Beijing Dou

On Moving (aka How to Procrastinate Moving by Blogging)

2012-01-16T13:22:00.000+08:00

I've got 3 or 4 BeijingDou posts in the works, but they'll be (even more) on hold for a few weeks while we finalize a move from the west side of the city to the east side.

In fact, the only reason why I'm posting right now is because I'm procrastinating my systematic breakdown of each room in our old apartment. Here's a shot of the one room I've finished (via Instagram):

Moving always calls for a bit of introspection. Marilyn and I have spent 2 1/2 years at this apartment, the majority of our time here in Beijing. It's been a great place for us, though, to be quite honest, it always felt kind of like a college dorm. A fact that was not helped by our proximity to most of Beijing's major universities, which meant we were surrounded by (mostly drunken) foreign students.

We're heading to the east side of town (Sanlitun for those of you keeping score at home) in order to be closer to M's work. We'll end up coming back to the Wudaokou/Zhongguancun area a few times a week to see friends, attend the international fellowship and for some random work projects that I'll have on that side of town, but when we did the math, we realized that we would save time, money and energy if we were based in Chaoyang. We're trying out the whole "commute to your friends, not your job" thing. Check back in with me in a few months and I'll let you know how it's going.

As troublesome as it is, moving's been good for us since it made us purge a lot of the extraneous junk we've accumulated over the past few years. Our new place is smaller so we couldn't just cart it over and dump it in a drawer again.

And it's helped us mark the time of our lives, bringing an era to a close for us. Gone are the days when M was "writing" her thesis and I was working 10-20 hours a week. Good times for sure, but our current lives somehow managed to be even better, even if we are working more (and harder) than we ever have before.

Bespoke Mustache Cardigan

2011-12-29T23:21:00.000+08:00

On days like this, when snow and smog commingle as sludge, adding insult to sub-zero injury, we expats get to wondering just why exactly we continue to live in Beijing. But, it's also days like this, when the call finally comes to pick up my custom hand-knit cardigan, that remind me of some of the advantages to living here.

After Marilyn had her Totoro Cardigan made for a work assignment over at The Beijinger, I got jealous and decided to have my own sweater made, something with a more manly pattern...something a little more "me."

Eventually I narrowed it down to either ninjas or mustaches, or both. I even looked around for mustachioed ninja knitting patterns, but alas, Taft-ian Shinobi was nowhere to be found on Etsy.

Both of them hold special places in my heart, but I eventually went with the mustache. Needless to say, the ladies at the wool store were befuddled by the pattern, but hey, an order's an order, and they agreed to knit it up for me.

I ordered this back in September hoping it'd arrive in time for Movember and the onset of the cold, but apparently some German model had booked up all of the kindly knitting lady's time, so she didn't finish my piece until today.

All told, this woolly tribute to hirsute upper lips set me back 452RMB ($71, or maybe more since the yuan just hit a record high against the dollar). I'm sure some of you would never pay $70-something dollars for an ironic sweater, but I'm comforted by the fact that this dastardly cardigan is lusciously soft and perfectly fitted to my figure.

Unfortunately, I got to the Wool City too late today to order the crowning glory for this sweater: suede elbow pads, so I'll have to head back there for the finishing touch. I might also add a lining to keep it from snagging and make it even more warm. Once I'm done, I'll finally be able to put my feet up by the fireplace with a leather-bound book, a briar wood pipe, and a monocle. Dastardly indeed.

Muahahaha.

To have your own knit-tacular wearables made, visit (via The Beijinger):

Wool City. Daily 9.30am-4:30pm. Anningzhuang Donglu (west of Qinghe Xiaoying Qiao), Haidian District 清河毛纺城, 海淀区清河镇安宁庄东路(近清河小营桥). Shop 321 (6291 0284)

PEK to TPE

2011-10-10T09:27:00.004+08:00

Hello from Taipei.

I have this random tradition of writing a post whenever I step outside the Great Firewall. I've been thinking about why that is, and I've mostly decided that it's to maintain the illusion that the reason I don't blog on here as much as I'd like is because I have to go through the trouble of posting from our VPN.

I spend about 90% of my online time on VPN while in Beijing, though, so that's not a real excuse, even if the Blogger dashboard is crazy slow when accessing from Beijing. Btw, I've been considering a jump to Tumblr or Wordpress if anyone has any thoughts on that.

Anyway, Marilyn and I zipped over to Taiwan for a week to spend some time with her parents. Oddly enough, it's Taiwan's "National Day" today (not sure how to word that without getting in trouble). We had several large tour groups from the mainland on our flight (one feisty tour member tried to cut in front of us at the check-in counter before being regulated on by her tour guide), and M's dad remarked that they were commemorating back-to-back national days, since China's is on Oct. 1.

Looking forward to a restorative week here. Us Beijingers have to get out of the city every once in a while to take a breath (of fresh air) and return, if only temporarily, to sanity.

The truckloads of ultra-fresh seafood that we'll be consuming this week should help with that...

48 Hours in Shanghai - Part I

2011-08-27T15:14:00.017+08:00

So, my brother spent a couple months with us in Beijing this summer, and it made for some crazy times and TONS of nonstop eating. We have lots of pictures and adventures to share, including some from an epic midnight showing of Harry Potter, but as it's taken me weeks to get to posting this one about Shanghai (and it's just part one of three), we'll have to save the HP7.2 for another time.

Against our better judgment, J, me, the little bro and our friend BChew (the noodle master) bought tickets for the bullet train to Shanghai amidst a string of high speed rail issues and typhoon warnings. Brilliant, huh?

Luckily, we arrived at the train station and got on with no problems. Our train ran smoothly, I threw back some Kangshifu ramen noodles (my train ride tradition :P) and we were there in no time. Oh yeah, and Bchew was also kind enough to lend me his iPod so I could begin my task of rereading all the Harry Potter books in an uninterrupted row. That might have helped pass the time, seeing as how I was just a few pages shy of finishing the book by the time we pulled in to Shanghai's Hongqiao station.

The next morning, after a nice sleep-in and padding about in pajamas, we were ready to leave the house, but our decisions were legion: xiaolongbao (XLB), shengjianbao (SJB) or both, and in what order/combination?

After Jenny Gao (China foodblogger and J's Twitter buddy) gave us some recommendations, we decided to head to one convenient location that had a good XLB place (Jia Jia Tangbao) right across the street from the city's most highly recommended SJB locale (Xiao Yang Shengjian).

By the time we got to Jia Jia Tangbao, it was already close to 3pm, so they were (of course) sold out of their basic XLB. "Guess that leaves us with the hairy crab roe rendition then!" These were tasty, but most of us admitted we were more excited about the SJB across the street. Also, not to reveal our lowbrow tastes, but J and I for one (for two?) actually prefer the non-crabby version of XLB, so spending thrice the amount for a product we actually enjoy less doesn't really tickle our pickle so to speak. So, off we went.

The thing about SJB is you really gotta time it right. When those suckers are fresh, they are quite possibly the world's most perfect food (meat, dough, crunch: your basic food groups in one handy bite). The hawker lifts the cap off the giant pot, steam billows out and you spy a honeycomb arrangement of perfect little white buns that are soon scattered with sesame seeds and diced scallion. Gah!

We ordered 16 of the little guys to start with, and trudged upstairs with our plates. After dreaming about good shengjianbao ever since the last time we were in Shanghai with Flo and Preston (2.5 years ago), biting into one was like that 6th grade make-out session after being apart from your prepubescent boyfriend due to summer science camp: hot and messy (not that I would ever know, I never had a bf in 6th grade...). The other thing about SJB is managing to get through the meal without burning your tongue. I failed. Definitely worth the pain, though.

J and the bro were done after theirs, but Bchew and I went for one more order of 4. By the time we stumbled out of that shop, I was pretty sure my blood had been replaced by the fragrant pork juice that burst out of each bun. As you can imagine, this slowed my (already slow-ish) movements a great deal. I probably could've used a walker right then.

Just thinking about that meal has made me lethargic again, so we will continue our Shanghai exploits - including a Pixar exhibit, food, and... more food - in coming posts. Stay tuned!

Review: (Ultimate) Noodle Bar

2011-07-08T16:44:00.003+08:00

I'll level with you. This restaurant isn't actually called Ultimate Noodle Bar. I just made that up because it sounds cool. Usually we just call it the Sanlitun Noodle Bar, but there are several of those around. Sometimes we call it the Hidden Noodle Bar, but then we get confused between that and the 1949 Hidden City Noodle Bar (which is also excellent and deserves its own write-up).

So as of right now, I've decided to call the place Ultimate Noodle Bar.

I've been selfishly hesitant to write this post. This place is already way too busy for my own liking. But after our last visit, I couldn't not write about it.

Besides, I actually found out about this place from The Beijinger's interview with SALT chef Ana Esteves, so to whom much is given, much is required, or with great power comes great responsibility or something like that.

M owes me several big fat "I told you so"s on this restaurant too. For years, we've wandered past it in that alley behind Tongli Studios and M, being the sucker that she is for all things noodles, would always point out the large "麵" (Noodle) signs on UNB's 2nd floor window. Given that Sanlitun has a wealth of excellent non-noodle foods, I would shake my head and walk on by.

So, a few months ago, when we were perusing an issue of the magazine and saw that Ms. Esteves' favorite bowl of noodles was at a hard to find noodle bar behind Tongli Studios, M shrieked and ran directly there. I know what you're thinking: "Ah, interesting use of hyperbole--obvious exaggeration used to emphasize a point or add excitement and humor to a story." Nay, my friend, nay. I'm reasonably sure that she actually ran straight there.

And when we arrived, the good people at UNB were sorry to inform us that they had in fact run out of noodles. They were as surprised as we were, noting a sudden seemingly random spike in foreigner clientele asking for their Eggplant Noodles.

M was crushed, but we ate something else (Eggplant Rice if I recall correctly) and vowed to return for the noodles. We've been back several times and have been impressed each time.

How to get there

Ok, so if you're standing in that alley (stroll north through the Village past the Apple Store and into the a sea of sidecars, cigar vendors and body odor) and then turn left into a small courtyard. There's a sign for 家常菜 No.42 Chinese Restaurant. Turn in there. By the way, you might want to hold your breath on your way through this mini-tunnel, as there are trash cans on your right that any sane person would not want to smell.

Once you emerge, turn right and walk down to the end of the so-called lane. If you're keeping score, you'll want to head to 七单元 (Unit 7). The Noodle Bar sign should help you find it. Enter the building and head up the stairs.

At the second floor, you'll notice a styrofoam sign with their hours. M and I discovered a trick last week. This illustrious family rests (and preps) from 2-6, you'll want to arrive right at 5:55 to avoid having to wait. Basically, we wandered in right as they were turning the sign, said hi to the chef on our way to the kitchen (yes, it's one of those places) into the small dining room. By 6:00, the place was packed and angry noodle-fiends were harrumphing outside.

We tried to go for a late dinner a few months ago and the place was packed with a 45 minute wait. Unfazed, we went for a bit of shopping while we waited for them to call.

You should be warned. This restaurant isn't perfectly suited for everyone. This is homestyle cooking done well and they charge a bit of a premium for it. And I do think they're actually cooking in their home. As far as cleanliness, the place is quite clean when compared with Xiaochi's and other homestyle restaurants, but less clean than the full service luxury Chinese restaurants. Noodle dishes are in the 30s, as are several rice dishes and plates. The Pork Belly (more on that later) runs 45.

Now, in our minds, that's a friggin' steal. But we have friends who would way rather spend that kind of cash on budget foreign food (say at Biteapitta which is directly across the way).

Ok, on to the food.

Om nom nom

Cherry Pork (Xiao Yintao Rou)

Don't let the name fool you. This ain't no Pick-up Stix deep-fried cardboard in a sweet sauce.

This is a serious slab of pork belly. One of the amazing things about this dish is the layering. On top you've got classic gelatinous belly goodness. I'll be honest with you, everytime one of these lardkins slides down my esophagus, I can hear my slowing heartbeat pounding in my ears. But I'm usually too raptured by awesomeness to care.

Beneath the collagen bombs, you've a nice pulled-style pork. This reminds me of the Carnitas we make at home, rendered in its own fat and caramelized with orange juice.

And beneath the strings of meat, you've got little cubed chunks of sauciness. Not really sure how they do this, it comes out as one slab, but this is a miracle on your plate. They used to have a noodle version of this dish but they've crossed it off their menu. What a pity.

I recommend this for sharing. I got this with a bowl of rice last week, while M and her brother each got noodles and I could only get about halfway through it.

Here's a shot of their noodles. I forget what exactly they have, but they've got several varieties of fried noodle dishes and you can choose from eggplant, eggplant and egg, saucy noodles, strips of meat, mushrooms, etc.

I'd venture to say this is the best bowl of noodles I've had in Beijing (and so much easier than pulling them yourself). But after being married to M for 4 years, the noodles start to run together...

Lastly, we ordered up some veggies. Somehow the veggies here are abnormally verdant, which I assume is a good thing.

These are Jielanmiao, which I guess you could call Chinese Broccoli (Kale) shoots. I'd also highly recommend their Ganbian Doujiao (this is a must for me. This dish is so dang good when done right. Like crack-dusted french fries in vegetable form) and their Kongxincai.

I'm blanking on the story behind this family, but from what I can remember, the floor manager and the chef are brothers. The chef is trained in Sichuan style cooking, but he's not actually from there. So as you can expect, there's a whole lot of Sichuan peppercorn action going on, so if you're not into that, you might want to ask them to tone it down.

When I eat this food, it's clear to me there's a lot of love and self-respect that goes into it. And having had several really pleasant (albeit efficient) interactions with this family, I hope they do well for themselves. Judging by the looks of the line outside their door, I think they're doing fine.

Baking Alaska in Beijing

2011-05-11T17:52:00.000+08:00

Baked Alaska has occupied a special place in my heart since my brother made it as a precocious baking obsessed teen. I must have been 10 or so at the time and watching him construct a tower of cake, ice cream and meringue was a dream come true.

Unfortunately for us, our family left for vacation the day after my brother finished the cake and there wasn't any room in the kitchen freezer so it was relegated to the garage. You know, the 1950s era pea-soup green monolith of a refrigerator that smelled perpetually of third-degree freezer burn. The one with tens of thousands of dead, frozen ants crisping along the edges of the door. It was a frigid black hole.

As you can imagine, we got back from our trip (to the Great Salt Lake, the Motherland as my friends used to call it) to discover a monumentally ruined Baked Alaska in our freezer. Some part of me died inside, and my love for Baked Alaska continued unrequited until last year.

We have a friend who grew up eating ice cream cake for her birthday, so last year I had the crazy idea to make her Baked Alaska to celebrate. When I'm absolutely honest with myself, making her birthday cake was mostly just an excuse for me to take on some crazy project in the kitchen.

We couldn't find any one recipe that struck our fancy, but we decided upon the components one at a time. Alton Brown's pound cake for the base, Dreyer's ice cream for the middle (at the time it was half-price at the local supermarket) and Gordon Ramsay's italian meringue for the outside. And now I've forgotten who gave us the idea for the saran wrapped bowl, but I'm thinking it was one of those matronly women like Martha Stewart or Paula Deen. I tend to get them confused.

I'd like to say that we rocked this, but we didn't. We discovered later that our oven had somehow switched to keep warm (the original owners broke the nob, so we have to use pliers to crank it) and the removable tray at the bottom had covered up the heating element. So basically, we assembled the pound cake and it just sat in the oven warming for several hours. Thankfully, the top cooked and was usable. And the rest we just kind of left in the lukewarm oven and ate it for breakfast the rest of the week. (We've since redeemed ourselves by remaking the pound cake for an autumn trifle: pumpkin caramel, vanilla bean pudding, apple compote and graham cracker crumbs)

The meringue took us a couple tries too, but finally we were able to get the right consistency.

To build the ice cream layers, we saran wrapped a glass IKEA bowl, packed in several layers of ice cream and then stuffed it in the freezer. Once the cake was ready, we layered it on the bottom and then put it back in the freezer to harden up.

Once we were ready to put the meringue on, we flipped the bowl over and gave it a good smack while tugging at the saran wrap. The whole thing came down mostly intact.

Then we quickly slathered on a generous helping of meringue and fired up the torch that the good folks over at Pie House had lent us).

There's something viscerally gratifying about torching up an ice cream cake. Those of you who've never done it, you're seriously missing out.

So there you have it, though not without a few mishaps. But it's a rare day where any baking in Beijing goes smoothly for me.

Someone has really crappy aim (gross)

2011-05-05T15:28:00.000+08:00

Warning: This post is gross

I discovered this little gem while wandering around Huaqing Jiayuan in Wudaokou a few weeks ago. I held off on posting it because we were in the middle of the 'I'll Bite' series. And because I couldn't decide how to post this without committing food blog suicide.

Actually, I still haven't figured that out; I'm just posting it anyway. Besides, this technically isn't a food blog. It isn't even specifically a China blog. It's just randomness.

So at the extreme risk of alienating our 11 faithful readers, I present to you my latest attempt at photojournalism:

Crap Aim

Okay, so some friends and I walked past this cup and did a double take. "What the crap?" we literally thought as we pulled out our camera phones.

We've been here in Beijing for almost three years now, and our "Only in China" posts have become less frequent. I like to tell myself it's because we've adjusted to life here and things just don't confound us they way they used to. But it's entirely possible we've just gotten lazy.

But this little guy burst through our complacent quasi-adjustment and left us reeling in confusion.

Beyond just being (slightly) grossed out and now having passed that on to you, I'm really fascinated by this (that doesn't surprise you, now does it?). What's the story here?

What would possess someone to deposit a turd in a cup and leave it on the wooden steps outside of a real estate agency. Malice? Perversion? OCD?

We'll never know the truth. We're left to roam this world in ignorance, haunted by the image of a lonely defiled chalice.

So that's it. Turd in a cup. And for that, I'm sorry. I promise next time I'll write about something delicious and un-scatological.

Is Little Yunnan Beijing's Best New Chinese Restaurant of the Year? I'll Bite Part IV

2011-04-25T14:26:00.000+08:00

And so we come to the end of our little series, a four-part romp through the Beijing masses' four favorite restaurants by way of the Beijinger's 2011 Reader Restaurant Awards.

I've been obsessed with Yunnan food lately--mintfully fresh, often fried-tacular and surprisingly bright with its flavors. For me, our visit to Little Yunnan wasn't about the newness of the restaurant or the food; I was more interested in how the food held up against other Yunnan places in town.

Several weeks ago, a friend turned M and I on to Aimo Town near Wudaoying. We'd had several fantastic meals there that set the bar really high, so I went to Little Yunnan with expectations.

The day we went, the weather was phenomenal so we sat outside. There are probably only a few weeks out of the year where you can do this comfortably, but I can't recommend it enough if you happen to go on a day when Beijing is neither freezing, muggy, nor mosquito-ridden. The restaurant's got a small courtyard, some indoor seating, and then a small upstairs loft with couches that seats a party of six or so. (By way of warning, watch yourself on those stairs if you decide to head up to the loft.)

Service was delightful. Warm and attentive without being creepy or pushy. They were very helpful whenever we had questions or needed something and could handle a little bit of banter.

At one point, we were trying to figure out if they had dessert (because it's on the menu but they didn't have it that day) and the waitress was trying to explain that they had an aloe jelly, but we were trying to figure out what she meant, and the owner told the waitress to comp us one. Probably a difference of just a dollar or two, but I definitely appreciated the gesture, especially given the service I've gotten at similar restaurants.

Before I get into what we ate, I want to complain about something we didn't eat. Fried red beans (su hong dou?), which I just discovered (courtesy of our friend N) at Aimo Town. I know it sounds kind of weird, but it's like eating fried butter. Yum. So why don't they have those here?

Also, I had read that their house-made rice wine is a treat, but they were out of it on the day we went. Which in the grand scheme of things was probably a good thing.

