't worry about it." (不會 - mbe).

Then she told me about how her other son's house is so clean, but this house is messy because her daughter in law doesn't like to clean. I replied "yes, but it's a really nice, big house and they run their own business, so it's OK." Hearing this, I remembered how lucky I am not to have a stereotypical mother-in-law!

"Anyway my husband cleans too. We split the cleaning in half." That earned me a 'you chose well!' pat on the arm and a big thumbs-up.

Our common vocabulary having been exhausted for some time - I understand more Taiwanese than I speak and Grandma used Mandarin words if she knew them, but still - I showed her our wedding photos.

Why? Because around the world, no matter what language, age or culture, almost every woman of every background can understand and connect over wedding pictures. If Grandma and I had any sort of cultural intersection it was here.

This is where her Japanese really got going - asking me why I wore a kimono (I didn't but my dress was inspired by one) and how I tied the obi.

My Japanese inspired wedding dress with obi: photo by Keira Lemonis

You're probably wondering at this point why I said that the Wangs don't do the typical Chinese New Year, because this sounds pretty much exactly like a typical Chinese New Year.

Well, for starters, there was no huge New Year's meal. There were no fireworks. Other uncles, aunts and cousins stayed home; only Grandma came for New Year's Day. Sasha drove out to the only open breakfast joint in Dashe to buy vegetarian rolls and get us coffee. The Wangs went up to Guanyinshan (no relation to the one in Taipei - this one is really just a hill) to the street market to sell their products. We went with Sasha around Dashe to see whatever there was to see.

That's how I ended up spending half a day selling Beigang Peanuts!

You see, the Wangs' business is seed and nut products. The "messiness" (I disagree that it was messy) that Grandma mentioned came from the stacked boxes of peanuts, black sesame, sunflower seeds and almonds in the main room. Mr. Wang is from Beigang (北港) in Yunlin County, a town famous for its peanuts. Their products are wholesaled out to vendors in various Old Streets across Taiwan; if you see peanuts and sunflower seeds in plastic bottles for a hundred kuai each, triangle chewy seed and nut candies, nut candy cubes in bags and cashews in plastic jars, then you're seeing Sasha's family product. Buy some; it's good stuff, and you're helping out small business owners!

New Year dawned bright and sunny in Dashe, and they quickly established that the street market up there was open and crowded, so they got in the car and went to set up their own stand.

We woke up later, had breakfast with Sasha, Sasha's sister Iris and Grandma, who told us to eat as much as we wanted, and then feigned being upset when we "didn't eat enough". "You two come back next year. I like talking to you. Eat more!"

We then went to see Green Cloud Temple (青雲宮), a Sengung Dadi temple in town. Sengung Dadi is the god of herbal medicine, and Green Cloud Temple is approximately 320 years old. Around it, sacred Banyan Tree gods are denoted with red ribbon. It was a crowded day and the high-ceilinged main hall was filled with incense smoke. We prayed with Sasha - I never knew that I needed to tell the gods my address when praying, but hey, I'm not religious so it doesn't really matter. I was sure to pray for "No baby, no baby, no baby please, let someone else have the baby" to Chusheng Niangniang, the goddess of childbearing, and for my mother's health to Sengung Dadi himself. We took free New Year's candy from the many trays sitting around.

I snapped a few pictures, too:


Then we walked up to Guanyin Mountain, where I got a deep tissue "Torture Lady" massage:



Seriously, it was as painful as it looks.



We hiked to the top, stopping along the way to buy drinks at the street market. I also picked up a bar of soap made from human breast milk for NT180. Never seen that before, so I am curious - can't wait to try it! Guanyin Mountain isn't high, but the top follows a narrow ridge with lovely views over the southwestern plain.



We descended and ran into the local troupe of macaques:



...who clearly want Chusheng Niangniang's help more than I do!



Also, macaques are hilarious.



It was kind of cool that we didn't have to go to Chaishan to see them. This troupe is local and fairly tame, not nearly as nasty as the Chaishan troupe or unfriendly as the Tianmu troupe. Sasha was upset that out-of-towners were feeding them "We know never to feed them, because if you feed them they turn nasty and demanding". Which is entirely true, as one man whose entire bag of dried Irwin mangoes was stolen found out.

Then we walked down to Sasha's family stand, which is how I ended up hawking peanuts on Chinese New Year!


They didn't ask us to help - I volunteered. Brendan didn't join in, but I thought it was great fun and it was cool to see them getting more business. More than one person bought nuts or candy after being shocked by the foreigner shouting "bakang toudao jin he jia!" (北 港 土 豆 很 好 口甲) in Taiwanese.

See how nice I am to post this picture of me pretending to be a traditional market peanut vendor in rural Taiwan, even though I look atrocious in it!

We returned to the house at dusk to find Iris spending time with Grandma, who was as opinionated as ever (she asked me "Why is your husband wearing short sleeves? He should put on a jacket!").

The next day, the Wangs headed to Tainan, where they go every 2nd day of the New Year to pay respects to the tomb of a deceased family friend. They call him "uncle" but aren't related - he was their waishengren neighbor before his death and they sort of adopted him into the family. We headed into Kaohsiung city for a few days of playing tourist and enjoying the sunshine, something which is so severely lacking in Taipei at this time of year!

