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.

Happy Mather's Day

It's hard being away from our family, especially on holidays like this one. We're on a one way ticket, so who knows when we'll see them next! We did get to see M's family in March, which was great, but it's been a while since I've seen my family. So sad.

Mind in the Gutter

China has an interesting solution to things it doesn't want you to see: walls. During the Olympics, often they would be oversize Olympic mottos and pictures of the Fuwa. However, near my work, across the street from some crazy mall, there's a section that's just blocked off by some corrugated tin. Usually when I walk by this area, it stinks, but the other week, it was particularly bad. As I walked past, I noticed people coming the other way with their hands over their mouths, which meant it was either really bad or nothing to worry about. I got worried. Especially when I looked ahead and saw some weird dribbling coming down from the wall and onto the sidewalk. I gave the dribblies a wide berth, especially as the pieces started coming together. Color seemed to be a mix between brown and yellow, consistency appeared to be both liquid and solid, seemed to be coming from a shack on the other side of the wall.



BEHOLD!


All I know is: that guy in the back, strolling leisurely with his hands tucked behind his back, is in for an unpleasant surprise if he keeps looking off to his left like that (and doesn't utilize his sense of smell).

I just had to share it with you all.

(PS: I like how M took the time to put together a really attractive fun post, even editing and cropping pictures, etc. All I can do is take some poopie pictures with my iphone and tack on a couple snarky remarks.)