So instead, we got a Yunnan xiaoshan cha, literally Yunnan little mountain tea. Apparently, it's good for removing "fire" (based on the Yin - Yang Chinese medicine theory), which works out well for me because I spend most of my life with an overabundance of 'fire qi.' I blame all the fried food. And as you're about to see, fried was in abundance that night.

Without digressing too much, I found a list of "hot" foods:
Garlic, Green onion, Raw onions, Red pepper, Deep-fried or grilled meat, Dog, Grass fish, Sparrow meat, Turtle, Black pepper, Cayenne pepper, Chili pepper, Horseradish/wasabi, Mustard, Chocolate, Cocoa.

With a few exceptions (dog, sparrow, turtle?), you're looking at my average diet. And if you add in the "warm" foods, it gets even worse.

So anyway, I drank a lot of that tea in hopes of drawing out all the 'fire' I was about to ingest…

Ok, on to the food.

We started off with Jingbo Ghost Chicken. Mostly because someone wanted to see what "ghost" tasted like. I was a little skeptical ordering it because I'm rarely a fan of traditional "cold dishes" involving meat. (This borders on blasphemy in traditional Chinese cuisine. It's a regular occurrence that after ordering a large meal at a Chinese restaurant, the waiter incredulously points out that I have not ordered any cold dishes...)

But surprisingly, this was one of the big hits of the night. Everyone we were with had a mini freak-out when they tasted this dish. I won't go into too much detail, but basically there's this lime - mint interplay going on that lifts the dish. Probably the closest thing to a Chicken Mojito that I've ever eaten.

Since we can't get enough mint at these places, we also got the Mint Salad. It was actually better here than at several other Yunnan places I've had around town. I'd also recommend their Scrambled Eggs with Jasmine Flowers. Unless, of course, you don't like jasmine. The jasmine flavor seeps into the eggs nicely, although it's a bit disorienting since it kind of feels like you're eating tea.

I had high hopes for the Crispy Deep Fried Fish, but he actually ended up being a bit of a disappointment. To his credit, he definitely lives up to his name: crispy. deep. fried. fish, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't living up to his potential. This would be a nice dish to impress visitors, but I found the crispy skin to be unpleasantly scaly. The meat inside dissolves into gobs of tenderness, too much so. This is a dish I want to love, and it's possible I had an off night or my palate was just too unfamiliar with the textural contrast to enjoy it. It may also have to do with it being carp… those bottom feeders have notoriously "tender" skin which kind of threatens to fall apart. This one made good on that threat, a little too much. (Next time, we'll try the Yunnan-flavor tilapia…)

Pan-Fried Yunnan Goat Cheese was, of course, a winner. I love that it comes with a pile of black pepper and salt and a pile of white sugar. Just to be crazy, I dip it in both. The flavor of the cheese was actually not as strong as I expected. Which depending on which side of the cheese fence you're on is either a really good or really bad thing. Discuss amongst yourselves.

The Roasted Spareribs with Lemongrass were a favorite among some, mostly the guys. Lemongrass is such a nice flavor and I couldn't resist eating the lemongrass bow that was tied around the rib. A little on the spiky side, but still scrumptious.

And the ladies in our party loved the Fried Shrimp with Mint Leaf. Yes, more mint. This time around, though, the mint is fried, which earned serious points in my book. The shrimp itself had great flavor, though I'm always unsure what to do about shells and legs. We mostly just ate the shells because we couldn't be bothered with picking them apart.

Smashed Potato (which I think in Chinese was literally called Old Grandma Potato Mash) was a hit too. There's a nice depth of flavor here that goes beyond just the cream potato starch.

M was feeling particularly authentic that day and ordered the Deep Fried Ge Jiu Tofu, which people feared would be the notorious Stinky Tofu. Our less adventurous comrades were pleased to find that it wasn't nearly as stinky as the stuff they sell on the street. (Seriously, we have friends who spend years living in Beijing without realizing that smell is actually coming from a food item and not trash and/or sewage.) This dish is actually quite good, if you're bold enough for it, but tofu's a bit of an acquired taste. Especially when it's fermented, even if only nominally so. The sauce that comes with these guys is incredible - made of more fermented tofu, in liquid form. (I know that sounds gross but it's delicious.) M and our friend Liz kept dunking their tofu deeper and deeper into the bowl until things got way out of hand.

Deep Fried Potato Shreds are a must for us whenever we go to a Yunnan place that has them. They're basically wedges of hashbrowns, but the strips of potato are so delicately fried that they have a light almost springy crisp.

For our greens, we got the Stir-Fried Leaf Mustard with Sour Chili, which probably sounds crazier than it actually is, and we all really enjoyed the tangy bite to the mustard leaves.

We also tried their Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles. The broth had a rich, substantial flavor and the noodle texture was pleasant. But if you're not into ham, you might want to have them hold off on putting it in, since it might be a bit of a non sequitur for some palates.

And here's a shot of the Aloe Jelly. This was a great way to end the meal--like an airplane gently caressing the ground as it lands instead of one of those bumpy quasi-crashes that the Air China pilots always make.

So there you have it: Little Yunnan. The six of us ate for about 60RMB a person, not including drinks.

You might have noticed too that they put a lot of work into plating their dishes. The soy sauce streak on all the dishes do get old after a while, but at least they're trying.

Ultimately, I find myself torn between Little Yunnan and Aimo Town. Some of these dishes were positively fabulous, and some of them were just good. And the atmosphere there is charming and actually adds a lot to the dining experience. Plus, it's a great place to take visitors looking for an interesting meal that's hard to get in the states (without endangering their stomachs).

See also:
Is Da Dong Beijing's Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part I
Is Maison Boulud Beijing's Non-Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part II
Is Modo Beijing's Best New Non-Chinese Restaurant? I'll Bite Part III

Is Modo Beijing's Best New Non-Chinese Restaurant? I'll Bite Part III

2011-04-11T15:27:00.003+08:00

It's been a busy week--one filled with plenty of delicious meals, so I didn't get a chance to write this until the weekend (now Monday because I passed out last night before I could get this up). In the interest of living the high life, I've setup shop on the rooftop of Sculpting in Time to enjoy a rare day of balmy Beijing weather.

I've really been looking forward to writing this post (which, for those of you just tuning in, is part 3 of a 4-part series offering up the my take on thebeijinger's 2011 Reader Restaurant Awards).

Sometime in 2009, M and I checked out Mosto and quickly bumped it to the top of our list of favorite restaurants in Beijing. We've had a solid meal every time we've visited, and the service has always been attentive.

So when we found out that the team at Mosto had opened up a new restaurant in the Sanlitun Village, we wandered over to give it a try. M was actually getting ready to write a feature on it for her old job, so co-owner Alex Molina invited us to drop in for dinner.

Our meal at Modo was fabulous, helped, of course, by Alex's generous hospitality, but we've been back several times since and had a noteworthy experience each time.

Modo's concept of "small plates" is similar to tapas: meant to be ordered in variety
and shared with friends. As such, some people who go are disappointed by the
price to portion ratio.

Also, most of the dishes at the restaurant have a Spanish flair to them, but keep in mind, this isn't your typical tapas bar.

Whereas Mosto is comfortable, reassuring in its consistent ability to produce quality, though sometimes predictable, food, Modo dares to take more risks.

Personally, I love being able to order several smaller dishes to try different things and build variety, but I can respect those who would rather pay for one big platter. So consider yourself warned :).

In keeping with the restaurant's smaller portions, Modo serves tasting sizes for a number of wines via its Enomatic wine dispenser. Those of you who've been over to Mosto will recognize the machine, but Modo's changed it up by being the first venue in the city to offer the first card-based Enomatic experience.

It's worth noting here that I'm a complete hack when it comes to wine. However, during the course of our meal we tried most of the wines on offer from the machine and loved all of them. I'll spare you my amateur analyses, though.

We've enjoyed just about everything we've had there, but if we had to pick a few standouts, they'd be: the Wagyu meatball with an heirloom tomato ragù, parmesan crisp and rice cake; the sundried tomato tortelli with goat cheese and a pumpkin foam; and the white chocolate mousse with black currant sorbet, almond crisp and pistachios.

As with my notes for Maison Boulud, I'm having a hard time reading my handwriting. So it's possible I got something wrong there…

Let's start with the meatball. If I were going back to Modo for one dish, it'd be that meatball. There's a bold gentleness to the Wagyu flavor and texture that the conversion to meatball has enhanced and it plays nicely with the rich, bright flavor of the heirloom tomatoes sauce. The parmesan crisp and rice cake do more than just add texture, and we were surprised by how well the rice cake worked with the dish.

This meatball haunts my dreams, beckoning me from twilight's shadows with the alluring promise of a lurid, sensual duet of tomato and meat.

Hmmm, so that might be slightly melodramatic...

But seriously, this meatball is worth trying. Don't be scared of the 80rmb ($12) price tag. Yes, I realize that you've probably never paid this much for a lone meatball, bring a friend to share it, and you'll most likely be fighting over whether you got your fair share.

Granted, I realize that not all of you are like me: continually in search of the best version of traditionally homestyle comfort foods. (For instance, Gregoire in Berkeley used to serve this white truffle egg salad sandwich that was simply revelatory, but I digress.)

And I'll admit that a small part of me recoils at having endorsed the grinding up of and subsequent balling of an excellent cut of Wagyu, as opposed to my natural inclination to just leave it as a steak and lightly sear it. But in my opinion, some of the best restaurants set out to challenge the routines and habits that we (sometimes unwittingly) fall into with our food preferences, pleasantly surprising us with the deliciously unexpected.

Two words: pumpkin foam. Pumpkin in any form (roasted, souped, pied, etc.) is hard for me to resist, but foam is on another level. This dish is so gentle, it's like a caress. Sundried tomato provides a bite, but the pasta and cheese join up with the pumpkin foam to melt in your mouth. The finish ends up being both delicate and enriching.

Dessert was easily one of the best I've had in Beijing, and anytime that M and I have been in Sanlitun after dinner since, I'm tempted to drop in just for the white chocolate mousse. And I've given in on more than one occasion.

Black currant has always been one of my favorite flavors, probably because of my mom's Hong Kong roots (Ribena, Fruitips, etc.), and I found the black currant sorbet to be simply magical. The chill of the sorbet against the creaminess of the white chocolate dances on the tongue and the almond crisp and pistachios break up the smoothness with a satisfying crunch and toasty nuttiness.

Also of note is their cheese plate. Though the cheese is made locally, it's made by a fromager who spent time in France (and clearly learned a thing or two in the process).

I know it's cliche, but Beijing's restaurant scene really seems to be exploding, and Modo had several worthy competitors for the 2011 award. I haven't visited anywhere close to all of them, so I'm hardly qualified to pass judgement on whether it is indeed the best new restaurant.

But I can say with confidence that Modo offers us Beijingers a varied experience easily worth the recognition. Not everyone will agree, especially those who don't subscribe to the Modo "way" of small plates and communal eating, but that's a risk inherent to taking the kind of chances that Modo does.

From our conversation with Alex, it's clear he and Chef Daniel have a deep love for Beijing and are inspired by life here in this crazy city. And, having partaken of the results of their passion and inspiration, I'm thankful to them for their commitment both to the craft and the city.

Unfortunately, M and I didn't take any photos of our magical night, mostly because she was planning on using press photos for her write-up. And because our camera is big and obnoxious.

But we did snap some quick shots of their set lunch on a later visit:

See also:
Is Da Dong Beijing's Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part I
Is Maison Boulud Beijing's Non-Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part II

And tune in next week for Part 4 of our series, where we'll take a look at 2011's Best New Chinese Restaurant: Little Yunnan.

Is Maison Boulud Beijing's Non-Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part II

2011-03-31T19:17:00.001+08:00

So Part II is a little tenuous here. Let me just say that I don't really have the credentials (or wallet) required to properly review Maison Boulud. It's like the cheerleaders I knew in high school-- out of my league, but I still get to help it with its homework. Hmm…maybe that simile didn't work out so well.

Anyway, so this review was made possible by our dear friend "V" (and before you ask, no, not Hugo Weaving in a mask). V came for a visit last spring and as a token of gratitude for staying with us, offered to take us to the restaurant of our choice. On the condition that we write it up, since she's supportive (in that slightly authoritative, big sisterly kind of way :P) of our burgeoning careers as writers.

Our meal at Maison Boulud was fantastic, but had a few low notes as well. And (as I so often do) I've procrastinated writing it up. So much so that the GM who was there when we visited has since left.

Faced with the guilt of having eaten a very delicious meal and not kept up my end of the bargain, the Beijinger's reader restaurant awards this year seemed like a good enough excuse to finally sit down and tackle the review.

A word of warning: I'm going to write this review from my own perspective, which probably differs from most of the people who actually go to Maison Boulud and (hopefully) lines up more closely with you, my reader. Also, it was VERY dark in that restaurant (and we didn't have our magic Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens yet), so the photos are poor. But let's be honest, you're used to it.

Ok now after that very long introduction, I present to you: rambles on a free meal at Maison Boulud.

I should probably level with you. There are vain enough reasons why I chose Maison Boulud as the one restaurant I wanted to try at V's expense. Chef Daniel has the celebrity chef firepower and foodie high-street cred that is hard to get in Beijing. Okay, okay, if you really must know, I've seen him on Top Chef and came away with the impression that I should have a deep respect for him.

I've never been to New York City, that mecca of deliciousness, and these days it seems less and less likely that I will ever go and eat at one of Daniel's flagship restaurants. So when the opportunity to try Maison Boulud presented itself, I leapt at it like the opportunistic glutton that I am.

Chi'enmen 23 (a self-titled "integrated lifestyle project") has had a rough year since we visited, and there's a certain bourgeois guilt that hangs over your head as you wander into the compound, which positively glows with the luster of its new(ish) grey stone walls. It's a nice retreat from the wildness of Beijing, while still being centrally located (just East of Tiananmen Square).

Situated in the area that comprised , it brings with it a certain history, and a certain right to its decadence, but its restoration also runs in the same vein as the newly renovated Qianmen Pedestrian Street, which in my uninformed opinion often serves more to reflect the kind of troubled relationship we have with the past than to actually preserve it. Oh, and the mustachioed valet sauntering over to a yellow Lamborghini might have contributed to the impression.

But, for better or worse, there's a certain decadence to Chi'enmen 23 that is fun. From the outset, knowing that I was out of my league, there was that mysterious feel of playing dress-up as a child. The thrill of pretending to be sophisticated, to be bigger and better than you are.

Walking into the doors of Maison Boulud widens the distance between the diner and the establishment. The decor is, and I may be using this improperly, positively baroque. And I mean that in more of the original "gilded and prone to excess" definition, rather than the "16th to 18th century European art style" definition. Although, a more trained eye could possibly identify it as both.

It's certainly beautiful, while being garish. That's actually the secret paradox of all things baroque. And while a part of me loved the setting, part of me hated myself for loving it.

But let's move on. Service is well-trained. But I couldn't help but shake the feeling like they were trained too well. Like someone had decided to plant in them the down-your-nose snobbery that I've experienced at fine dining in the States.

For some sick reason, there are people out there who like to eat at restaurants where the wait staff think they're better than you. I am unfortunately not of that persuasion. Call me a romantic, but it's just too much ugly step-sister and pumpkin and not enough Cinderella.

Anyway, moving on. Let's talk food.

We started off with several amuse-bouches: tuna on a radish and a steak tartare. Nothing particularly shocking, but good quality and presentation.

M and I tended to order more of the traditional French dishes on the menu, rather than some of the more modernist stuff, simply because we've had so little exposure to good French cuisine. And we figured Daniel should be able to get things right (while pulling the puppet strings from New York, or wherever he happens to be at the moment).

For appetizers, we had escargot with crostini, king crab and shrimp ravioli. The escargot was fantastic; I judge my escargot my whether it can make me forget that I'm eating a snail, and this was definitely the case. It still had a bit of the wild bite that escargot does, with a rich bold flavor. The crostini was, of course, a nice textural complement.

The king crab was memorable and definitely one of the high points of the meal. It had an avocado chutney, soy gelee and seaweed all rolled into a loaf of deliciousness. Like a tasty magic brick.

For mains, the three of us ordered steak au poivre, salmon and chicken. M admitted later that maybe ordering chicken was a mistake (i mean seriously, who goes to Maison Boulud and orders chicken?), but she also holds this romantic belief that a chicken in the hands of a good French chef can become some kind of revelation, both comforting and refined. Sadly, that didn't quite pan out.

I have in my notes something about a fricassee of morels, snap peas and potato with savory cream. It was moist, but overly salted (to the point where it got hard to finish toward the end, which is really unfortunate for a place like MB) and hardly noteworthy. And the surprise bone that nearly did some gum damage was just not ok. I might let the occasional bone fragment slide when eating lazi jiding at my local Chengdu Xiaochi, but I'm also not paying $30 for it.

Luckily, chicken was not the only thing we ordered. Straight up, the steak was one of the best steaks of my life, and therefore one of the best things I have ever put in my mouth. It came out radiating heat with a succulent aroma, while still maintaining a perfect medium rare in the middle. The combination of the peppercorns with the seared foie gras made for some of the most decadent and flavorful eating that I've ever had. Even so, I had a few issues with the dish.

If I recall correctly (which is not a guarantee; I'm having some trouble reading my notes. I'd like to blame the dim lighting, but my poor penmanship is the more likely culprit), the steak came served on a bed of greens, which practically made it difficult to eat. Was I supposed to lift it off the bed of greens to cut? Or just slice through as the meat wiggled on its foundation of verdure? The greens were delicious, though I tend to believe it was a high ratio of cream that made it so (not that there's anything wrong with that). The potato puff was also a tad disappointing. Maybe I'm just spoiled from the glory of the potato puff at Gregoire's in Berkeley.

V's salmon was regrettably overcooked, and she knows her stuff. The girl used to ball it up in NYC before moving to Singapore, so she ought to. The vegetables were also overcooked and under-seasoned and made for a very low note as a main. Granted, it was probably still one of the better pieces of fish in the city, but that's not really saying much.

Dessert was delightful, though only slightly memorable. Vanilla creme brulee with fruit, Paris-Brest with whipped ganache, toasted almonds and vanilla ice cream and rhubarb poached with hazelnut financier compote with yogurt sorbet.

M and I walked into Maison Boulud hoping that the meal would not be the kind of "Oh, it's good. For Beijing…" experience that had become all too familiar for us. The restaurant certainly succeeded in rising above the kind of categorical dumbing-down that we've unfortunately internalized. So, while Maison Boulud is certainly able to compete on a global level, I'm also fairly confident that several of the glitches and mistakes from our meal would not hold up well at the "Restaurant of the Year" at another major international city.

For the sake of my much wealthier compatriots, I hope that our experience was an anomaly. But, I'll be unable to pass judgment again until some other benevolent patron passes through town (slight pause here while I wait for volunteers). And to be honest, the next time one does, I'll more likely take them to Capital M, which I've found to be more deserving of the title while treating me with the kind of warm cultured respect that makes the fine dining experience an uplifting one, rather than a rude reality check.

And one more thing. As critical as I can be about food like this and these price points, I am very thankful for V for helping a mini-culinary dream to come true. Thanks for your graciousness in putting up with me and M not knowing which forks to use for what dishes and where to put them when we're done with them. And thanks for being delightful company during the meal and a splendid houseguest during your stay.

See also: Is Da Dong Beijing's Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part I

In coming weeks, I'll tackle Modo as Best New Restaurant (Non-Chinese) and Little Yunnan as Best New Restaurant (Chinese)

Is Da Dong Beijing's Chinese 'Restaurant of the Year'? I'll Bite - Part I

2011-03-25T16:34:00.001+08:00

M and I had the privilege of attending The Beijinger's 8th Annual Reader Restaurant Awards presentation on Monday. She went for work, I went for play, but either way, good times were had by all.

Most of the awards they just had up around the room, but they saved the four most prestigious to present throughout the event:

Restaurant of the Year (Non-Chinese): Maison Boulud
Restaurant of the Year (Chinese): Da Dong
Best New Restaurant (Non-Chinese): Modo
Best New Restaurant (Chinese): Little Yunnan

I had a chance to meet up with an uncle, aunt and cousin and a couple of their friends on Wednesday. Since this is my cousin's first trip to China and he's only got two days here, my uncle's friends decided that we should head to Da Dong.

