Rabbit's Revenge

A few months ago, M and I dropped in on a dinner with some of her Michigan classmates, but we didn't get a chance to eat, since we were eating with other friends after. But the food they ordered looked really delicious, so when our friend Steven came through town on his way back to the states, we thought we'd take him back to this Sichuan restaurant for his Last Supper in China.

And, since it was his last supper, we decided to try something crazy. We flipped through the menu looking for crazy things, finally deciding on Goat tripe. But alas, they were sold out (?!). So we settled on Spicy Fried Rabbit's Legs. I know rabbit isn't a China-only food, since most of us grew up reading about people eating rabbit on a spit in old-time England and America, but it was the weirdest thing on the menu that we actually wanted to eat (or wasn't prohibitively expensive).



When the dish came, I had us all pick a piece, name it after a famous rabbit, and then all take a bite together. After which, we all promptly coughed from the painfully spicy peppers, since, as most of you know, Sichuan food is some of the spiciest food in China. Over the course of the meal, we ate Roger, Peter, Buster, Bugs, Babs, and the rabbits from Watership Down whose names I couldn't remember.

Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that naming the rabbit legs probably put is in the negative with the karma department because the next day, the three of us were all feeling the effects of "Rabbit's Revenge". Spicy in, spicy out. Oh well, I still don't regret it.

From the Outside

Well, I'll just go ahead and say it: Happy Fourth of July. Ours is already over, but yours should just be beginning (not that I expect our American readers to just instantly read this once I post it).

M and I were reflecting on how different our last July 4th was. Last year, the rain seeding reached a peak on the Fourth, resulting in one of the worst rains we've ever been caught out in. After retreating back to our dorms, we decided to brave the rain with our friend to meet up with some of her friends, eventually ending up in a small Spanish-style bar in a hipsterized hutong, watching newfound acquaintances pound a couple racks of home-brewed tequila shots.

We weren't planning on doing anything too special this year, as I had to work and M and I both had some volunteering to do. However, somehow by accident, I bought mostly American today: 7-11 and Mcdonald's for breakfast and lunch.

So after I got off work, I kind of kept the streak going by heading to Lush (24 hour pancakes, burgers, beer, hookahs, you name it. It's like an always open ex-pat homesick remedy) for their discounted burgers. Plus, I'd heard through the grapevine that a couple of our friends were going to be playing some music, so we decided to stick around and check it out. Although the patriotism in the bar was often drunkenly over the top (three guys, arms linked, free hands raising beers toward the American flag, slurring the words to American Pie), it was surprisingly cheering. Despite all the crap She gets, America's a great place to have been born and raised. These days it just isn't that cool to be American, China not being an exception, so taking a day out for Freedom was refreshing. Especially when it involves rowdy singalongs of heartland favorites: the Star Spangled Banner, Sweet Home Alabama, American Pie, etc. Jason and Kanene are freaking rockstars.


But my ultimate favorite part? Marissa's awe-inspiring dramatic performance of the Presidential speech from Independence Day. Epictacular. Really makes me want to kick some alien butt.

The Evolution of Transport

One of the major status symbols in Beijing is your mode of transportation. It starts with a bike or taking the bus, then goes to subway, cabs, scooters/motorcycles, all the way up to the really nice cars (the black audi being one of the more popular ones).
We've been climbing the ladder, slowly coming up in the world. We started out with some pretty junky second hand bikes (given to us by some very kind friends who were leaving the city), then one of our friends went back to the US and hooked us up with a Giant. These are like the expat-workhorse bikes, although a lot of Chinese people ride them too. Every once in a while I see some Chinese guy in all the competitive spandex wearing one of those futuristic helmets on a Giant roadbike. So awesome.
Anyway, so M had been riding her Giant bike and we'd been living the high life, but it wasn't enough for me. A few of my friends back in the states are Vespa enthusiasts, and I was always way jealous of them. When my Ford Taurus was dying, I almost bought an old restored Vespa off Craigslist. I even went to their place, cash in hand, to buy it, but they changed their mind at the last minute. The anticipation from that failed transaction has left me with a scooter complex. So everytime we'd go to Wudaokou and see all the Korean students cruising around on their electric scooters, I'd long for one of those glorious vehicles.
Fortunately for me, M is a sucker for all things vehicular. She loves train-rides, planes (originally had this as plains...sad that I'm an English teacher), cars, and even scooters. So it didn't take too much convincing for her to go along with it. We paid around $300US for the standard 2 seater "Korean Student" model. I haven't gotten any real pics, but here's my haphazard/artsy shot from our maiden voyage:

It's great being able to scoot around, but it's also a little freaky. Whizzing through Beijing traffic at 35km/h can be nerve-wracking at times. We're living life on the edge here :p. Full freaking throttle.