On our way out, the Wangs loaded us up with bags of nut, sunflower seed and sesame seed candy, a bag of fruit, a bag of local lu wei and a custard apple. Now that's hospitality! It's good to see that kind of consideration paid to guests still alive and well. You see it in Taipei but not nearly to this extent.

All I can say is...hooray for southern Taiwan. Nice people, good food, awesome weather. Why on earth the business capital has to be sodden, overcast Taipei is beyond me.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Shao Shao Ke (勺勺客)

Shao Shao Ke (勺勺客)
#15 Lane 41 Ren Ai Road Sec. 2
仁愛路2段41巷15號

We ate at this Shaanxi restaurant with delicious food on Saturday. I was so looking forward to it that despite my headache and tingling tongue from mouthfuls of crystallized ibuprofen, I made myself venture out anyway. I wasn't disappointed!

As I don't have any photos from the restaurant, I thought I'd share some of my pictures from Xi'an, which I visited in 2002 during my year in China. The one where I got pneumonia. Twice. And three of my teeth rotted from acidic water. The quality is not great, because the originals were scanned at a low resolution and have been transferred from computer to computer to facebook to computer several times.

I like how the poor evening light with my circa-2000 film (not digital) camera makes this photo look far older than it is.

You might know Shaanxi as the province of China that boasts Xi'an (or Chang'an), an old Chinese capital and one of the few large Chinese cities worth visiting*.

The food at Shao Shao Ke is from a range of regions, which makes sense as Xi'an was the end of the Silk Road through Western China, and as a large metropolis and capital it would have a lot of dealings with other parts of the region that is now unified China (unified against the will of many people, but unified nonetheless). Delicious spiced lamb kebabs and fried lamb and pork with cumin are a highlight - the Muslims out west may not have eaten pork, but I am all in favor of food syncretism. The non-Muslim Chinese eat a lot of pork, so taking the spice recipe from their trading partners out west and applying it to their most common meat is fine by me.

Even the terracotta warriors were cold on that snowy day.

The vinegary crunchy potato with chilis was also delicious, as was the "shao mo" - a lamb soup where you tear up two rounds of bread on your own, and they fill the bowl of it again and again with soup. Other dishes were similarly tasty - apologies for not having a clear memory, as I was dealing with a headache at the time - and the fried bread dessert was delicious. My students recommend trying the fried cheese dessert next time (I believe it's called "Fried Mozarell" on the menu). We also had northern Chinese style sesame buns with pork. Delicious, but this is one case in which I believe Do It True (都一廚) does a better job. Generally I was a bit disappointed in Do It True, but their fatty pork in sesame buns was delish. In all fairness, the food at Do It True was not bad at all; it's just that it is so over-hyped that when I got there and realized it's rather standard...well, I fell from the cliff of high expectations.

I am pretty sure you can also find this sign at the edge of the Cliff of High Expectations.

Dishes are not expensive, and sizes are small - you're not going to get a huge steaming platter of food meant to feed 20 with each one. I like this: generally, smaller plates of food means better food, cooked with more attention and care.

Don't believe the final paragraph of the review linked above: there are, in fact, dishes that you need to order in advance: the fried stuffed eggplant and fried stuffed egg, for example.

I think this is a geniunely lovely photo and the next time I am near my original film prints I'll scan a higher resolution copy.

Atmosphere was great: spacious enough to move around, but small enough to not feel like a sterile banquet hall (sorry, Celestial Restaurant, your food is great but your giant banquet table atmosphere is lacking). It's got an intentional cave-like feel, but with white walls so it doesn't feel claustrophobic. You can write on the walls, by the way. Strings of dried garlic decorate the stairway ledge. Call ahead for large groups; it's a large restaurant but by no means massive.

Whatever you do, make sure you try it. It goes on my list of "Best of Mainland Food" from this day forward**.

This, I suppose, is what little kids in Xi'an do for fun. There's nothin' more exciting than dragging broken plastic lamps around by their power cords!

*Not to totally denigrate China: when you can see past the roving clouds of smog, the Chinese countryside is lovely and the people who inhabit that countryside can be quite hospitable. Chinese cities, however, are another thing entirely. To put it mildly, I can't stand them. All the white tile and blue glass and gray skies, the rude people, spitting and exhaust fumes and acres of cement. Taipei has trees and parks. Most Chinese cities have paved esplanades and grayish stumps that cry, "I was once a tree". How sad.

Xi'an has some of this, but it's worth a visit regardless: it's the end of the Silk Road, so you'll see a lot of Central Asian influence, the city walls and bell tower, as well as a few pagodas and temples, are still intact, and of course there are the terra cotta warriors, often grouped in a tour with the bathhouse of Yang Guifeng (which is nice, but not a must-see) and the tomb of the First Emperor, which is fun to climb but also not a must-see. I climbed it in the snow.

** My "Best of Mainland Food" List:


Ningxia: Hui Guan

Beijing: Celestial (though I'm hoping to find someplace better) - see above

Shaanxi: Shao Shao Ke

Guangzhou/Hong Kong: haven't found anyplace exceptional yet

Shanghai: Shanghai Dumpling (need to make sure it's still there) - yes, it's just as good as Dintaifung. YES IT IS. And cheaper, too.

Harbin: Harbin Dumpling King (though the owner admits there's no real "Harbin" food, and he cooks classic, delicious food from across China)