Which works out quite well for a blog post. Buckle your seat belts, readers, I'm about to go foodie on you.

(And, as usual, my apologies for the mis-focused photography. I shot these ninja style...)

M and I had eaten at Da Dong several times before. In fact, the first time M's family came to visit us, we took them there for duck. M's mom was crazy jet-lagged, and I'll never forget the sight of her nodding off over dinner.

We had been to the Dongsishitiao and Tuanjiehu locations before, but walking into the Jingbaojie restaurant was a completely different experience. Apparently the Tuanjiehu restaurant is the oldest Dadong and decorated in more of a traditional Beijing style.

The Jingbaojie location, on the other hand, is significantly up-scaled, with ultra-modern decor (black and white leather sofas, you know what I mean). But I've never really been one to make a fuss over restaurant ambience.

Our host was well-acquainted with the menu, so she went ahead and ordered for us. As such, I don't have all the info on the dishes. Sucks for you.

We started off with a cold duck liver pate. Liver's always been hit or miss for me, mostly because I'm rarely baller enough to afford the good stuff. This one was nice, though, not mind blowing like foie gras that I've had elsewhere in the city, but full flavored without being too oily.

Next up, we had a bit of a fusion salad. Greens, parmesan, fruit (was that watermelon?), mustard grains and a lao Beijing vinegar dressing. This ish was fantastic, really light and refreshing. I'm of the opinion that mustard can go on just about any salad, though, so you'll have to decide if it's for you. Oddly enough, this was one of the highlights of the meal.

My cousin wanted beef, so we got Mongolian style iron plate beef with onions and peppers. Presentation was nice, the plate comes on a chunk of nearly-petrified wood. The beef was supposedly from Australia. To be perfectly honest, this dish was a bit of a miss. Granted, my expectations are kind of high, but only because it has so much potential. I mean, you're starting with thinly sliced quality beef, it's hard to go wrong with onions and peppers, and iron plate done right is usually freaking' delicious. Not sure what went wrong here, but I think the soy sauce marinade was too heavy for how thinly the beef was cut. Basically, the flavor of the beef didn't really come out, so the dominant experience was sodium overload.

I'm being a little harsh here, actually. It was a decent dish. Just too salty, and a tad disappointing given how well-suited it should have been for my particular preferences.

Squirrel fish was up next. (Not really sure why it's called that. Totally unappetizing.) The fish was done up in the northern sweet and sour style, with chunks of the fish bunched up along it for a nice presentation. This dish was good, but not amazing. Trust me, I'm as big a fan of sweet and sour fried stuff as the next American, just not on a quality fish. So yeah, it was sweet, it was sour, but I couldn't really taste the fish. Presentation was impeccable, though, and it's certainly the kind of dish that will impress guests.

We had a couple other vegetable dishes, which were pleasant. Stir-fried kongxincai, I think, which was fantastic, and some kind of kidney-shaped bean with crunchy dried shrimps. I'm usually not into crunchy dried shrimps (which is a bummer because those buggers find their way into the randomest dishes), but they did a lot for the dish in terms of flavor and texture, especially against the butter-smooth bean texture.

There was also this mysterious napa cabbage dish in a yellow soup sauce that was really delicious. I think it's like chicken broth with a Tibetan lavender or something.

But, of course, you're waiting to hear how the duck was. I was pleased with how their duck turned out this time around. It was definitely better than some of the other Da Dong ducks I've had. I tend to prefer Da Dong over Quanjude, partly because I can't get over the tourist trap feel of QJD.

I had some stellar pieces of duck skin, which I like to take with a dusting of white sugar and a hint of garlic sauce. But a couple of the pieces were on the smoky side and not as crispy as I'd like.

The duck meat wrapped in the tortilla with accoutrements was good, although since there were 7 of us sharing a duck and I was trying to be polite and not eat it all up, I had some trouble getting the duck to balance with all the fixings.

The duck broth was a nice change of pace. Gently and subtly flavored, while still preserving the smokey character of the duck.

Dessert was a bowl of black sesame porridge. A nice touch of restraint here in keeping it only lightly sweet. While my sweet-teeth cried out for a dose of sugar, the nuttiness of the sesame was able to take center stage without being crowded out by sweet.

So there you have it, that's what the populous thinks is the best Chinese restaurant in Beijing. All said, we had a splendid meal there, and my uncle's family was thoroughly impressed with the experience. I know I've been critical in this write-up, but that's just because Da Dong operates on such a high level. The next time someone important comes to town and wants Chinese food, I'll definitely consider taking them here. Especially if they're paying...

Oh, and be sure to make a reservation (though they're only allowed until 6:30, so one of our party had to hold the table and wait for the rest of us to get there), though, as this place draws crowds. And all the more so after picking up the title of Chinese Restaurant of the Year for the third year in a row.

Stay tuned, in coming weeks I'll write up the other 3 main winners. I'm going hardcore on you and turning this into a series.

Also, for you duck lovers, I'm hoping to make it out to Duck de Chine and Made in China in the near future to see how their ducks compare.

Deep fried bacon

2011-03-06T09:18:00.001+08:00

Every so often I have these moments where I arrive at a pinnacle in life. Where everything I've done up to that point pales in comparison. Where time stops, the clouds part and an angelic chorus proclaims in perfect four part harmony: "Nice one, dude."

I've put off writing this up because I knew I just couldn't do it justice.

But seeing as I've got 500 words left on my daily write over at 750words.com, I figured I might as well tackle this post.

So it all started with the Super Bowl. I invited some guys over to watch it, but with the time difference, kickoff was at 7 in the morning. Those of you who know me know that I'm extremely unathletic, and not the most avid fan of professional sports, but this time around I had something at stake. One time in college, I made scrambled eggs for Aaron Rodgers. So I figured this was my one shot at having my cooking win a Super Bowl (albeit 5 years after the fact).

In the interest of (awkward) full disclosure, I was actually more excited about making breakfast for the guys...Not sure what that says about me. Especially since I donned M's "Cihp and Adle" apron to do so.

But I digress. So the night before, I go by the supermarket and realize they no longer have the brand of bacon I like to buy out here (Maverick, for those playing along at home). For whatever reason, I'm just not a big fan of the bacon that Hormel sells in China. But I figure the Super Bowl is all about quantity over quality, so I buy the super pack of Hormel Value Bacon: 2.2 pounds of low-grade goodness.

Monday morning rolls around and I start frying up some bacon, but it's just me and a couple other guys because everyone else slept in. Hmm...

So I eat a few slices, the other guys eat some, and M eats some when she wakes up. But we've still got about a pound and a half left.

Throughout the following week, I cooked it up for breakfast (at one point I used it to make a sandwich using half a sesame bagel, half a rosemary garlic bagel, a fried egg, cream cheese, fresh parmesan and, of course, bacon. So glorious.) and lunch, but I was worried that I wouldn't finish it before it went bad.

(By the way, Beijingers should definitely try the rosemary garlic bagels from Hegel's Bagels. They're phenomenal.)

And then Saturday rolled around and I had a genius idea. We had scheduled a fry party for that night, and in the interest of frying something new every time, I decided to go ahead and try to make deep fried bacon.

I consulted this recipe, although at some point different battering processes start to run together in my brain. In fact, I think I used the dry mix leftover from my favorite wings recipe, which has a nice kick to it.

So here's the cliff notes recipe:
Step 1. Dip bacon in some kind of egg + milk mixture
Step 2. Dredge bacon in some kind of flour + spices mixture
Step 3. Deep fry for several minutes in 350 degree oil
Step 4. ????
Step 5. Profit!

The original recipe says to put it in the oven for extra crispiness, but I found that it was cooked through and crunchy enough just from the deep frying (as it should be).

Eating this, I could almost imagine my heart slowing down. Although, it can't be much worse than some of the other stuff I make (Amy, you're the resident nutritionist. Any thoughts?)

Fittingly, I had added bacon lard into the frying oil because I started out by trying Cook's Illustrated's Easier French Fries recipe, which turned out ok, but not crispy. Counterintuitively, that recipe has you start with the fries in cold oil and gradually increase the heat.

I like to lightly salt anything savory that comes out of the deep fryer, but this might be one case where I'd advise against it.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. Here's how the deep fried bacon came out:

You'll have to trust me on this one. It tastes better than it looks :).

Not sure where to go from here. Although, I did come up with the crazy idea for "deep fried deep fryer"...hehehe, maybe next time.

And yes, in case you were wondering, this is a shameless attempt at going viral.

The writing on the wall

2011-03-05T15:42:00.000+08:00

On my flight to Beijing the other week, I noticed something interesting in the lavatory. Someone had taken a sharpie and done everyone the favor of writing onto the walls and doors the Chinese translations of various signs. I wondered if the United staff had taken the liberty to mod the plane themselves, or whether it had been some vigilante had taken it upon themselves to add some functional graffiti.

I had the same crew, similar plane on the way back, but early on I noticed that the sharpie characters were missing in the bathroom on this flight. Could it be that eastbound flights on United have the handwritten Chinese translations but flights originating in the U.S. and headed to China don't? That might be a bit paranoid of me and my sample size is small.

Halfway through the flight, though, while waiting for the toilet, I noticed the occupied sign turn off, so I headed to the lavatory. When I got to the door, I was surprised to find it rattling heavily with the vacant/occupied lock flashing back and forth.

I pushed the door in, and a flushed middle-aged Chinese man emerged from the toilet.

Poor guy. Those lavatory doors sure are weird contraptions.

Definitely made me think, though. We're going to be seeing a lot more bilingual English/Chinese signs in coming years. And signs that don't catch up with the times will continue to face the wrath of the sharpie.

Blood, Sweat and Tears (aka Babysitting)

2011-02-28T22:54:00.000+08:00

I had a sneaking suspicion when I told my brother and parents that I could come home for the wedding that I'd be doing a lot of babysitting. That suspicion was confirmed when my mom told me several weeks ago "You'll be doing a lot of babysitting."

Normally that's fine. I've got nothing against most kids. But this weekend, it was me and my cousin going up against three 3 year olds, two 5 year olds, a 7 year old and a 9 year old. Given that I'm not the biggest fan of babysitting ratios where the kids outnumber the adults, this was sheer madness.

Friday afternoon, we had some help from Pixar (Bug's Life to be more specific), but by the time the rest of my family got back we'd had one inexplicable bloody nose, a bumped head, several very poopy pants and a gallon worth of tears. Not bad for a day's work, eh?

Saturday morning was equally exciting, especially since several of the kids didn't get much sleep. In the end, though, everyone made it to the wedding intact, give or take a pair of socks.

So depending on how you look at it, the weekend was either hands-on training or demonstrative birth control. I've often said that the worst part about life overseas is not being there to watch my nieces and nephews grow up. This dose ought to get me through until the next time we fly home.

And the exciting part is: our family will keep growing, as it's highly unlikely that my siblings and I are done having kids (especially M and I, since we haven't even gotten started yet)...

The pathetic state of my mediated life

2011-02-22T16:00:00.002+08:00

My first morning back in the States, I decided to head to the church I used to go to in high school. Which, by the way, made me surprisingly depressed when I realized that it'd been almost 10 years since I last went; I'm getting old.

On my way out, I noticed that my phone's battery had died from looking for China Mobile service all night, so I plugged it in and left it. Also, I had left M with our US debit card, so all I had on me was a wallet slightly full of RMB, a water bottle, my Bible and my dad's keys.

I really enjoyed the service, but after church let out, I walked the new sprawling suburban megachurch campus feeling strangely alone. I did get a chance to look up my old pastor, who's still there. But perhaps because of my Chinese perm (see last post) he didn't recognize me at first.

After church, I got back in the car and started heading home until I realized that my parents were at their own church service so no one would be home for 3 hours, I had no phone, and to make things worse, I couldn't really think of anyone I knew in a 30 mile radius who would want to hang out with me just then anyway. I thought about grabbing lunch but I was (uncharacteristically) not hungry, so I decided to catch a movie at a nearby theater.

I bought a ticket for a movie showing in half hour, bought some snacks and then realized I didn't know what to do with myself while I waited. I asked the ticket-taker if I could go in the theater and she told me to wait until they finished cleaning. Several minutes later, I was alone in the theater.

Instinctively, I reached for my non-existent iPhone as a diversion. I was so desperate, I even looked for my Bible (:P), but I'd left it in the car. And then a gripping fear set in: I had to wait half an hour with nothing to keep me interested. Which is kind of funny because the movie itself was just a way to kill time anyway.

One of my friends once told me that my enneagram type has a basic fear of being bored. Given how spastic I am, I wasn't that surprised, and Sunday only served to further confirm the fact.

Here's the thing, though: I know I'm not alone in this. Frankly, we're a generation of bored-ophobes. Media has come to rule, and even worse to actually mediate, our lives. We've got TVs on the subways and buses, smartphones with apps and perpetual connectivity, the ubiquitous book, magazine, newspaper, or snack in our bags.

I'm not trying to be a Luddite here, just kind of verbally processing how dangerous it is that we're addicted to media, that we demand constant entertainment and are all too often appeased in those demands.

When we're completely honest, we're running from ourselves, medicating our pain and escaping from reality. These days, unfiltered reality isn't good enough for us and we have to augment it. There's all this talk about 3D being the next big frontier, but I think sometimes we forget that real friggin' life is already in 3D. Technically, aren't we in like 4D?

This ish has become so pervasive that my parents have 4G Android smartphones and while their downtime away with their unlimited data plans. Let that sink in a bit. I'm hella proud of my parents for riding this new wave of technology, but I never thought I'd see my dad streaming YouTube videos on a smartphone on the massage chair he bought off Craigslist. That's just straight up Twilight Zone.

And if you haven't realized it already, I'm the biggest hypocrite here. I started this blog post while Gchatting with M about it and watching my brother rehearse his wedding dance using Xbox Kinect and Dance Central.

When I realized I was bored in that movie theater and how foreign and frightening that experience felt for me, my first response was to tweet it. Haha. And that's how I knew I was really bored. Because I couldn't even tweet how bored I was.

So while this is a post about how sad it is to be bored, it's more a post about how sad it is how sad it is to be bored. I'm not saying the solution is to get rid of technology, Lord knows I rely on the mass production and consumption of media and content for a living.

But it's probably about time we got back to some of the ancient disciplines of silence and solitude followed by a dose of old-fashioned human to human interaction.

Back in the US of A

2011-02-20T02:44:00.001+08:00

Hello from the San Francisco airport. I'm on a brief jaunt to the States for my brother's wedding.

Perhaps it's because I let the hair stylist perm my hair. Or maybe it was the Chinese grandma sitting next to me that I was helping out. Or was it because I wore my sweats onto the plane? For whatever reason, the matronly flight attendant on my United flight totally thought I was a Chinese citizen. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But when I asked for the English/U.S. citizen customs forms, she definitely gave me an incredulous look.

I guess I'm flattered. Hopefully it's more of a Hudson Taylor kind of thing than that of my old college floormate.

Anyway, it's good to be back home, if even for a short time. Excited for my brother to get married (finally). I realized a few days ago that him getting married will mean that our family is (hopefully) done choosing people to add to the family. (Unless anyone decides to adopt?)

I'm really happy for him. I think they're a great match and she's going to add a lot to the family. Not that you can trust what I say here because he'll probably read this.

Despite the fact that it's pouring rain here in San Francisco, the approach was beautiful. I love our life in Beijing, but life in California is pretty frickin' sweet too.

The buzz wore off later when I was standing in the security line and it struck me how miserable everyone looked. It was bad. I guess an airport security line is just one of those places where no one actually wants to be, no matter what country you're in.

Beijing's fourth best deal

2011-02-09T22:53:00.001+08:00

Life in Beijing has a few perqs. Sure, we may be in the midst of a 100 day drought. And sometimes when I blow my nose, the snot comes out black. But forget about all that stuff for a moment while I tell you about Beijing's fourth best deal.

Inevitably, some of you tricksters will want to know what Beijing's first through third best deals are, so I'll just get them out of the way. (survey says…*ding*)

1. Domestic help, affectionately known as an Ayi. The going rate for an Ayi here in Beijing is, in my opinion, far and away the best deal in Beijing. We recently began teaching our Ayi how to make all sorts of stuff like pizza dough, cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies, so expect me to gain about 20 pounds when she gets back from her Spring Festival break.

2. Public transportation. Using a public transport card, you can get around on Beijing buses for as little as 6 cents and go anywhere on the subway for about 30 cents (except the airport which will set you back $3.50). That makes BART feel like a luxury brand. A really ugly luxury brand stuck in the 1980s that reeks of vomit and urine.

3. Hand-pulled noodles. Now that I know that you have to go 10 rounds with a lump of dough to produce a bowl or two of hand-pulled noodles, the $1 bowls of noodles at my local green-awning Lanzhou beef noodle soup joint seem like even more of a deal.

Now on to our main event. Beijing's fourth best deal.

4. Mondays at Flamme. Element Fresh chef Jeffrey Powell had a brilliant idea. Let's have all the quality of Element Fresh without the burden of all that healthy mumbo jumbo. And thus Flamme Steakhouse was born.

For a limited time, the house steak (98 rmb for 150g, 138 for 260) is buy one, get one free on Monday and Tuesday. Plus, Happy Hour goes all night on Mondays so drinks are 50 percent off.

In a shameless plug on M's behalf, this month's copy of The Beijinger has a coupon for a free drink at Flamme on page 33.

I've had varying quality levels on the steaks during the few times I've been, but considering how hard it is to get a decent affordable steak in this city, I'm more than happy. Depending on how you look at it, the fact that the steaks arrive in about 5 minutes time could be a really good thing, or a really bad thing...

And honestly, I'd keep coming back just for the sides. Their classic fries are the best fries I've had in Beijing, and if you need more fries, you can always double up with their garlic parmesan skinny fries. The creamed spinach and squash roasted with butter and sage are serious tastiness, but be forewarned, they're definitely not guilt-free.

If you can handle another dose of deep fry, the zucchini chips are a great deal. 28 kuai for a big bowl, but they're better if you share them with a group.

So the next time you're sick of riding around on the subway eating noodles with your Ayi, get off at Tuanjiehu and head over to Flamme in the Village.

Ichthyotherapy, or the one where fish eat my feet

2011-01-24T15:01:00.001+08:00

Since I'd never been to Thailand before, I decided to spend a few extra days in Bangkok after the conference finished up.

I've been pretty lazy the last few days, spending a good amount of them sitting by the pool reading in between stuffing my face with all the foods I can't find in Beijing, but by evening, I'm ready for an adventure.

When I spotted a fish tank in the front of a nearby spa, I knew what had to be done. Some of my Korean friends have raved about these fish that eat off all your dead skin (I should add a gross disclaimer right about now). The thought of fish nibbling away at my feet freaks me out, but I've always been (disturbingly) fascinated by the prospect of such an elegant exfoliating solution.

So my friend Nate and I decided to take the "plunge" last night. For a paltry $4, we were able to stick our feet in this tank for 15 minutes. They have a 30 minute option, but I didn't think I could handle it.

I'll be straight up. That was possibly the longest 15 minutes of my life. There's nothing particularly painful about it all, but it's just kind of creepy and uncomfortable. The worst is when the fish go for between the toes, or nibble at the cuticle.

But don't get me wrong, I don't regret it. Especially now that my feet are silky smooth. Kind of. Actually I probably need hours more treatment for the little guys to eat away at all the calluses I've built up over the years.

Let me make this educational for you, since that's how I was raised.

I did a little bit of wiki-research to look up the name of the fish. Apparently they're called Doctor Fish. The scientific name is Garra Rufa, and in "non-medical contexts" (sounds ominous) the fish is called the reddish log sucker (even more ominous).

Apparently the 'treatment,' sometimes known as ichthyotherapy, is banned in several U.S. states because cosmetology regulations require "tools" to be discarded after use, but it's too expensive to throw away the fish after one use.