A Nation of Rubberneckers

One of the biggest culture shocks for us and our friends here is the amazingly robust curiosity of people here. Everywhere you go there are pockets of people with their hands carefully tucked behind their backs, waists slightly bent, peering at something or other. Could be an open manhole, or a woman having a seizure (biked past this the other week), or an old woman taking her pet razorback hog for an evening stroll (also an actual event). Often when M and I get on the subway and speak in English, people sitting around will just sit and stare. I guess they have nothing better to do. So I've started staring back. Usually I lose.

Also, last week, M and I were playing Lumines on my PSP and this man was fully leaning over her shoulder watching us play. A spot on the wall opened up, so we moved over there. I could see him craning his neck trying to keep watching, but we were too far away, so I made a comment to M, "That guy's bummed he can't watch you play anymore." A few seconds later, he popped up over M's shoulder to watch for the rest of the ride.

So when I casually mentioned to M, "Hey, I think my next post will be A Nation of Rubberneckers," she threw me a sidelong glance and said, "Subway last night?":


A few weeks ago, we noticed that they had razed our nearby morning vegetable market and started digging an enormous hole. Like one square block big and like 50 feet deep. There all sorts of crazy cranes, drills, earth-movers all digging furiously. When I got back from work that day, I noticed about a dozen people just standing at the subway entrance, which is perched right on the edge of the hole, idly watching the work. Apparently, when M got home an hour later, there were still about a dozen people peering into the hole.

So when a couple days ago I saw these guys standing around, I decided to snap a shot.

Because we live in a nation of rubberneckers.

Blockage

Blogger went down over here a few weeks ago, and then in the past few days, Twitter has been blocked...I guess June 4th is coming up, a too little emotionally charged for the big guys.

Hopefully this won't hurt our blogging frequency too much...how much more can it take?

For now, I have to use Hotspot Shield to post. Kind of a pain; Hotspot Shield is extremely and unpleasantly spammy.

Oh, China.

Frog Legs

We had an exciting dinner last night with M's cousin Allen, and our friends Liz and Will. The five of us were feeling adventurous, so we thought we'd try some bull-frog legs in our hotpot. When they came out, though, we got more than just the legs. We've had frog before, but seeing this beauts really took me back to biology class, which was uncomfortable at first. But, we all got past it and enjoyed the amphibian taste: half chicken, half fish. Yumm.

2 Years is a Long Time

Tuesday was our 2 year wedding anniversary. It's been a wild ride these past couple years, mostly because of our living situations, not so much because our marriage is troubled. 3 months in Berkeley, 9 months in Ann Arbor, a month back in California, and now almost a year here in Beijing. Suffice (it) to say, we are not big fans of moving right now. We celebrated our first anniversary at Niagara on the Lake, a sleepy tourist town in Canadian wine country just outside of the Falls. This anniversary was a little bit of a contrast.

Originally, we had wanted to plan a trip, but we decided to just use the money to eat nice food instead. M was craving steak; thereby confirming the wisdom of my decision to marry her. So, after some deliberation about which steakhouse to go to, we headed off to the fairly new Grange, inside the Westin.

M gazes pensively off into space, unsure of whether to order the tenderloin or the ribeye.


My hair is extremely long.


We went with the 200 day aged Australian stockyard ribeye with a half lobster, and some delicious sides.


After a couple months without steak, this one was glorious. The flavors of age meat are really complex and surprising. Honestly, my favorite part was their mustard bar; this place has over fifteen mustards, most of them house-made. I went with four different kinds: Guinness, horseradish, honey and champagne, and wasabi. For whatever reason, I used to hate mustard as a kid, but now I love it.

M and I were curious whether Grange's steak would hold up against the awesome steak we had at the fabled SALT a couple months ago.

You can't really see the chunk of meat in this picture, but it's there. And trust me, it was a tasty steak (hiding behind basil mashed potatoes, by the way. Deliciousness). Much juicier than grange, a softer texture and Grange's medium rare was a little closer to medium.

Sorry, I got sidetracked. Anyway, so Grange was an incredible meal, no doubt, but it was pricier than SALT. There's something to be said for SALT winning Editor's pick for best value from The Beijinger. Sure, the 198rmb for three courses seems a bit steep, but the food is spot-on and I do love dessert. (For their record, their scallop app had the best scallops I've had in years)

There you have it, two restaurant reviews in one.

May God grant us many more anniversaries to come, and lots of yummy meals to celebrate them.