I try not to think about the sanitation of it all, though. Kind of creepy to think that some fish was just eating someone else's skin and now gets to eat yours...

Tune in next week when I kick things up a notch and try leeching and medieval bloodletting. Or maybe I'll go all the way and go for a shark massage.

Bangkok Safe

2011-01-16T21:26:00.000+08:00

You know how I said in my last post that my life was ridiculously boring? (which actually isn't that fair. Life in Beijing is very rarely boring, though often ridiculous. It's probably more accurate to say that life had been routinely interesting)

Things just took a turn for the un-routinely interesting.

I arrived in Bangkok last night to play bass at a conference that some of my close friends are attending. This is my first trip to Thailand, and so far, I've been having a fantastic experience.

I forget how much of a home Beijing has become for me until I'm in a truly foreign environment. Most people can communicate in English really well here, so language hasn't really been a problem, but it's the little unfamiliar things like having no clue what the currency is supposed to look like and getting confused about how much everything is worth. Or forgetting that they drive on the other side of the road and almost stepping into the street in the way of an oncoming tuk-tuk. Those remind me that I'm out of my element, and they remind me that these kinds of new experiences add a new dimension to life.

Bangkok is, of course, notorious, but it's also a really vibrant urban space that's got a lot going for it. I'm here until the 25th, so I'll try and check-in periodically with updates on life here.

Clout

2011-01-11T16:38:00.000+08:00

M and I recently sent out a year-end letter, at the end of which we promised to post more often.

(On a more random note, have I ever mentioned how much I dislike the word "blog"? Not really sure why, but I think I believe that I'd blog more if it wasn't called blogging. And yes, I am aware of how absurd that sounds.)

So anyway, I've been trying to figure out what to post about, but the fact of the matter is, I feel like my life's been ridiculously boring lately.

Earlier today, while wandering around online, I stumbled across Sarah Lacy's interview with the CEO of a somewhat new startup called Klout. Honestly, Joe Fernandez's lengthy and unclear responses have me a little worried for the company, but I was intrigued enough to check out their site and see what my Klout score was.

It's basically a complex algorithm that measures what kind of reach one has on social media: Twitter, Facebook, etc. I scored an embarrassingly low 11/100. I can certainly chalk up my poor showing to the fact that living in China means that Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger are all blocked. But I spend most of my online time on a VPN, so that's not really an excuse.

To my credit, I'm actually trying to limit my reach. Recently, my personal Twitter account got linked to some posts I made for work, and now some of the aggregator sites have taken to retweeting my work posts with an @mention.

I still haven't quite figured out how I feel about that. I'd probably rather not have random readers perusing my resume on LinkedIn, or checking out pictures of me on Facebook. But, on the other hand, it's free publicity.

My privacy settings weren't really a huge issue when I was a 'virtual' nobody on the Internet. In fact, there was a certain exhibitionist thrill to the public aspect of early social media. I could tell the whole world what I had for breakfast, with nary a thought for who was listening (and whether they actually cared).

But that thrill's fading fast. M's going to be blogging more for her work too, so we're both left a little unclear about what this space, and others like it, will be for us in the future.

Obviously, we'd love more readers. There's a part of me (probably larger than I'd like to admit), that selfishly writes in order to be read.

But, I'm apprehensive about continuing to just fling content into cyberspace for any rando to read.

The bright side of all this is that, if my Klout score is any indication, I don't actually have to worry about too many people reading this.

Fried Mashed Potatoes

2010-11-16T17:59:00.005+08:00

A couple of weeks ago, we had another fry party in honor of B. Chew's birthday (some of you may remember him as the Noodle Master from a previous post).

We reprised classic buffalo wings, tried to make some fried cheese (disaster), and fried up some garlic because the man is a garlic Fiend (yes, capital F). And, because he was the original mastermind behind our first Bloomin' Onion, we fried up one of those as his birthday cake.

Late in the night, after several tries, we got to the really good stuff: Fried Mashed Potatoes. Originally, these were supposed to be a cross between the potato puffs over at Gregoire in Berkeley and the potato balls at a nearby Dai restaurant.

I went into this kind of blind, so it took the collective smarts of M. Dou, Marissa, and Jeremy to pull this together. Eddy gets a shout-out too, since I pulled from his "Heart Attack Mashed Potatoes" recipe.

Here's what we ended up with:

Fried Mashed Potatoes
AKA: Fried Heart Attack, Tater Tots on Steroids

Mashed potatoes:
(adapted from Alton Brown's potato recipe)
8 medium sized potatoes
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of buttermilk, (1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice)
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons of butter
3 bulbs of garlic
1/8 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 stalks of green onions, chopped
Salt and Pepper (to taste)

Optional:
8 strips of bacon (pan-fried, shredded)
1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese

Breading:
Eggs
Milk
Breadcrumbs

Wash, peel, and cube the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces. Put them in a pot with just enough water, cover, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove the lid and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft.

Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Take the bulbs of garlic cut the tops off so that each clove has the top part missing. Wrap with aluminum foil but leave the tops open with some extra foil at the top so you can fold it down to cover the garlic. Drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt over the garlic. Roast the garlic in the oven until soft, approximately 1 hour. If the tops begin to burn or dry out, close the foil over the top.

Once the potatoes are soft, drain and return to the pot over medium heat for a couple minutes to remove some of the water moisture. Turn the heat off and mash. As you mash, slowly add the milk, buttermilk, cream, and butter until incorporated. Grind in some salt and pepper to taste.

When the garlic is finished roasting, remove from oven and let cool for several minutes. While the garlic is still warm, unwrap the foil, and use paper towels or gloves to hold the back of the bulb and squeeze the garlic into a bowl. If the garlic is finished, it should come out like toothpaste. Only more awesome. Add the grated parmesan cheese (and a bit of butter if you'd like), and mix.

When the potatoes are creamy and mashed, you can add the garlic and green onions (and bacon and cheese) and mix until incorporated.

Fill up a deep fryer or large pot with peanut oil and heat to 350 degrees F. Here in Beijing, we use the aluminum fry pot and basket that our small group got me for my birthday a couple years ago.

Crack some eggs into a bowl, then beat them until the yolk and white are combined. Add a couple splashes of milk. Pour a generous helping of breadcrumbs into a bowl.

Spoon out the potato mixture and roll into individual balls or logs. Dip in the egg mixture, then roll in the breadcrumbs until covered. Set aside on a plate until you have enough for a batch.

Gently slide the potato balls/logs into the fryer, fry for a couple minutes, then roll them over and fry the other side for a couple minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack to let drip, then lightly salt.

Let cool for a couple minutes, but serve while hot. Best served with Marissa's Roasted Red Pepper sauce.

Disclaimer:
By way of warning, I don't have any nutritional info for you, but I'm pretty sure these are about 1000 calories each, so eat at your own risk!

The Long Winter (Maybe?)

2010-10-25T23:26:00.000+08:00

One of the first things that Beijingers (native or ex-pat) will tell you when you arrive and begin the inevitable complaining about the weather (which, depending on when you arrive, will most likely be freakishly warm or freakishly cold): "You're going to love October. It's really nice. Oh and May, May is beautiful."

And it was only after several months of hearing this line that I began to freak out. "Wait a minute," I realized, "You're telling me that I live in a city that has only two good months of weather out of the year? How is that any comfort at all?"

The sad truth of the matter is it's only a slight exaggeration (September's actually quite nice, and so is April). Last year, the accuracy of this statement turned out to be extremely uncanny. After an excellent October (which may or may not have been aided by the hullabaloo of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Republic), a snowstorm erupted shortly after the clock ticked midnight on November 1. To be fair, a few flakes came down the evening of the 31st, but all of us awoke from our post-Halloween revelries (which involved tin foil robots, giant iPods and fried bananas) to a blanket of snow. So yeah, October turned out to be a nice month. Followed by at least 5 months of bitter cold.

Which brings me to the current situation. October has not been a particularly nice month this year, which has me extremely worried. Multiple Chinese friends have told us (probably because they all heard it on the same state-owned radio station) that this winter promises to be the coldest winter in a thousand years.

Wait...What??? In the words of my friend Kip, "Like anyone can even know that..."

Last winter, which was itself a doozy, was the coldest winter in 50-something years. Which leaves me wondering just how cold the other 940-something years before that were.

I'm reminded: "the first stage of grief is denial." So now that it's starting to dip below freezing while we're still solidly in the month of October, I'm starting to get a little freaked out. Basically, aside from leather leg and hand warmers for our electric scooter, there's not a whole lot more clothing that I had planned on bundling up in when winter came (I've already donned the thermals and my down jacket). I'm going to have to get creative, though, since we've got at least another 30 something degrees fahrenheit to drop on our way to spring.

Ahh, that China smell

2010-08-18T12:50:00.003+08:00

You always forget that certain places have smells, until you go away and come back to it. Beijing smells like smoke, steaminess, and mothballs, with the occasional whiff of super-fruity shampoo. (When we first arrived at LAX, it smelled like the ocean. No joke!)

Rolling back into Beijing was surreal. I think I still have to come to terms with the reality that this foreign place is our life for now. This is where we work, eat, play, sleep. And, as Yale would say the Tick would say, this is where we keep all our stuff. (Ok, that's not entirely true. The bulk of our stuff is in Josh's parents' attic.)

Point being, I'm a bit of a sad bear for traveling over 6,000 miles -- away from beloved family and friends -- to arrive at the place we call home.

Then again, Josh and I are really excited to play out this next season of our lives. New jobs, new projects, new friends... there's a lot to look forward to.

And, is it just me, or do things move extra fast here? In the two hours that we've been back, it started sprinkling, alarms are going off downstairs leaving a bewildered and somewhat embarrassed security guard standing outside his wailing booth, my office shifted its schedule on me, and I might visit a migrant community center later this afternoon, then meet some friends for dinner. Hopefully that will force us to fend off our jet lag.

Wish Josh luck this next week as he comforts me through inevitable homesickness. He is a patient man.

This (6 week) American Life

2010-08-05T00:59:00.002+08:00

Yikes, it's been a while. I guess we've been too busy eating and playing (and working) to update.

Just about every day, Marilyn looks up at the sky and exclaims, "It's so blue!" I'm pretty sure that's how it's supposed to look, we just forget that while living in Beijing.

Living in Beijing, it's odd that one of the things we crave most (other than nacho cheese flavor doritos and sour patch kids) is Chinese food. Beijing's style of food just isn't how we grew up. I'm used to southern Cantonese food and M's used to the Taiwan style. Anyway, it's sadly ironic.

Another odd thing is seeing friends we met in Beijing who live in California now. It's a total trip. But awesome, since we have a secret plot to move all our non-California friends out here so that we can have everybody in one place when we're ready to come back. Muhahaha.

My immediate family has grown to 17 people, what with significant others and kids. I can't believe we all fit into my parents house for a family reunion. It was definitely sensory overload having 7 nieces and nephews running around the house, but I do miss those kids a lot. When asked what we miss most about America while we're in China, watching our nieces and nephews grow up is usually the first answer out of my mouth. Then Berkeley Bowl.

During the family reunion, my mom had one of her friends come by to take some family photos. I wouldn't normally post the link, but this kids are just so darn cute.

Well, we're up in the Bay Area now, that mysterious land of wonder and delight. We've got about a week and a half left, and then it's back to Beijing.

First impressions

2010-07-08T21:37:00.000+08:00

It's great not having to be on a VPN to post on blogger. Although I guess that's mostly psychological since I spend most of my time online in Beijing just automatically logged onto the VPN.

A couple random occurrences since we arrived:
5.9 richter scale earthquake within hours of arrival. Oh California.
Opened my suitcase to find a never-before-seen Chinese knife inside. Hrmmmm.....???

Both of those really aggravated the sense of sur-reality that we were experiencing.

In keeping with a California tradition, we got In'n'Out burgers on the way back from the airport. M's mom wanted to stop at Trader Joe's too, and we ran around the store wide-eyed. I laughed maniacally at the guacamole prices and bought some. Looking forward to that creamy goodness.

Here we come!

2010-07-07T08:16:00.000+08:00

Happy Fourth of July. We celebrated with a delightful lunch at NOLA Cafe, which serves up some mighty fine New Orleans style food. I'm not really sure why, but I've always had a thing for southern cookin'. Then we headed over to the Silk Market to do some last minute shopping, because what's more American than being a consumer? :P i've mentioned it before, but it's actually quite fun celebrating the Fourth abroad, even if it does make us a bit homesick.

But that's not a problem right now. Because we're all packed up and ready to go for our first trip back to the US since we got here. It's still all pretty surreal, but we can't wait to see all of you. Unless you're a random reader that we don't know, then we'll just have to keep it impersonal.

Touch-able Anticipation

2010-06-08T00:43:00.007+08:00

I'm writing this with my auto-refresh windows loaded up. Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference is about to kick off with a keynote speech from Steve Jobs. It's always weird following this stuff from the other side of the world. Back when I was working in California, I'd get in to work and load up the live feeds while opening up shop. Instead, it's 1 am and I'm trying not to fall asleep while waiting for these feeds to refresh.

My predictions?
The next iPhone? Already leaked.
Magic Trackpad? No big surprise.

I think we're about to really see that Touch is here to stay. If the Magic Mouse wasn't enough of an indicator, the Magic Trackpad is one of the last bridges between touch as a mobile feature and full integration of touch into the Mac product line.

The crown jewel? It's not ready for primetime, but it looks to me like the groundwork is being laid for a Macbook Pro Touch. A fully featured laptop with a touch interface, fully backwards compatible with the App Store, either as emulation or through a secondary chipset.

The iPad has had an overwhelmingly positive response once it made it out into the wild, but this is just the beginning. Steve Jobs has really embraced the Clarke-sian law that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," as their recent products and marketing campaigns have touted the new magical qualities of their products. Apple is hot right now, they've got this fierce momentum, and Steve is the Wizard. The common thread in their magic rhetoric? Multi-Touch. Magic mouse, Macbooks, iPad? Revolutionary interfaces where the layers between user and interaction are being ripped away.

Well, Steve's started up, so sit back and enjoy the show.

(insert awkward touch innuendo to conclude)

What Could Have Been

2010-05-22T10:51:00.000+08:00

These are the descriptions and their corresponding images for the different options available at China Prom. I wanted the images creepy, sinister in their un-reality; Ingrid succeeded beyond what I could have hoped.

The Clean Cut

I know what you’re thinking: “Cop Out!”, but hear me out. Maybe for me, normal is the new weird. A good many of you have never actually seen me in person with a normal haircut, and some of you have only known me with a mustache (and for that I’m sorry). Are you sick of being creeped out by my Fu Man Chu? Now you can do something about it. On behalf of my wife Marilyn, I’m giving you the chance to vote for a ‘normal’ hairstyle.

The Super Bowl
This cut was inspired by Lin Yu Chun, who gained Internet notoriety after belting out a stirring rendition of “I Will Always Love You” on a Taiwanese talent show. There’s always been something powerful and moving about the symmetry of the classic bowl cut, but Lin Yu Chun has updated it with a modern swoop along the temple ending in an angular sideburn, boldly defying the gentle curves of the bowl.

The Friar Tuck

In homage to feudal piety, the Friar is in the same family of the bowl cut, only inverted; more accurately, it’s a bowl within a bowl. A small rice bowl and a razor is all it takes to prove my faithfulness. In fact, I’m pretty positive that the good Friar uses the self-same bowl to form his shiny pate as he does to help himself to seconds at the Monastery shi tang. I am not ashamed.

The Statue of Liberty

Back in the fall when I did a vote-off on our blog, the Statue of Liberty came in second place behind the Page Boy Bob. It’s a daring tribute to Democracy and Lady Liberty, involving shaving off all but the bangs, which are then spiked into pointy sunbursts of Freedom. By voting, you are waiving your right to sue, should I accidentally poke one of your eyes out.

Front to Back

How’s this for symmetry? I found this online and thought to myself: “I’ve got the ‘stache for it, I’ve got the glasses, this cut was made for me.” That might not be 100% accurate, but having a mirror image face on the back of my head promises to be entertaining. The level of detail on this man’s head is minimal, but I’m confident that the right stylist could really work some magic. You won’t be able to tell if I’m coming or going.

For a Good Cause

2010-05-11T23:02:00.001+08:00

Some of our friends here have started an annual benefit event called China Prom, which is exactly what it sounds like. For all of us Peter Pan style 20/30 somethings who are stuck in the past, we get to live out the nostalgia of yesteryear. And raise some money for a good cause.

The main cause this year was The Starfish Project, and since I totally believe in what they do, I decided to auction something off for the event.

As you can see, I auctioned off a crazy hairstyle, which I have to wear around town for a week and a half. Some other guy online in a green turtle-neck did this and I liked it so much that I made it a choice for the auction. It was a pretty close race between what I like to call the Front to Back and Evan's personal suggestion from back in the fall: The Statue of Liberty.

I asked Ingrid to help photoshop some samples of the different hairstyles, but I'll leave those to a different post. For now, enjoy my double face.

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

Hand-pulled noodles and Niuroumian

2010-04-23T16:13:00.002+08:00

M's birthday was last month but she had the misfortune of her birthday falling on the day before she took the HSK, the Chinese language proficiency test. There was a bit of drama about it all, as the test had just switched to a new format and there wasn't any clear information about what the test would be like. Amid all the stress, we were trying to decide what to do to celebrate when I came up with a great idea: Noodle Party. For those of you who don't know, M is crazy, yes I mean actually insane, about noodles. She gets it from her parents, who are also crazy about noodles. We ended up having the party on the day after, since we could celebrate her finishing the HSK (and consequently her M.A.). (UPDATE: We just found out yesterday, she passed! Cue the 'Pomp and Circumstance')

In keeping with our desire to learn how to make our favorite comfort Chinese foods from scratch, we decided to try our hand at Niu rou mian (Beef noodle soup). We happily invited 20 of our closest friends here in Beijing, then promptly realized we were in way over our heads, as is so often the case. That week, while she crammed for the HSK and made sure to get enough rest, we also had to learn how to make our own noodles and niuroumian from scratch. Personally, I'm a bit suspicious of all of this, because somehow between the learning and then the leftovers, M got to eat noodles everyday for almost two weeks, which is just about her own private heaven on earth.

Luke Rymarz was a huge help in learning how to pull noodles. I appreciate how the engineering background in him really comes through in his recipes and their corresponding recipes. Ironically, we had a hard time finding flour with the right gluten ratios. I asked several old ladies at supermarkets, but they seemed surprised that we wanted to pull our own noodles. I find it strange that the (much-contested) inventors of noodles have so relegated old-fashioned noodle pulling to the work of street vendors and high-class tourist traps. The one thing I learned about pulling this kind of noodle? (Cue Kungfu Panda Canto-Duck accent:)The secret ingredient is(/Cue Kungfu Panda Canto-Duck accent)...elbow grease. Seriously, these noodles take like an hour to knead, and all that for just two bowls. I'll grant that they're delicious, but if you count labor cost, they're crazy expensive. There's got to be a better way (other than chemical additives that increase stretchiness), since the typical bowl of noodles here sells for about a dollar. I'll get back to you on that one.

The night of M's party, several of our friends showed up early to get a headstart on kneading. Since, well we knew we'd knead the help...

N, being the stud that he is, finished first. Not sure who that creepy guy next to him is, though.

For the first half the night, M was our resident pulling expert. Somehow, I don't have the precision necessary to keep dozens of strings of dough separate. Mine would just stick together like a horribly maimed dough harp.

Like the apron? I found this green beauty at a local market. "Cpih and Adle", those crazy rascals, were favorites of M growing up.

We almost always forget to take decent pictures of the food, since we're usually doing way too many other things at once (that and we've already wolfed it down it by the time we remember); this is one of the only shots we have of the niuroumian and the hand-pulled noodles. Trust me, this was a lot better than it looks.

For the niuroumian, M got some help from a couple of posts over at Eat Drink & Be Merry. Mr. B Merry doesn't exactly post ratios for his sauces and spices, so we just splashed them in at random. We're hoping to go back and make it soon, though, with measurements; we can perfect this madness.

We had our hands full that night, what with all the kneading, boiling, and cooking that needed to be done, thankfully, a true noodle master showed up:

This man right here (who you might also recognize as the genius behind the bloomin' onion) is a straight up noodle shifu. He walked in, took charge, and laid down the law on these unsuspecting balls of dough. In no time at all, he was able to get all but one of the balls of dough ready for noodle-pulling. Then, in a flurry of motion, a whirlwind of ninja-like proportions, he pulled them into awesomness.

As for the one wayward batch of dough? That was made by our friend H, who rather than use our newly purchased (and specifically for this purpose, I might add) gram scale, decided to dagai ('approximate') it. It was a sad day when we had to throw the 'dagaimian' in the trash, but alas, they were beyond saving, even by the Noodlemaster. It felt oddly like putting the runt of the litter down; M might have actually shed a tear over the loss of noodle life.

CC was ever so kind as to make a birthday trifle, and CH had the foresight to purchase these beautiful candles. Fortunately, several people were so carbed out on the noodles they couldn't finish the trifle. More for me!

I'm really bad at estimating food amounts. At the end of the night, only about a 1/3 of the 2 pots of niuroumian and 1/3 of the gigantic bowl of zhajiangmian had been used up. Hence, the week of leftovers.

The thing we had the most left of was the braised beef shoulder (I drank all the broth first), which went really well with some fresh cilantro and green onions, a drizzle of crackling hot oil, and some freshly ground sea salt. M also had the good sense to make green onion pancakes to wrap it in, and we gave ourselves contented pats on back and belly.

The niuroumian is actually surprisingly easy to make, especially seeing as we got several meals out of it. The main thing is it has to simmer for several hours to really be any good; definitely worth it, but takes a bit of planning. Alternatively, I've heard that housewives in Taiwan put their niuroumian in crock pots, spend the day out (most likely playing mahjong), and come home to a one pot wonder of beefy goodness. We'll get back to you on that one.

There's a Chinese tradition of eating one long noodle for birthday (you know, the longer the noodle, the longer the life). However, in a sick twist, the really long noodles at restaurants are supposedly made with glue-like (potentially life-shortening) additives. Here's hoping that our homemade noodles will score us some points on the longevity front. After all: so many noodles, so little time.

Happy Birthday M!

Missed Opportunity

2010-04-16T13:12:00.001+08:00

All this week, I kept passing a funny sign hanging in front of a hotel. I took M by it to take a picture this afternoon and it was gone. I am forlorn.

It said:

"Warmly Welcome The Great Bustard Specialists"

Apparently, the Great Bustard is a bird species, so there's nothing wrong with the English. I just think it's a funny sentence.

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

Apple's iPad: Undiscussed X-Factors (sample post)

2010-03-30T00:08:00.000+08:00

(I recently wrote up a couple sample posts to apply to an Apple news blog that I read. Since the iPad has reportedly started shipping, I thought I'd put this up.)

The collective sigh of disappointment in response to the announcement of the Apple iPad was made even more dramatic by the fact that so many Apple fans had been almost literally holding their breath during the several weeks prior. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that the build-up to the announcement was one of the most hyped product announcements in recent years, and it should come as no surprise that the aftermath of disappointment was a proportional backlash. The pre-release rumors of Steve Jobs declaring that the iPad “will be the most important thing [he’s] ever done” only made expectations even more hopelessly unrealistic. Undoubtedly, many among the Mac community, upon watching the keynote, balked at this extraordinary claim. However, the verdict is still out, and not just because the iPad has yet to be released. If, as many critics suggest, the iPad is only iterative, and not the “magical and revolutionary” that many had hoped for, then Jobs’ “most important” comment could be viewed as being about much more than a simple 1.0 product release. It suggests the imminent launch of a next generation platform in personal computing--one with the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with media and the internet.

Now that the acerbic tweets and vehement blog posts have subsided (some) and the early adopters are placing their pre-orders, it’s a good time to step back and look at two aspects of the iPad that could potentially open up the possibilities of this new device. These are aspects that have been largely neglected in much of the post-announcement commentary within the blogosphere, but are certainly worth taking a closer look at.

The Homebrew Community

I’ll start this section by acknowledging that, of course, it’s a gamble to count a homebrew community as a feature when there’s no evidence to support that homebrew on the iPad will even be possible. However, given the iPad’s architectural and software similarities to the iPhone, it isn't much of a leap. In fact, the iPhone is a perfect example of the value-add that a homebrew community can offer. When the iPhone was first released, it had regional, carrier, and software restrictions that severely limited its functionality. The homebrew community was able to remove many of these restrictions early on and open up previously unavailable features of the device: videorecording, tweakable system settings, custom skins, and limited third-party app multitasking, to name a few. The App Store wasn’t even available until over a year after the release of the original iPhone, so it was the homebrew community that first supported the platform, well before the current gold rush of developers and their apps. The iPad is definitely lacking—Adobe Flash, multitasking, and a camera are some of the chief complaints among bloggers and commenters alike. While the Flash issue seems unlikely to be resolved by homebrewers, it’s possible that the absence of multitasking and a camera can be resolved by some creative developers. Hypothetically speaking, what if the dock port was enabled to accept a plug-and-play webcam? It’s certainly an inelegant solution, but it’s the kind of temporary fix that can help the iPad platform get off the ground while we all await the seemingly inevitable: an on-board (front-facing?) webcam and other possible revision 2.0 additions.

App Sync

Another feature of the iPad that has been passed over in discussions of the product is the ability to automatically sync all of one's previously downloaded or purchased apps for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Of course, this hardly seems revolutionary, but the more I think about it, the more necessary it seems. On a broader note, Apple’s decision to make the iPad compatible with all App Store apps was a carefully calculated move. Creating a whole new platform from scratch would have segmented the market and risked the iPad going the way of the Newton (which might just be Steve Jobs’ greatest fear about the iPad). If developers aren’t willing to risk bringing their apps to the new platform, the early adopter demographic might fizzle out, effectively stalling the iPad before it ever had a chance. With full support of the App Store, the iPad will have a fully robust platform available right out of the box, with iPad-specific apps that take advantage of the device’s unique strengths sure to follow not far behind. Back in September 2009, the app-sharing website Appsfire ran the numbers on a small sampling of their users and found that the average amount spent per user was $80. When adjusted for power-users as outliers, the average went down to $45. While Appsfire’s statistics are generally skewed toward their specific demographic, which by their own admission has a high concentration of early adopters, the report generally affirms that iPod and Touch users are actively using the App Store to purchase and download dozens of apps for their devices. Appsfire's very existence confirms that one's own unique collection of apps has become a kind of status symbol among many iPhone users. Undoubtedly, the App Store is still very much a closed platform, but Apple’s willingness to allow purchased apps to automatically sync onto the iPad is a reassuring gesture of openness. For users to continue to happily spend money on the apps, they need to know that their purchases extend beyond just the life of their individual devices. Another example of this reassuring gesture is the relatively new feature of transferring purchased music back from an iPod to a computer through iTunes.

Micro-concessions such as these will go a long way toward establishing Apple as the leading source for digital media and mobile software, which will in turn drive sales of their hardware. Apple’s reassurance to the consumer that the continued use of their content will be available throughout their product line is important for the iPad’s success. As iPhone killers (mostly in the form of Android smart phones) and tablet competitors segment the market, the robust offerings of the App Store will be one of several distinguishing features that will drive sales. Consumers with money invested into their App Store purchases may find that the lost value in switching to another platform is just too great to justify switching. Looking out into the future, the potential for a mobile OS war on the level of OS X/Windows is gathering as users become invested into their platform of ‘choice’.

As a contrasting example, Nintendo’s DSiWare policy is an example of a lack of support that can potentially cripple a platform. DSiWare games are purchased and downloaded from the DSi Shop onto a specific DSi and cannot be transferred or redownloaded. If a user’s DSi breaks, their only option to preserve their purchases is to send the broken DSi to Nintendo directly so they can install the purchases onto the replacement DSi. This policy is quintessentially draconian and will only drive users away from DSiWare platform and potentially the DSi itself. It’s certainly not too late for Nintendo to change course, but damage has been done. It was clear from the keynote that Apple is positioning the iPad as a gaming device, aggressively going after Nintendo’s share of the market. The recent port of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars from DS to iPhone is an excellent example. Although critically acclaimed, GTA: Chinatown Wars was a sales disaster on the DS. How it fares on the App Store will certainly serve as an indicator for other developers and publishers who are looking to port their DS releases over to the Cocoa Touch platform. Even though discussing the Apple / Nintendo rivalry is of a bigger scope than this post can handle, it still illuminates the relative openness of Apple’s business model when compared to that of a competitor.

Conclusion: The Dealbreaker? (Or why I won’t buy one...yet)

It would be slightly hypocritical of me to end this post without discussing whether I'll personally buy an iPad, especially considering the aforementioned reasons. The short answer is: No. Back in January, I was among the throngs of starry-eyed Apple fans, drunk with the whispered possibilities of the unannounced tablet. However, when that fateful day finally came and I looked at the specs, there was one feature missing that I couldn't ignore: a front-facing webcam. That may sound odd to you, so let me explain. As an American expatriate living in Beijing, one of the primary ways I use my computer is to keep in touch with family and friends back home. Not having a webcam means no video skype chats with my nieces and nephews, no gtalk dial-ins on family reunions. To be fair, I've been using the same 12-inch Aluminum Powerbook for over 6 years, so when I do want to skype with my family, we have to use my wife's 13-inch Macbook. It's actually the Macbook's fault that a bundled webcam is now such a non-negotiable for me. When Apple decided to start including iSights into its entire notebook and iMac lines, critics clamored that it was driving prices up without adding functionality, and I realize that there are many users who just don't utilize the on-board iSight. However, now that video-chat and video-conferencing have become mainstays of the online experience (partly due to the increased install base from Apple's products), the iPad's lack of onboard video functionality seems like a giant step backward. Given the rumors about the pre-existing space (both hard and soft) for the camera, I'm hopeful that the future revisions will include one. My trusty AlBook has made it this far (although significantly worse for the wear), maybe it can last just a little longer. In the meantime, when you early adopters get your iPads synced up (and jailbroken?), let me know how it goes--some part of me, that deepest core of my inner fanboy, is still holding my breath, waiting for the magic.

Xiaolongbao : The Write-up

2010-03-15T22:48:00.006+08:00

I know it's been a few weeks since Chinese New Year, but I wanted to take some time to do a write-up specifically on the xiaolongbao (steamed soup buns) and dumplings. By the way, continuing with our homestyle Chinese theme, we'll eventually get to a write-up on hand-pulled noodles, Niuroumian (beef noodle soup), and Zhajiangmian (fried meat sauce?), which we made for M's birthday this past weekend.

I've always viewed xiaolongbao as one of the pinnacles of Chinese cuisine, mostly because they have so much potential. Technique, flavor, and texture all vary so much--from the street vendors in Shanghai to Dintaifung's gourmet offerings. Since one of my hobbies is cooking things that I never thought possible to make on my own, xiaolongbao seemed like the perfect candidate. And what better time to make them than on Chinese New Year, where making dumplings is a New Year's Eve tradition?

So between Steamy Kitchen, Bon Appetit, and Kuidaore, we felt pretty confident that we could pull something together.

Step 1: Making the soup
Making the soup was pretty straightforward, but we started the day before so it would have time to chill. Going to the store was quite exciting, though, as I had most of the hog to choose from. Hmm...hoof soup? Skin soup? Nah, I think I'll pass. I veered from the recipes a bit by putting in some pork belly (and I left the fat on), which made for a few tasty meals after (add a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, and pepper, and you've got a kind of Chinese pulled pork). When the soup was done, the meat and broth looked so good that M kept drinking bowls of it. I had to kick her out of the kitchen so there would be enough broth for the xiaolongbao and the dumplings. A helpful hint here for anyone trying this at home: drag your pot of ready-to-simmer pork/chicken broth over to a friend's place and play Call of Duty for 2 hours while it simmers. Good times.

I had decided not to add agar or gelatin to make the broth set (mostly because we didn't have any), so after the 2 hours, I strained the soup and spent some extra time reducing it so that it would set in the fridge on its own. M and I went back and forth about whether we had reduced it long enough, whether to freeze it, etc. In the end, we nervously put it in the fridge, prepared to reduce it more the next day if needed, but when we checked on it in the morning, it was a gelatinous rectangle of gloriousness. I flipped it out of its Lock&Lock container onto a chopping board and tried to get a decent shot of it:

Jaden Hair over at Steamy Kitchen is a significantly better photographer, so you can head on over there for a gander, but be warned, she wrote up her xiaolongbao with a sex theme, so it can get a bit...well, steamy.

Step 2: The Filling
The filling's pretty similar to a standard dumpling filling, although it does have minced shrimp added. To be honest, we kind of regretted adding the shrimp since it was just frozen stuff from the local Chaoshifa supermarket. Getting decent seafood (for decent prices) is not easy here in Beijing. The fishiness of the shrimp mellowed out into the other flavors the day after, when we made a second batch with the leftover filling. Before we discovered that, we considered just leaving out the shrimp altogether, though we both agreed that xiaolongbao sort of needs a little of that seafoody funk to round out its flavor. So, M thinks that if we make this again, we could mince the shrimp a little finer and cure it with some ginger before mixing it in with the pork, then maybe let the filling hang out for awhile before using it.

Once the filling is ready, you can add the cubes of broth to the filling. Some people like to make individual cubes and surround them with filling, but we decided to mix the cubes in. Later, we decided it works even better if you break down the cubes a little more and get the gelatin nicely incorporated into the filling.

Part 3: The Dough
M has become the ultimate dough master. While I was busy messing with the pork jello and filling, she was mixing the dough. That night she made 4 batches of dumpling dough and 2 batches of xiaolongbao dough and taught our friends how to roll them out into perfect circles. The most difficult part about making xiaolongbao has got to be the pleating. Luckily, I spent most of my time in front of the stove, so other people had to suffer through trying to get uniform pleats on paper thin dough.

You'll have to excuse our uneven pleats and the few "Sad Sam" dumplings. (M's grandmother used to say badly folded dumplings looked lazy, like they were sleeping...) But hey, not bad for our first time, right?

Part 4: The Steaming (or Frying)

Steaming these bad boys was rough. We placed the steamer over our wok, but the steamer covered the water level, which made it difficult to tell if we needed to add water. The whole time we were coddling these guys; there are few worse tragedies in the food kingdom than a xiaolongbao whose soup has run out of him. Due to our inexperience, a few of these guys burst in the steamer. As we pulled off the lid, those of us gathered around the steamer let out a collective groan as soup dribbled out of the unfortunate dumplings and into the water below.

The first few batches came out okay, a little disappointing as far as soup goes. We had doubled the recipe but neglected to measure out the broth correctly (and added some of the cubes to the dumpling filling), so it's possible we didn't have enough broth for the filling. My preferred ratio has more soup and dough than filling, so I think some of the guys came out a little too dense for my tastes.

I had been joking all week that I was going to fry some, but when we got backed up with only one steamer and 15 hungry friends to feed, I decided to fry them up. One of our favorite foods from our trip to Shanghai last year was shengjianbao at a street vendor outside the Jade Garden and City God Temple. This was pretty much the same thing, though the dough for "real" shengjianbao is of the fluffier, thicker variety.

We cooked these the way we cook potstickers. Heat some oil, then place them in the skillet to brown for a couple minutes, then throw in some water and vinegar (carefully!) and cover for 5-6 minutes to let them steam, remove the cover and let the water boil off so the buns can recrisp.

I'm pretty biased because so many of my favorite foods are fried (or could be improved through frying), but these guys were so tasty. While the steamed buns have a refined and delicate air about them, these shengjianbao hit you over the head with deliciousness. Our friends tried these and wouldn't go back to the steamed ones. It's a ton of work to make all of this from scratch, but I definitely think the potsticker versions are worth the effort. The steamed ones will take some work to perfect. In the meantime, I can always pay the $6.50 for an order at Dintaifung.

On a side note, our friend Leah brought in our first non-kit lens, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens(Amazon Associate link) for us and it's been working miracles. Our friends and professional photographers Jerry & Ingrid exhorted us to go for the 50mm f/1.4 lens (at 3.5x the price), but we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend that much. Sorry, J & I! I'm a complete hack when it comes to photography, so the f/1.8 lens already makes my pictures 10 times better, which makes them almost passable. There's no zoom on it, so it's kind of a pain to have to back up from things to frame the shot, but we're really excited for this to be our starter lens. Hopefully there will be tastier pics of our cooking adventures in the months to come.

Happy Women's Day

2010-03-08T16:52:00.003+08:00

It's Women's Day here in China, and we're celebrating in style at Starbucks with 'buy one get one free drinks'. But wait, before any fellow Beijingers run out to the nearest 'bucks, it's not actually a Starbucks special because of Women's Day, but our friend had coupons that could be used on holidays, and this was the last holiday that he could use them. I've been doing some reading and writing here, and the venti Caramel Frap has got me as productive as a late-summer drone ant. I have a friend that claims that the Renaissance was due to the introduction of coffee to the European continent. Hmmm...maybe, although that certainly bucks against my wholesome LDS upbringing. :) I digress.

You've probably heard the Chinese proverb "Women hold up half the sky". You might have heard of it here (not a bad time to try out our new Amazon Associate links):

Or you might have heard of it here:
Half the Sky Foundation

If you get a chance, pour a little out for women today, because they're awesome.

I think M probably should have written this post, but she's busy cramming for the HSK this week, so you're stuck with me.

Charcoal Resemblance

2010-03-01T16:53:00.000+08:00

M and I recently took a short trip to Tianjin to get away from the madness. While wandering around some back alleys, we happened upon an elderly gentlemen offering 2 minute charcoal sketches for about $.75.

I figured it was a small price to pay to immortalize the mustache as a work of street art, so we went for it.

Beeeeholdddd!

Pew! Pew! Pew!

2010-02-17T01:47:00.002+08:00

(In case you're wondering about the title, that's the sound I make for shooting things off. If any of you have played Desktop Defender, it's pretty similar to some of the sounds for towers shooting.)

A belated happy Chinese New Year to all of you (or Spring Festival as it's known over here. or just New Year, which would make sense, since they don't call it 'Chinese' food over here, just, well, food). I'm feline a bit tigered of all the tiger puns, but they're not nearly as bad as all the "Happy 牛(niu) year" jokes from last year.

The video backstories:
Our friend K, who lives in the next building over, threw a party for New Year's (since we'd be up anyway with all the fireworks going off), but since it didn't start until 8pm, M and I decided to take the plunge and make dumplings from scratch. And since I was already halfway there with the dumplings and potstickers, I finally tried to make Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) from scratch too. Both of which are deserving of their own post, so you'll have to wait to hear about how those turned out.
Our fireworks adventures from last year were sufficiently lacking in death and dismemberment that I still wanted to set off a few this year just to join in the revelry. I paid $6 for a small box, exactly the same as one that we had set off last year. Halfway through the New Year's party, a few of us (including DC, who has already posted an excellent write-up of the festivities over at BBQGrapies) headed downstairs and out onto the street right in front of K's 27th floor window. We set off our friend Jeremy's $12 box (which happened to shoot just about 27 stories up) and were so pleased with ourselves, we decided to walk down to the fireworks store on the corner and buy some more.
After some haggling, we decided to get the same $12 box and a significantly larger $24 box. Still feeling that giddy boyish thrill prompted by fire and explosion, we decided to stay in character and treat ourselves to Mcdonald's ice cream.
When we got back, M and CC broke away from a game of scattergories to come set off the small box we'd bought, at which point, our friend John decided to jump over it. Needless to say, he was shot in the butt by a low-grade explosive, thankfully to no permanent harm. Cue my hysterical giggling.
The next video is us shooting off the big box, which was actually really exciting to watch. My favorite part of the whole experience is the bits of cardboard and ash that rain down into my hair.
Where I grew up in California, fireworks were banned, so I didn't have the privilege of doing all this as a kid. I've got to say, other than the whole "Oops, we burned down a billion dollar hotel" fiasco, the odd firework for New Year's is a total blast. At midnight, thousands of families around the city set off similar (and even bigger) fireworks, ostensibly to chase away evil spirits for the year. It was quite a sight to behold.
Surprisingly enough, we didn't have any trouble falling asleep, even with the explosions continuing late into the night and starting up again around 7am. How's that for native street cred?

Next Gen Creepy

2010-02-11T21:49:00.004+08:00

Our good friend Ingo422 took the creep factor to the next level, or should I say generation?

Make sure to hire her for your next wedding. She's a pro.

Moustaches are creepy

2010-01-30T13:59:00.005+08:00

Behold the Bacon Cake

2010-01-21T08:50:00.006+08:00

I made this bad boy back in October for DC's birthday and never got around to posting it. But how could I not submit this to the internetz in all its caloric glory?

The idea was to make a cake that wasn't too sweet. So I got to thinking: "Hmm, what isn't sweet?" Bacon. Although the last few seasons of Top Chef have submitted evidence to the contrary, we all know the adage: "Everything's better with bacon."

I started with Betty Crocker's pancake recipe, but spread them thinner around the pan to make a bigger base. In between layers of pancakes, I alternated between butter, bacon, maple syrup, and chocolate chips (Special thanks to Liz who brought us premium Québécois syrup when she visited). I frosted with a Dark Chocolate Butter Maple Ganache, based on Eat Drink Live's Pancake Cake, which was in turn taken from Martha Stewart. And for the finishing touch, of course, I crumbled bacon around the outside of the cake.

I'd like to tell you it was a big hit, but I had meant to use maple bacon and somehow got a different brand, so the bacon ended up being too savory. We kept the leftovers from the party and had slices for breakfast the next few days, reheated then drizzled with some maple syrup, which was actually very tasty.

Not bad for a first shot at glory. I guess I'll have to make it again for someone else to really perfect my technique.

The Rat Race

2010-01-11T22:59:00.002+08:00

So now that actually receiving my diploma is just about the only thing I have left on the road to officially finishing my Master's, I have begun to look for work.

I think this is the first time I've had to take a job search like this so seriously, and let me tell you, it is extremely weird that I'm doing it in China. Expats toil in a very specialized economy here, with lopsided demand in certain fields (like English teaching), while otherwise competing with either cream-of-the-crop Chinese graduates who usually accept more humble salaries than their foreign counterparts, or execs with 10+ years of experience who are worth the big bucks, not to mention the generous expense accounts. So, I have had to be very creative about where I look. Multinational companies in need of someone with near-native bilingual skills? An "expert" in Chinese contemporary culture (not even)? A decent translator? Anyone entry-level?

Meanwhile, I have to make a lot of personal decisions. How much do I sell out to "the man"? Am I willing to sacrifice a lot of my time and emotional/social energy to pay my dues in corporate un-America so I can climb the ladder to a stronger resume and (hopefully) higher salary? Or do I protect the space in my life that currently goes to a lot of volunteer work and relationships, knowing that I may once again make choices that render a "career" in the conventional sense just always a little out of my grasp?

In high school, my friend Pradeep and I were voted Most Likely to Succeed (he's now finishing up residency at Brigham & Woman's Hospital in Boston with his lovely wife Puja, after med school at UCSF...make me look bad much, Pradeep? :P). We were asked to come to school dressed in business attire, and photographed behind our principal's desk with wads of cash (dollar bills, most likely) fanned out in our grubby little hands. Now that I think about it, I resent that.

I'm afraid whatever "success" I'm most likely to achieve will not look like Ralph Lauren ready-to-wear, mahogany desks, corner office with a view, hmmhow'smyROTH-IRAlooking? Honestly, I'm still trying to understand what success even means to me. Yes, I know I'm smart and capable, albeit woefully inexperienced. And I know there are too many things I'd love to do in this world. So right now I face the challenging task of choosing. And hoping the right people are willing to take a chance on someone who's maybe not so strong on paper just yet, but just needs a chance to prove herself?

Wish me luck, and if any of you have friends who work in China, let me know. 'Cause you know especially here, it's all about the referral. ;)

Visa Trouble = Non-Vacation

2009-12-19T12:59:00.003+08:00

Greetings from Korea!

I went to type in a title, and when I typed "Visa", the auto-complete pulled up a previous title from last year: "Visa Trouble = Vacation". This time, however, there's no fun or games. I'm sitting in the Seoul airport waiting for the check-in to re-open so I can get back through security (the whole hurry up and wait deal).

A lot of our friends have to do this little excursion: 8am flight to Seoul, 6pm flight back. One of our friends has done it so many times that she's got it down to a science. The only real consolation prize is that the Seoul airport has a couple Dunkin' Donuts, which we don't have in Beijing (although Shanghai has some).

This past year we've been lucky enough to have year long visas without max-stay requirements, but now our year's up and it's time to renew. Our renewal starts from the most recent date of entry, so that's what I'm here in Seoul. It's kind of painful to be stuck at an airport in a city/country I've never been to, but M and I were remarking that the fact that we're okay with me doing this visa run rather than some crazy whirlwind trip/vacation is actually a good sign that we've settled into our life in Beijing.

Elevator

2009-12-17T14:54:00.001+08:00

Earlier this week, M and I were running late, only to discover that the elevators in out building were broken. Mind you, we live on the 25th floor and were planning to scoot to our appointment. So we had to put the scooter away and run down the stairs (we're so out of shape that our legs were sore for days after).

When we got back that night, one of the elevators had been restored to working order. But the other had some strange pump sucking a brownish liquid out of the shaft.

The next night, the elevator was still broken, and they had this contraption going on.

We had a good laugh. But now that I think about it, I'll be entrusting my life to the efficacy of a hair-dryer on a fuse box the next time I step in that elevaor (which, of course, runs under the faulty assumption that the elevator will eventually be fixed).

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

My Daily Cry

2009-12-14T15:23:00.001+08:00

Back when I was in high school, I had a girlfriend who used to have a daily cry with her mom. When she told me about it, I remember being dumbfounded; at the time, I hadn't cried since I'd lost my pet turtle in elementary school. On days when there wasn't anything particularly frustrating or sad to cry about, she and her mom would sit down together and think of something really sad until the tears started flowing. The idea of it all--crying on command as cathartic relief, was beyond foreign to me.

But lately, I've started having a daily cry, and I've gotta tell you, it's fun. I get my daily cry in every morning on the way to work, sometimes on the way back too. Basically, it's been so cold and so windy, that riding into the wind on the scooter, my eyes have been watering profusely. And even though it's not technically crying, there's a certain amount of relief that I get from climbing off the scooter with my eyes glistening, wind-dried tear streaks running down my face.

Maybe the Ex- wasn't so crazy after all.

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

Backlogged: Halloween

2009-12-12T12:21:00.003+08:00

The distant future. The year 2009.

I know, I know. This is super late, but since I'm playing around with this email posting service over at Posterous, I thought I'd attach a picture. And what better way to implement social media innovation than through robots.

Definitely took some inspiration from:

and my late 80s, early 90s childhood.

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

Desperate times...

2009-12-12T11:50:00.001+08:00

call for desperate measures. Trying out this new blogging service over at Posterous since we can't get on Blogger without our VPN on.

Posted via email from Beijing Dou

Just what am I teaching these kids anyway?

2009-12-10T10:25:00.004+08:00

So I teach an Intercultural Communications class and as part of the course, we try and make the students aware of stereotypes and prejudices that they may have or may face when going overseas.

I gave them a quiz and as review, I tested them on some key terms that they learned at the beginning of the course.

When asked to define the term stereotype and give an example, one of my students (a gal from Guangdong) came up with this gem:

2. stereotype refers to a selection process that is used to organize and symplify the perception of others. For example, ~~many people think middle east people are terrorism~~ Black always stealing

Wow.

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-11-25T19:34:00.006+08:00

It's weird, normally the fourth Wednesday afternoon in November is a really exciting time. Oh the schoolday buzz of rushing out of school and hopping in the car to drive (through bumper to bumper traffic) to either Phoenix or Moraga to see the grandparents. But I finished work, dodged a couple complaining students and headed home to an empty house (M's on her way home from the airport).

But there is some anticipation too, since we were able to get our hands on a good ol' American turkey. Our small group is crazy enough to attempt all the fixin's too. Cooking a 14 pound turkey, who we've named Kanye (since he's the biggest turkey I know), in an oversized toaster oven should be exciting. We'll let you know how it turns out.

On a random note, I discovered a street vendor outside our house who makes chow mein and chow fun to order. For less than $1. So awesome.

And by way of plug, we're not sure how many of our readers are Beijingers like us, but we wanted to spread the word about the coolest thing in Beijing:

On Demand Pie Delivery Service from the Pie House

Basically, one of our friends is starting a pie baking business. If you live near enough, you can call and have a pie within like 5 hours. That's just freaking awesome. These pies are tasty too, head on over to their site and take a look at those bad boys. So anyway, if you're in town and need a pie in a few hours, who you gonna call?

Freeeeddoooomm

2009-11-21T23:03:00.004+08:00

So, I've decided that this is as good a time as any to break my blogging hiatus. Why? Because I'm in Taipei (to see my parents), and I don't even have to use the VPN to post on our blog! Whoohoo!

I am also extremely full right now. I stepped off the bus from the airport, dropped off my luggage, and was quickly ushered into a hot pot restaurant that was deeelicious.

Then, four hours later, I found myself having some of the best Thai food I've had in AGES (since, you know, I have lived in Ann Arbor and then Beijing for the past 2+ years...not exactly Thai food meccas).

In those between hours, we walked around the area we're staying in and passed by dozens of places I would want to try... and my dad and I were plotting to not eat too much at dinner so we could come out late at night for noodles at a streetside shop that had us salivating. But that plan failed as soon as the platter of fried shrimp cakes was lowered before my unsuspecting, slightly rotund face at Sukho Thai. Foiled again! Oh well. We'll have to fit the noodles in somewhere. Like in the third stomach I feel my body developing in that lame, unnecessary space between my spleen and pancreas.

Too bad I didn't think to bring my camera cable, so I can't show you pictures of my day here so far. Maybe next time.

Right now, the woman we're staying with is watching that creepy and horrible (15% on Rotten Tomatoes?) Halle Berry flick, Gothika, which appears to be missing its dialogue track, which makes it extra horrible and creepy. That is another reason I've decided to post on this blog...to distract myself from otherwise setting off an unfortunate chain of events wherein I end up wetting the bed.

Oh also, part of the reason I titled this post thusly is because just before I left for Taiwan, I sent off the COMPLETED draft of my Thesis ('Are you STILL working on that?') and the forms for my readers to fill out. Now all I have to do is cram and try to get a 5 on the HSK... Do you think I can pull that off if I try to ace the listening and fill-in-the-blank stuff, do mediocre on the reading, and just bomb the writing? Your opinion matters to us. Please wait until the next available associate can take your call.

Sorry this was so random. Too much pressure. And not enough sleep.

Thank Goodness It's Fryday

2009-11-14T11:33:00.012+08:00

M and I have this not-so-secret dream to start food and/or travel blogs. Which we know sounds kind of lame, since just about everyone else I know dreams of making money from eating and traveling. And the blogosphere is inundated with people who think they are some combination of the following: foodie, good writer, good photographer, good cook. I'm actually only so arrogant as to believe two of those. Nevertheless, we have a bunch of food posts we've been saving up from all the rando stuff we've been making lately. So sit back and enjoy.

The first off is a tradition that goes all the way back to Creston House in Berkeley. Eddy and I made some deep fried sesame balls for Chinese New Year a couple years back, and we didn't want to waste the oil, so we decided to have a Thank Goodness It's Fryday party and fry up some chicken in our extra oil. I love me a good fried chicken. The awesomeness of the idea was further confirmed the following day by a full write-up in the SF Chronicle on how to fry up the tastiest fried chicken. Eddy won the hero award for carving up a total of something like 8 whole chickens. TGIF's breakout success led me to register for a deep fryer when M and I were getting married. And we are very grateful to M's second-cousin-once-removed for gifting it to us. Suffice it to say that the first year we were married, M and I gained a lot of weight.

So when we moved here to Beijing, I was very sad to leave my trusty fryer and the multitude of accessories and gadgets that made it possible. I'm realizing now that part of the reason M and I had such a rough year last year was because we didn't really have an outlet to cook at our tiny studio apartment (which mostly meant we just weren't willing to purchase the stuff we needed because we thought we were staying less than a year). We'd actually end up going over to a friend's house to cook and make a mess; the poor things must have wondered why we were such over-achievers.

So I'm sure you can imagine the abounding joy I experienced when our friends here pooled together for my birthday and bought me a frying kit:

Rather than the cheater electronic fryer I had home, I'd have to get back to my roots and fry up the goods with an aluminum fry pot, basket, and thermometer. Our friends were super generous and rather than buying a rusty wok and a camping stove, like most of the street vendors use to fry up their endless stinky tofu), they went to Pantry Magic. For Beijing prices, Pantry Magic is a little pricey, but these are seriously high quality goods here. M and I can't resist wandering in there whenever we're in the area; it's actually a pretty painful experience because we walk through the store and point out all the stuff that was on our wedding registry and is now in storage back in the States. Oh the pain.

But I digress. After a couple test runs with the fry pot, I was ready to kick off my first International TGIF Party. I wasn't really up to finding a whole chicken to fry (especially since M and I got used to frying up Amish chickens while we were in Ann Arbor. I doubted I could find them here), so I diddled around on the net for some recipes, and finally settled on Wings, Rings, and the requisite fries, for which I usually combine recipes from Alton Brown and America's Test Kitchen. M thought I was crazy because I invited way more people than this little pot should be able to cook for, and she had to go out to her internship studio for a film festival during the day, so I'd be sous-chef-less for the day. Thankfully a few friends were able to come over early to help out, otherwise I would have bitten off way more than I could chew!

I told some people to bring salads so we didn't die that night.

Here are the onion rings, pre-gloriousness:

Brian Chew had the freaking brilliant idea of making a blooming onion. Hellooo! Why didn't I think of that earlier? So he ran downstairs to find the biggest onions he could find:

And subsequently proved that if you want to attract the ladies, all you need is to batter and deep fry a gigantic onion. Notice the creepy dude skulking in the background? He's jealous of the magnetic power of the blooming onion and is plotting to steal it and take over the world.

At this point, I'd like to point out that sometimes there are moments in our lives where we accomplish something so great, so revolutionary, that we realize we've finally 'made it'. Making this blooming onion was one such moment. Of course, Marissa's homemade roasted red pepper aioli definitely helped with the euphoria.

I don't have any sweet pictures of the wings; mostly because they kept disappearing the moment we set them down anywhere. That and whenever we thought of it, our hands always had sauce on them from nibbling on the wings. Thankfully CC had the presence of mind to wash her hands and snap a few shots. Here's an action one for you:

We went with a garlic tabasco buffalo sauce and a tequila barbecue sauce. I believe (the aptly named) Mr. Chew has here the garlic tabasco kind.

Things were getting late, but we had one more trick up our sleeve:

Good donuts are so hard to come by in Beijing. So we finally got fed up and decided to make our own, courtesy of Allrecipes.

We ended up with chocolate glazed, cinnamon-sugar, and powdered donuts. These were tasty little guys and a fantastic end to a wild high-calorie night. The next time I make them, I'll have to be careful with the flour ratios, though, because they were pretty dense. I've seen some recipes for Krispy Kreme textures, so I might just have to try those next time.

All told, we spent over 8 hours frying together: the wings of 50 chickens, several potatoes, three large onions, two humongous onions, and 4 dozen donuts. Another smashingly successful TGIF.

Anyway, I'm sorry I wrote such an epic-poem of a write-up. I promise not every food post will be this involved.

One of these things...

2009-11-07T00:47:00.003+08:00

is not like the other?

Manty Update

2009-10-25T09:58:00.003+08:00

Thought we'd update you guys on our efforts to feed the little guy. A few days after I caught him, I spied a pincer-bug on the ground outside our apartment so I scooped it into a paper cup. The pincer bug started crawling out, and I got squeamish, so I dropped the cup on the ground and stepped on the lid to close it. Unfortunately, I stepped on the bug too, so he died. I threw him in the tupperware anyway to see if I could trick Manty into eating it if I shook the cage, but to no avail.

A few days later, M and I went on a bug hunt outside and found a roly-poly/pillbug. We were pretty excited about this matchup, since the roly-poly is engineered for protection. The mantis circled him a few times, then struck and the roly-poly rolled into a ball. The mantis chewed at the shell a few times and then let him go. We were pretty impressed that the roly-poly's protective measures were so effective, but he promptly crawled into a puddle of water and drowned, so that didn't last long.

Yesterday, I saw something on the ground near my pile of clothes and realized it was a spider (!). M and I quickly caught it, and tried to put it in the tupperware. At some point, we accidentally opened the cage and Manty got out and the spider was crawling around on our table. I ran away screaming, and M had to flip the tupperware over to recapture Manty. Eventually, after much ado, we got the spider into Manty's makeshift home. Manty mostly ignored the spider, which was actually so brave as to crawl around on Manty's legs, which really freaked us out. Eventually, Manty decided to strike, and he struck out at the spider, but the spider got away. When we looked more closely, I noticed that he was munching on something. So I counted the legs on the spider: 7. Aaaaah!

We had to head out to flag football for DC's birthday, so we brought him along. Manty snacked on a couple more of Spidey's legs before the spider just died out of shock. What a cruel cruel bug. While we were out, DC caught and threw a mosquito in there, but Manty ignored him.

So anyway, we haven't had much success feeding him. I think he's really just looking for his freedom, so we may just let him go soon. Just not sure where to let him go, and it's getting cold so I'd hate for him to just die because we left him out in the cold.

Man vs. Wild

2009-10-20T09:28:00.003+08:00

M's out of town, which is always exciting. The day she left, I was bumming around on the couch. I tilted my head back to take a drink from my translucent green water bottle, and when I put the bottle down, something was off. The blurry greenness had stayed in my field of vision. I focused on it and realized it was a praying mantis perched atop our bookshelf. I spazzed out and ran out of the room to grab a can of raid, but then I felt bad for the thing and didn't want to kill it. I called up DC over at bbqgrapies and asked him what he would do if, hypothetically, he found a praying mantis on his bookshelf. "Dude, I'd document that for sure. Get your camera." I poked my head out from the kitchen to check, "Uhmm, what would you do if your camera was on the bookshelf too?" We had a good laugh, but DC was really helpful in helping me to not freak out (M makes fun of me because I'm kind of squeamish about bugs and spiders). So I leaned in to take some pictures with my phone. Eventually, I gathered up the courage and decided to capture him, so I went back into the kitchen to get some tupperware and a colander. While in the kitchen, I heard a weird slapping thud noise, and came back out to see him sprawled out on the floor. I guess he'd jumped. He rolled over and started crawling around on the floor. I didn't catch him right away because I didn't want to miss and have him to fly in my face and poke my eyes out, so I let him crawl onto our coffee table and crawl around. Which gave me the chance to retrieve the camera and take some pictures (sorry for the crappy photography):

Eventually he fell off the coffee table and I threw the colander on him. I laughed at myself for feeling so victorious after sneaking around this little harmless bug (although I did measure him, his body's almost 2.5 inches!). I wasn't sure what to do with him, whether to keep him or set him free, so I just left him in there for the day. When I woke up in the morning, he was hanging motionless from the top of his plastic cage, so I shook the colander a little, but he didn't move. I assumed he was dead. But then when I got back later that day, he was moving again, so I transferred him to a tupperware container and poked some holes in the lid.

Later that night, some friends came over and we went on a hunt for some some other insects in my apartment. We found and trapped a mosquito and managed to get him into Manty's tupperware. We watched for several minutes as the mosquito just buzzed around and Manty just sat praying. Then he started licking/washing his hands (hmm those aren't hands, not sure what to call them...knives?), which we thought was very anthropomorphic. Then he washed his legs, which wasn't very anthropomorphic. Out of nowhere, he perked up, and struck out with his knife-arms, seizing the poor mosquito and shoving it into his mouth. He chewed for a second, and then spit out a wing or some kind of mosquito carcass. So awesome.

Later, I told M, and sad that she missed the cage match, she remarked, "For the first time in my life, I can't wait to find a cockroach in our apartment." Hmmm...

If you leave a comment, suggest a good matchup for the mantis. Animal Planet says that a large mantis will take on and eat rodents, birds, and turtles...

Google Voice?

2009-10-17T09:31:00.004+08:00

Finally got my Google Voice invite. Trying to route it through a Skypein number, you can test help us test it by giving us a call:

We're back!

2009-10-13T16:04:00.003+08:00

A few weeks ago, our trusty (free) Hotspot Shield vpn lost out to the Great Firewall, so that's the reason for the radio silence. M's been wanting to buy a real vpn since we got here; I'd slowly been preparing myself to take the plunge and spend the money, up until today when I just decided to do it.

We've got a bunch of posts rattling in our brains from the past month or so; here's hoping get around to actually posting them.

The Making of a Bob

2009-09-18T16:51:00.007+08:00

So I wanted to post this earlier, but I got into a give a mouse a cookie feedback loop of making pizza dough and then pizza sauce from scratch. Which I'm definitely not complaining about. Basically we had some mozarella brought in from the US and I wanted to make pizza before we finished it, but then we made so much dough that we had to make a bunch of tomato sauce...

I know some of you are wondering, "How did he end up with that haircut when there weren't any votes for it?" So I want to clear the air and dispel those Iranian/Afghanistani-style whisperings of election fraud.

Basically, I put off cutting my hair on Thursday because I realized that a few of us were going to arguably Beijing's best restaurant for their lunch special on Friday. So I had decided to cut it Friday afternoon. After a few last calls for votes, rockstar Chairman Mao was in the lead with three votes. M had been slowly developing a plan for what to do with her vote and the sway that she held over the votes of our friends. One of our friends here had told us this story about the Korean dude she saw with a killer bob, and M's curiosity was piqued. So she last-minute rallied our Beijing friends to vote for the pageboy bob. It bears mentioning that one of the garnered votes was with the understanding that M cutting the bob for me would be good practice for if she wants to cut bobs for her girlie friends. Hmmm...

M had the camera on a long exposure so I tried that shot where you whip your face back and forth.

I call this shot: Crying Shame

In action

Artsy

Before she cut the bangs.

Wet

It only lasted a couple days, but oh what a few days. In those two days, I had to go into my old job, let them know I was quitting and still teach a full day, then Sunday I went to church and then back to work. We cut it Sunday night because I had my new job on Monday morning. Now it's just some kind of normal haircut while we wait until the National holiday (Oct 1) to do something outrageous again.

Most of my students, and some of the Chinese teachers were just in shock. Bear in mind, the majority of these students had never seen me get a haircut and I come in with that. "What does this haircut mean to you?" I asked some of them. "Office-lady" came the response. Most of the younger students just blurted out that I looked even more like a girl (which they already called me anyway), and some of them just laughed and called it ugly. I like to think they were part of my little social experiment. But really that's just what I told myself so I wouldn't go running to the bathroom in tears with the trauma of it all. Good times.

And the winner is...

2009-09-11T20:52:00.001+08:00

Here comes the cut

2009-09-11T01:00:00.002+08:00

Last chance to get your vote in. I know some of you have been paralyzed by the possibilities. But break out of it and just vote already.

I've got stuff going on tomorrow in the afternoon, but afterward, I'm going to take the plunge. So you've got about 12 hours to 11th-hour vote.

Democracy is here.

2009-09-07T18:53:00.002+08:00

Those of you who've known me for a while must have figured out by now that I have a strong inclination toward weird and terrible hairstyles. It started when I was younger, but really bloomed in college, when my parents were living on the other side of the world. I would shave my head at the beginning of the summer, forget to cut it for six or seven months, then do something crazy with it in the spring. Then I'd shave my head again and start over. Basically: rinse, lather, repeat. One year I had a mullet, which digressed into a rat-tail, and the next year I got a perm and went from jheri curl to clown hair.

And as you've probably guessed, it's that time again. It's been a year since I last cut my hair, and I can safely say that this is the longest my hair has ever been. I've been fighting an uphill battle, too, because I've had to endure all my students laughing at me or calling me "a girl". Which I find strange, since I see plenty of guys with long-hair, but, admittedly, they're all mostly the same type of guy. Which would explain why most Chinese adults automatically assume I'm some kind of artist or musician because of my long hair. Because my original haircut last September had been some kind of funky layer, when my hair grew out, I started to take on a strong resemblance to one late entertainer's later years. Some of my friends convinced their kids to call me "Jacko Shu shu," or Uncle Jacko. Ha ha...

M has really been a trooper throughout all of this. She gives me a hard time about it by saying that she's shown her true love by enduring the mullet and the clown hair, and that she should only have to take so much of this madness. A few weeks ago, M was trying to convince me to cut my hair, and I confessed that I was kind of sick of it and wanted to cut it, but that there was just too much pressure. "What do you mean?" she asked, to which I blurted out, "Well, I'm just such a...block of marble!" M had a good laugh at that, but she knew exactly what I meant. Since this is the longest I've ever had my hair, the possibilities are virtually endless. I've been thinking for week and I just can't make up my mind. Should I go for the Asian pop star look? Or the crazy crimped style that's all the rage here in Beijing right now? I could revisit the fro or the mullet, or go for the (just checked the length) 22cm mohawk.

And then I realized, I don't have to decide. I can do this democratically. Unfortunately, I've put this off for too long, so I don't have much time. I'm starting a new job with a department at Tsinghua, and I kind of have to look professional for class. Basically, Wednesday and Thursday I have some introductory classes, and then I start next week, so I've only got a few days to rock a really terrible hairstyle. My weekend classes will be in for a treat though.

So here are the rules. I will accept one vote per person in the comment field of this post. Voting will close right before I get my haircut, which will probably be Thursday afternoon. Anonymous comments will not be counted unless you specifically state who you are. You are welcome to look up sample pictures and link to them in your comments. And feel free to comment more to try and convince others. M will probably try and sway all of you to vote for some very professional clean-cut hairstyle, but don't listen to her. She has to live with it. And if you just randomly stumbled upon this, or were sent a link by a friend, feel free to vote even if you don't know me. In the event of a tie, I reserve the right to make the final decision.

My commitment to you: I will document the process and post the post-haircut pictures. I will try and keep the style for as long as I can before I have some kind of function where it would be inappropriate.

Here's what you have to work with:

Literacy Motivators

2009-08-24T15:50:00.002+08:00

Well, last post is a tough post to follow. So I haven't been too sure what to write next.

By way of news, I've finished up Summer Camp, which means all the things I've been putting off until work was done are now catching up to me. I've got some cleaning to do, emails to send, but more importantly, I'm starting my career as an author today.

Which isn't entirely true. Mostly I've just decided to try and be an author, and I'm starting to write this week. So it's not really a career yet, since nobody's given me any money.

I may actually put up a second blog for stuff I'm working on, so stay tuned on that one.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some thoughts on the things that inspire me toward literacy:

Salty Soda and Lime Green Tea Mentos Gum.

Random, I know.

But, as most of you know, I'm mostly illiterate when it comes to reading Chinese, so when I'm out and am buying some kind of new product, I'm very in the dark as to what it actually is. Most of the time it's not that big of a deal, but I had a couple jarring accidental purchases.

Salty Soda: 7-11 got in this new soda from a brand that I recognized, with the picture of a refreshing lemon on the front. It looked decent, so I bought it, but discovered upon drinking it that it was actually salty. Hmm. It wouldn't be so bad if M and I hadn't done that Lemonade Cleanse a few years ago, complete with the salt-water flush in the mornings. It's a long and exciting story involving some very urgent trips to the toilet. So the combination of lemon and salt-water made me feel like I was back on the cleanse, which was unpleasant to say the least. When I took the bottle home to show M, she pointed out that right on the front of the bottle it says "Salty Soda!" in Chinese. Ah. Good to know.

Lime Green Tea Gum: And then a few days later, I'd had too much garlic and onion for lunch, so I went looking for some gum to buy. Mentos seemed safe enough, so I bought the green stuff, which looked like spearmint to me. But alas, not so. I had M try it and we couldn't quite pin down the flavor(s) until she read the label for me. Lime and Green Tea. Hmm. Actually this gum wasn't really that bad, just weird. The salty soda on the other hand...

(On) A More Sober Note

2009-08-12T18:08:00.004+08:00

Living in Beijing for the past year has, for the most part, been a very safe experience. There are, of course, the ever-present fears of pickpockets or becoming a victim of vehicular maiming and dismemberment, but overall, it's a safe city. One of our Chinese friends once quoted a Chinese proverb to the effect of "No one tries anything at the foot of the emperor," as her explanation that Beijing was indeed quite safe.

On Sunday evening, some of the guys in my small group and I were heading out to grab some food when we noticed a crowd gathering outside the gate of an apartment complex. As we approached, it looked like a man was beating a three-wheel cart with a wrench. The four of us slowly realized the horror of the situation, and ran up to see what was really going on. We were pretty sure that there was a guy in the cart; we couldn't see him from our angle, but he must have been beat up pretty bad. As we ran closer, the guy with the wrench and his two friends threw a few parting kicks at the guy in the cart, and took off running. The injured man stood up, covered in blood, and stumbled his way toward some of the bystanders, who tried to convince him to sit down and wait for the police to come. Meanwhile, dozens of Chinese onlookers just stood around gaping in shock. A police vehicle and ambulance drove past, but the police took several minutes to actually arrive on scene. My friends and I left the scene, unsure whether we could actually help by getting involved.

The experience was surreal. Maybe it's that I've seen so many Chinese movies with this exact situation that when it actually does happen in real life, it's hard to believe it's real. Or that I never expected to be a witness to something like this and feel so helpless about it. I don't know how the system works and I can barely blurt out a full Chinese sentence. I wasn't even sure which of the four emergency numbers to call.

It's been a few days since the incident, and I've noticed that my experience of the city has changed. Maybe it's overly dramatic to say it, but it was traumatic. Is the city still (generally) safe? Yes. But for months I've had the impression that most Beijing residents live with latent anger management issues, simmering until some final straw brings the rage to a boil. A shouting match on the side of the road as two angry drivers argue about who is at fault. Vendors arguing over prime street positions to sell their wares.

My entries are usually pretty light-hearted. For me, humor can contribute to just about any situation. But this experience has left me sobered. I wasn't really sure how to write this up without having it be a jarring transition from most of my (not so) recent entries, but I'm coming to realize that as we keep this blog about our experiences here in Beijing, these awkward incongruities will happen. If only because urban life (especially life in a city which is at once so very prosperous and desperate, hilarious and horrific, pragmatic and absurd) is itself so full of these switchbacks and surprises.

So there you have it: a more sober note. And a commitment to be honest with you about life in this city, be it comic or tragic.

Random?

2009-08-01T21:16:00.003+08:00

I was scootering to work the other day and something fell out of a tree into my lap, landing with an ominous thud. Then it rolled out of my lap and fluttered away. I was going pretty fast, so I didn't get a clear look at it. But, I'm pretty sure it was a bird.

Scooters are awesome!

The Beans in the Plastic Bubble

2009-07-15T12:10:00.006+08:00

I've been saving this post for a few weeks, slowly figuring out in my head what to write. It's that awesome, so I hope I can do it justice.

Basically, about a month ago, M and I were dorking around on Facebook when she spotted some strange video on one of our Chinese friend's wall. She had filmed someone inside of a large plastic bubble rolling around on top of a large kiddie pool. Using her razor-sharp detective skills, M realized where the pool was: the U Center mall right in Wudaokou. We both looked at each other and yelled out, "We have to try this!" For us, it was just another one of those China experiences that you accumulate.

I was really worried that the event would close up shop, so I kept going by the U Center to find out when I could seal myself into one of these floating hamster balls. The security guards and cleaning ladies told me that it was only open from 4-7. Why someone would take the time to blow up a giant kiddie pool but only have it open three hours a day is beyond me...

So a couple Fridays ago, I had the day off, and I told myself: "The one thing I have to do today in order to call my day a success is get in that plastic bubble." I waited around all morning and afternoon, until around four, my friend Jeremy and I biked over to the U Center (stopping by Mcdonalds on the way to have a couple chicken wings and a coke). We could see the event organizers getting set-up, but they hadn't gotten started yet. We ran up to get in line, but they told us they were still waiting for some power and wouldn't start until 4:30. At which point, I made one of the more stupid decisions of my adult life. Right in front of the U Center, there was a little shack and patio with beer on tap, so Jeremy and I decided to have a beer while we waited for the bubbles to open. It ended up being a really crappy beer that didn't sit well, especially since I chugged it in anticipation of climbing in that crazy ball. Finally, a little after 5, they had all the extension cords they needed to pump up these balls and get started. By this time, I was experiencing a weird mixture of hype and disappointment. Weird, I know, I'm not really sure how it happens.

I climbed in first, and sat roasting in this plastic ball while 5 Chinese men tried to figure out how to pump it and then zip it really quickly before it deflated some. I'm pretty sure it took a good 10-15 minutes for them to figure it out. Right around then, M ran up and snapped a picture of me pretending to be an American (err Chinese?) Gladiator.

Finally, the ball was pumped and zipped, and they pushed me on my merry way. I wandered away to get my bearings while Jeremy was zipped into his ball. A crowd of Chinese people had gathered to watch and document the craziness. A number of them began picking up the floating plastic fruit that was bobbing in the pool and flinging them at my bubble, so as I walked around the pool, I kept hearing these echoing Zinging noises as lemons and pears ricocheted off my plastic force-field.

The water wasn't actually that deep, so my feet would kind of touch the ground, which struck me as a little dangerous, since if I fell on my head, it would pretty much just smack the concrete, slightly protected by a couple layers of plastic. But it wouldn't be a Chinese Bubble Party without a little bit of head-trauma risk, now would it? I got up the courage to try some acrobatics, and promptly ate it:

Once Jeremy was ready, I attacked him. Apparently, bubble dueling is a really interesting sport. I floated my way over to his bubble, put my hands against the wall of mine and then pushed them down really hard, making both our bubbles spin. I knocked him over a few times since he hadn't quite figured out how to keep his balance, but then he quickly learned and knocked me over quite a bit.

Eventually, M got suited up in her bubble, and the three of us spent a few minutes attacking each other.

After a particularly strenuous burst of energy, I was knocked over and found myself lying at the bottom of the bubble gasping for air. Whether it was the heat, the exertion, or the fact that I'd probably converted most of the available oxygen in my bubble into carbon-dioxide, I could only gasp little shallow breaths of air. Dizzy and disoriented, I fumbled my way over to the corner and the security guards unzipped the bubble and let me out. I stumbled around on dry land for a couple minutes while M and Jeremy finished up. The whole time, that stupid line from the Matrix kept running through my head: "He's gonna pop!" (Freakin' Cypher).

Here's what I've been trying to figure out how to write. How can I describe to you how utterly foreign and disorienting being in that ball was? I was simultaenously experiencing vertigo, seasickness, asphyxiation, dizziness, heat stroke, over-exertion, dehydration, and mild tipsiness. It was a pretty warm summer day, so the inside of the ball was really hot (and echo-y), and since the ball was always moving, we were basically constantly running in order to stay up. So I came out of the ball really really nauseous. I walked around for a bit, but was too dizzy to walk straight, so I ended up sitting down to try and cool off. M and J were out of their bubbles and came over to see how I was doing. I think because I'd been in their the longest, I was the most oxygen deprived out of the three of us. I started to feel better, so we headed over to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner, but every few minutes I'd get hit with another wave of nausea and have to sit down for a bit. M ended up doing all the shopping while I waited for her outside. On the way out, I felt really sick again, so I decided I'd just go to the bathroom and vomit so I didn't have to worry about it. I went into the bathroom and puked a little bit, while the cleaning dude watched in dismay. It wasn't that much, but I felt tons better.

Anyway, later when I had to tell my friends the story, they asked me if I'd do it again. And the answer is a resounding "Yes!" Although next time without the beer, or chicken wings, or coke.

Rabbit's Revenge

2009-07-09T09:48:00.005+08:00

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

2009-07-05T01:57:00.004+08:00

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

2009-06-24T11:58:00.004+08:00

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

2009-06-09T23:18:00.003+08:00

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

2009-06-03T01:52:00.002+08:00

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

2009-05-29T11:22:00.003+08:00

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

2009-05-22T10:25:00.006+08:00

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

2009-05-11T09:44:00.003+08:00

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

2009-05-04T00:35:00.005+08:00

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.)

The Beans Play Host (or, Florence Tries All Manner of Street Food)

2009-04-27T11:51:00.008+08:00

So, we got back from Shanghai last Friday and had a couple more days with Flo & Preston before they headed back to the states. The apartment feels so empty now without two extra bodies.

J and I passed out after dropping the kids off at the airport...almost a month straight of marathon hosting can really wear you out. But hey, that's how we roll. And between the fun of seeing family and good friends, and all the amazing food we've been eating, we really can't complain. :)

I thought I'd post some pics of our time with our guests here, but I should point out how funny it is that every group of people we host has very different ideas about what they "have to see." For my parents, it was random cultural or historical stuff (they'd been before, so no Wall or Forbidden City for them), and for Flo it was all about re-creating moments she saw on travel shows with Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain. Preston's non-negotiable was Shanghai. Hehe. Anyway, here are some pics from our adventures:

Part I: The Mais

We squeezed into three-wheelers.

From Beijing Dou

Then let my dad pretend to wheel my mom around.

From Beijing Dou

Took them to Houhai,

From Beijing Dou

where we fed them candied Haw on a stick (you know those little round flakes we used to eat as kids? These are the fruit they come from!).

From Beijing Dou

We ate lots of yummy food.

From Beijing Dou

Visited the Bird's Nest, of course.

From Beijing Dou

We took them to the zoo...

From Beijing Dou

Where they all saw pandas for the first time!

From Beijing Dou

Andrew, the budding filmmaker, captured colonial architecture in Tianjin.

From Beijing Dou

And of course, we took them to get foot massages...

From Beijing Dou

which I'm pretty sure was their favorite part. I mean, look at 'em.

From Beijing Dou

Part II: Floston

Preston had been to Beijing before, but this was Flo's first time on the mainland. So, we did some of the usual things.

Like take goofy pics

From Beijing Dou

...in the Forbidden City.

From Beijing Dou

No pictures of the Great Wall, because I sent Floston on the Boot Camp Great Wall Tour From Hell. I'll save that story for another post. In fact, maybe I'll let Florence tell it as a guest post. ;)

In Shanghai, we walked the underground tunnels...

From Beijing Dou

to the Bund.

From Beijing Dou

And had dinner in an old train station.

From Beijing Dou

(Sorry, this is me playing with my crappy iPhoto effects, because the color of this photo was all out of whack.)

It was all good and fun, but we all know the real focus of their trip (besides the shopping) was...

Street Food!!!

From Beijing Dou

Flo was OBSESSED! So, we ate meatballs filled with more meat, and soup.

From Beijing Dou

Preston tried Josh's fried potato-egg thing.

From Beijing Dou

And Flo fell in love with these candied strawberries on a stick (same stuff we fed my parents, but with strawberries, which for some reason are especially sweet and juicy here).

From Beijing Dou

In Shanghai, we had little soup buns,

From Beijing Dou

and big soup buns,

From Beijing Dou

and everybody's favorite, STINKY TOFU!!

From Beijing Dou

We also had these amazing shengjian bao (fried meat-filled buns topped with fresh scallion and sesame seeds) that I'm now kicking myself for not capturing on camera. They were so YUM.

*sigh*

Anyway, so that's how we've been spending our time.

Now, who wants to visit?? :)

One yuan, thirty seven seconds, and twenty one minutes

2009-04-19T21:37:00.004+08:00

Shanghai was awesome. The four of us are all big fans of the affectionately dubbed 'XLB' (xiaolongbao for the unitiated), so we hit up a bunch of different places, from OG street style to fancy hotels. Sustaining plenty of mild tongue burns in the process.

Quick Only in China moment:

We were at a touristy street food area near the Yu Gardens and Cheng Huang Miao (City God Temple?) and I stopped to use the public toilet. When I got to the entrance, they were charging a fee: 1rmb! That's freaking highway robbery here. But I had to pee, so I paid it. I'm glad I did, because once I got inside, I noticed this:

They have timers on the stalls (有人 means Occupied)! At first I thought they were counting down, like 1rmb only bought like 5 minutes on the squatter, but they're actually counting up. Which kind of sucks for the dude on this particular squatting pan...

Not really sure why they do this, but I think it's because here in the Motherland, they don't line up in one line, but line up in front of individual stalls, so this way, you're well informed on which stall to start your stakeout.

Glad to see my entrance fees are being put to good use.

Up Sea

2009-04-16T23:57:00.002+08:00

We've spent the past couple days being ShanghaiDou-s with our good friends Florence and Preston. They came to visit for a couple weeks, and since I had a few days off from work, we decided to take a short trip to Shanghai.

M had been through Shanghai a few years ago, but I'd only just flown into one airport and been bussed to the other.

We hit up a few of the touristy must-see spots, but mostly we've just been eating. And complaining about all the things that Shanghai has that Beijing doesn't. We're big whiners.

Hopefully we'll get around to a recap for y'all. I try not to blog too much while traveling; it makes me feel like a loser. Kind of sad, I guess, since one of my dream jobs is travel-blogging. But I guess if I was a travel blogger who blogged while traveling, I wouldn't be a loser...I'd be a blogger.

Telephone Pictionary

2009-04-08T23:04:00.004+08:00

Since it was a holiday on Monday but they still had class with me, I decided to play a game with some of my classes: Telephone Pictionary. For the unitiated, Telephone Pictionary is a game where everyone writes a word or phrase of their choice on a slip of paper, and then passes that with other papers so that people take turns drawing and then deciphering until it returns back to you. With the right group of people, hilarity ensues. Most of the students were either extremely unimaginative or cheaters, so there wasn't a whole lot of anything going on (although one guy drew a turd on top of a stem instead of drawing the flower he was supposed to. that had some promise), until one of my students decided to write "Josh" for his word. The guy after him drew this:

Hmm...apparently to my students I look like a long-haired overweight...axe murderer? I tried to ask him, "Why is there an axe in my hand?" But he couldn't tell me why. Definitely cause for concern. I guess 2 out of 3 ain't bad though :P.

Bear Cat / Cat Bear

2009-04-02T11:17:00.003+08:00

While M's parents were here, we went to the Beijing Zoo to check out the pandas. Unfortunately for us, we'd just missed the departure of six adorable panda cubs who were being sent back to their home in Chengdu the day before. I'm kind of glad we didn't go the day they left, though, because apparently there was a line all the way out into the street and winding through the park. I don't think I could have handled that. Me, lines, and Chinese people haven't been doing so well lately. In fact, as we were waiting in line at the zoo to buy our tickets, some Chinese dude walked up to the side of the ticket booth and shoved his money to buy his tickets. I was waiting for M's parents on that side, and they were next, so I got really peeved. So while he was waiting for his tickets, I kept nudging him and saying "Hey, get in line!" in Chinese. Then when he left, I thanked him sarcastically. I know it's petty of me, but I've been using the ironic 谢谢 a lot; it's the one thing that keeps me from flipping out on people on the subway, bus, etc. But, of course, I digress.

Most of the time the pandas were just sleeping on the rocks. But then one of them woke up and started eating:

Then we went outside and realized that some of the pandas were outside. One of which was pacing nervously:

Cracked.com sells a shirt with a picture of a panda that says "Nature's Loser." Monogamous, slow, only eats an endangered plant in a very small locale which gives so little nutrition that they have to spend most of their time finding and eating it. And this is a national symbol? Well, at least they're cute.

Alive and Well

2009-03-24T22:31:00.002+08:00

Things have been relatively uneventful, although we have a few posts backlogged: M's birthday bash, shots of the post-firework CCTV compound, randomness.

But you'll have to wait a little bit because M's family is in town. Hooray :).

We're in the middle of a whirlwind week with the in-laws, so we'll try and catch y'all up next week.

What the ???

2009-03-08T23:07:00.004+08:00

????

Here's the background.

Most Saturdays, I head over to Mcdonald's for lunch because it's really close to my work and consistently fast (even with the crazy rush of students with their parents/grandparents in tow), and that way I try not to eat it during the week. Yesterday was particularly busy, so I wedged myself into a booth across from a mother and her little boy (with ice cream all over his face). Shortly after, another mother sat down to my right with her daughter. The two kids watched curiously as I ate my meal. Meanwhile, it took every ounce of will not to lean over and wipe ice-cream-boy's face. I actually picked up a napkin to do it a couple times, but stopped myself. M and I joke that when something gets to us, we can't clench our fists. Usually it's when I'm intentionally doing something to annoy her. Needless to say, as I clutched my double cheeseburger (which, by the way, has 59% percent of the daily value of sodium. freaking a!) I could feel the strength leaving my grip.

But, I digress.

I quickly finished my food so the mother to my right could set her daughter down and eat in peace. As I went to dump my tray, I noticed the above pamphlet sitting on the rack for empty food trays. It looked kind of like the delivery menus that they'd been passing out that week, but the guy lifting his shirt to reveal his sores kind of caught my eye.

The literal translation is: I this am how AH?
The actual translation, according to M, is: What is this stuff on me?

So I'm not trying to make light of the situation or the pamphlet, because, Lord knows, there's a need for more awareness here. I'm just passing on the shock that I had when coming across such a, for lack of a better word, striking image.

So 中国的AIDS awareness加油! Let's just hope they can work on refining the campaign just a bit...

Abercrombif & Titch

2009-03-02T16:22:00.002+08:00

One of the more popular ice-cream vendor freezer models has this little gem emblazoned across the front of it.

Nothing like some Abercrombif & Titch ice cream to follow up a hearty dinner of B.J. Bowel Bean Floor Noodle

White Beijing

2009-02-20T21:26:00.002+08:00

There's been a bit of fuss around here lately about a drought here in Beijing and surrounding environs. Apparently it hadn't rained in over 3 months, so when it finally rained last week, it was a bit of a relief. But I was a bit suspicious. Especially when it snowed for a couple days after that.

So when I read online that the rain (and snow) had been seeded, I wasn't so surprised. My theory is that they used up all their fall rain by shooting their rain-making missiles in the summer, so now they have to get a rain advance on their spring rain.

I don't mind the snow so much, although apparently a few of the highways around had to be closed. Hopefully the cold has refrozen the lakes so we can go icechairing again!

Kungfu Valentine

2009-02-14T22:16:00.007+08:00

I'm not too big a fan of celebrating Valentine's day, but I've learned from past experience it's just better to play along than to take a stand. I wasn't expecting much out of the nation of China; however, apparently young Chinese couples go bonkers for Valentine's day here. People were all upons with flowers and chocolate and what have you.

Which made me feel a little bad that I had to work and hadn't really planned any festivities for the Missus. Some of my classes were canceled on account of my students going back to school this weekend, but I still had a few ones. Unfortunately for M, I was scheduled for class from 6-8pm.

I spent most of my Valentine's Day (poorly) drawing bad puns on the board for my students to mimic:

Yes, that's a sad sad attempt at a panda. I had forgotten how the black/white pattern goes.

M and I met during a break in the afternoon; we walked to a nearby mall and encountered this bad boy:

This stage was set-up in the middle of the mall for an amateur fashion show, audience karaoke competition, kissing game, and more. We stuck around just long enough to watch this guy get his groove on and listen to a couple crowd members croon the latest Chinese love songs, before we decided to move along.

After I finished class, M and I had a nice Indian meal at a restaurant called Ganges. They have great food, but I'm not so stoked on the name since it calls up mental images like this Google image result (which I consider pretty tame as far as shots of the Ganges are concerned):

Icechairing

2009-02-08T23:57:00.005+08:00

Last Sunday, our friends (we'll call S and C) wanted to check out the 北大 (Peking University) campus. Unfortunately for M, she was sick at home with the some kind of strange stomach virus, which took her out for a few days, so she couldn't go exploring with us.

We started at the East Gate of the university and worked our way in, stopping only to play a bit of hackey-sack on the steps of a somewhat imposing library facade. As we wandered, we noticed arrows pointing out the way to a lake, and we couldn't resist. We did get lost a few times, but we found it eventually. The lake was (mostly) frozen over, and apparently in China when lakes (mostly) freeze, swarms of industrious businessmen and women flock to peddle their wares. Ice skates, carmelized haw on a sharp stick, books, etc.

But what really got us were these badboys:

Old school (as in kindergarten circa 1985) chairs nailed to planks of wood atop two rusty runners, throw in a couple metal spikes with which to get around, and you've got yourself a winner. Not until after I picked it did I realize that my chair didn't have a back, just two posts of a wood with a couple passes of packing tape across the back.

Next to the icechairs, they had real ice skates for the same price, but ice skating is out, chairs are the new skate.

(I have a sneaking suspicion they were invented for Chinese grandparents who want to keep a watchful eye on their budding ice princesses and ice princes.)

The icechair vendor had a tandem chair set, but he charged extra, so S and I decided to rent our own. C opted to walk out on the ice, although when tempted, he caved and rode a chair for a bit.

10rmb ($1.50) for as long as we wanted out on the ice, which ended up being about 20 minutes. S and I raced a couple times, but my chair was more defective than his, so whoever was in my chair lost. It was pure adrenaline weaving between the bumbling kids on ice skates, fellow icechairers, and the occasional suspicious-looking-burn-marked pothole filled with firework scraps.

We haven't really been keeping up with the Only in China posts, but I'm pretty sure this counts as one.

Back to the Grind

2009-02-04T14:25:00.005+08:00

After almost two weeks of a ghost-town, Beijingers headed back to work this week. Unfortunately for me, I'm among the group. I have an exciting couple weeks ahead, since I'm working English camp during the week while still working my usual weekend classes. It shouldn't be as bad as my crazy camp schedule over the summer, though.

The past two weeks we had a couple friends in town, so there were 3 of us guys and M all crammed into our studio apartment. I think M felt like a mother hen as she prodded 3 guys, all staring at their computers unresponsively. We also learned that our little toilet wasn't built for 4 :P.

On the Spring Festival front, the firecrackers have slowed a bit, but they'll be back for a finale on the last day of the festival. Apparently, after the Lantern Festival, no one will be able to light off fireworks, so everyone will be lighting off everything they have left. I'm hoping that all the fireworks stands, which are on just about every corner, will light off all their unsold stock. I'm sure they could pass it off as an 'accident'.

春节愉快！(or Happy Spring Festival!)

2009-01-26T01:08:00.004+08:00

As most of you probably already know, tonight is the eve of the Lunar New Year. We celebrated by enjoying some delicious dumplings and home cooked Korean food, playing a traditional Korean game called "Yut," and setting off some underwhelming but still very fun fireworks. (We were beginners, and the guy who was lighting the fuse risked blowing off his arm plenty of times as it was...)

Finally, J and our two visitors hopped on the last subway home. When we got through the door, it was about 11:30pm, and it felt like we were in the midst of enemy fire. But of course, it was really just our friendly neighbors celebrating the biggest event of the year in style.

This was the view just outside our window, from our apartment on the 17th floor. Apparently, most fireworks sold in China are designed to explode right about...oh, the 17th floor. We know this because those puppies were popping right into our frickin' faces, like so:

From Beijing Dou

And also:

From Beijing Dou

Oh, and check out this cool double helixy one:

From Beijing Dou

"But, Marilyn!" you exclaim, "Those fireworks are exploding not more than 20 yards away from all those residential high rises! That can't be safe!"

Never fear, my friend, because we currently reside in a glorious nation whose iron-grip government does not regulate the sales of such explosives on the open street, nor the whims of ordinary citizens as they set them ablaze. If the good ol' CCP's not worried, we needn't be, right? All in good fun! (Ok, maybe that's not entirely true. We've heard people aren't allowed to set them off on private property...but wait, how does that keep up from blowing our limbs off? Or each others' faces?)

Anyway, all this leads to probably the most spectacular, and profuse, display of fireworks I've ever seen this up close. I didn't really capture the full effect on camera, but a quick glance out our window revealed layers upon layers of exploding balls of light for miles in every direction. It's now 2 hours since we've gotten home, and it's still going strong...

So, to finish this post as we head to bed (assuming we can fall asleep to the sweet tunes of sporadically exploding gunpowder), I will borrow an overused and groan-inducing pun that we've been seeing EVERYWHERE here:

Happy 牛 Year!!*

*[FYI, "牛," pronounced "niu," is the character for "cow" or "ox," which--conveniently enough for punsters everywhere (have I mentioned how much Chinese people love puns?)--happens to be the Chinese zodiac animal representing the new Lunar Year.]

Historymaker?

2009-01-22T10:24:00.004+08:00

Sunday we got the chance to go to the band Delirious's first concert in China. Some of you might not be familiar with them--they're one of the more well-known Christian bands. They wrote the song "I Could Sing of Your Love (Over the Mountains and the Sea)". Although in recent years I haven't really kept up with their music, one of their earlier CDs had a huge impact on me when I was in high school, so I wanted to check out the show.

The venue was a small local club, perched atop several floors of high-class KTVs (karaoke bars). It was a marked contrast from the last time I saw them, a 30,000+ person Christian music festival that I was volunteering at. A welcome one.

Early in the set, as Martin was talking about how incredible it was that they were finally able to play a show in China, he mentioned that they weren't allowed to play many of their songs. It cast a slightly ominous mood over the show, but it also brought the audience together in focus.

The concert was remarkably refreshing for me. From the boisterous moments of worship to the "Here I am, send me" anthems, the energy in the room was powerful. As the audience warmed up and began to jump, sing, shout, dance, it felt as if all of us were emerging from a long silence, from whispered words and hushed tones, erupting in praise as one voice.

"History Maker" was a sharp reminder for me to remember to dream big. To believe that, with Help, any of us can change history:

I want to be a history maker in this land.
I want to be a speaker of truth to all mankind.
I'm gonna stand.
I'm gonna run into your arms.

Youtube's already got some clips from the show:

Signs of the Times

2009-01-14T14:56:00.004+08:00

Saw this guy in the bathroom at the Shenzhen airport.

M and I were really excited when we found out there was a supermarket opening up in the basement of our building. Today, when I noticed that they sell crack, I got even more excited.

It's a Flat, Flat World

2009-01-09T12:47:00.003+08:00

M owes you a post, so if this post bores you, blame her.

For the past few years, I've been functionally illiterate. At least when it comes to books. Growing up, I loved reading, but I burned out on it in college (and my post-college internship at a church, which had a pretty hefty reading plan). In the past few years, I've read only a couple books, opting instead to play video games and mindlessly surf the net, reading blogs and news instead. But I miss reading, so I've been slowly trying to get back into it again.

Here in Beijing, we have a lot of downtime on the subway and bus, since most of the time anywhere we want to go takes at least half an hour. Lately I've been thinking, why not use that time to read instead of just playing DS or people-watching. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon one of those carts of pirated books with a pretty decent selection of English books. Yes, they even pirate books here. I'm sure the profit margins aren't nearly as good as pirated DVDs, but printing here is really cheap. The book cart had a couple books I'd missed out on during my non-reading phase: The World is Flat and Freakonomics. I haggled with the pirate book seller (arrrr!) and bought the two of them for 20rmb (~$3usd).

A couple years ago, The World is Flat made a big splash, but I was never sure why, so I wanted to check it out. It's pretty much old news now, and for most of us internet generation kids, it was old news back then too. Thomas Friedman argues that the world has undergone a flattening, mainly through globalism and technology, that has leveled the playing field for people anywhere around the world in unprecedented ways, specifically with regards to outsourcing. And the irony is that I've more or less proven it for him. The past few days, I've been using some passages in his book as material for some of my classes. No big deal, you might think, except that I'm working with outsourced engineers. An English book about outsourcers can find its way into the hands of Chinese book piraters, who then scan (very poorly, I might add, half the words have the wrong letters or even numbers) the book and distribute it to back-alley book sellers, who then sell it to some random ABC kid wandering around the streets of Beijing, who then uses it to with outsourcers to train English communication skills. *shrug* I guess the world really is flat.

But these days, what's been on my mind is that the world is small. As in tiny. M spent a few days in Hong Kong with my aunt and uncle before I finished up work and joined her. The first day she arrived, she took the subway to near my uncle's place and hopped on a 16 seat minibus. From the back of the bus, she hears someone calling her name, and turns to discover our friend Bernice. Mind you, M knows all of about 2 people in Hong Kong at this point. And she just happens to run into one of them. Or yesterday I found out that a couple of our friends that we met here in Beijing went on vacation in Spain with one of M's good friends from high school. Totally random. I've got a dozen other stories just like these, but they've become so commonplace that I've given up trying to remember them.

Durian 2.0

2009-01-04T23:32:00.005+08:00

With sad looks on our faces, we left Taiwan today. We had complicated our whole trip by traveling by way of Shenzhen/Hong Kong (because Marilyn was already in Shenzhen for work, and tickets from Hong Kong to Taipei were half the cost of Beijing to Taipei), so we're back in Hong Kong for a night before we head back to Beijing tomorrow.

The night before we left for Taiwan, M and I had decided to check out this dessert place across the street from my uncle and aunt's flat. My aunt had pointed it out and told us it was pretty famous, so we couldn't resist. We got there around midnight and the place was packed, half of the seating area jammed in under these giant tents in front of the building. This place is famous for its durian and mango desserts, but the first time around we chickened out and just had a crispy mango roll and a mango pudding with cream and pomelo. We flipped out. The mango was some of the best mango we'd ever had and the flavors and textures came together really nicely.

So...fast forward to tonight. M and I make it to HK in time for dinner with my uncle and aunt, and then we head across the street to the dessert place. This time we got a crispy banana roll (which we'd tried to get the first time, but they ran out) and mango with black glutinous rice and cream. The place wasn't that busy tonight, so they brought the dessert out really quickly. As M and I were enjoying the sweet, creamy, and lightly tangy taste of the mango, I got to thinking. If the mango here is so good, maybe the durian is delicious too. Maybe I've just never given it a chance. At first, M was unsure about it, but I convinced her to order another dessert: durian and whipped cream wrapped in something like a crepe or swedish pancake.

The two little puffy guys appeared and M and I stared at them, hesitating. M made the first move and cut open the roll with her fork...that old familiar durian smell wafted into our nostrils. Summoning our courage, we each speared a big bite of durian roll and popped it into our mouth. My tastebuds reeled as I supressed a gag. My brain registered scrambled eggs with green onion and leftover minced pork, but my mouth registered some kind of fruit, cream, and crepe. Maybe the second bite will be better, we wondered out loud simultaneously. Nope. Grimacing, we ever so slowly finished one of the puffs. Relieved, I went back to finishing our banana roll and mango with black glutinous rice, but M wasn't done. The other puffy roll just sat there, watching her. Feeling bad, she cut him open and decided to taste just the cream. Still gross. Then she took a full bite and realized that the other puff wasn't actually so nasty. Oh the pain, if only we'd eaten the half-bad one instead of the totally gross one.

So here I sit, periodically burping, filling the room with the lingering odors of premium grade durian. If any of you were wondering, like me, if fresh high quality durian is sweeter and less funky, wonder no more. If tonight's dessert was any proof, premium grade durian isn't sweeter, it's funkier.

My apologies to those of you readers and friends who love durian, but I've tried a few times and I just can't do it. It is a foul abomination of a fruit.

Ringing in the New Year, Taiwan style

2009-01-01T18:30:00.003+08:00

Happy 2009 to you. We can't believe how quickly 2008 went by.

After Hong Kong, we met up with our best friends from our year in Michigan, Gary and Kat, who we hadn't seen since we left in May. Gary's parents live in Taipei, so we stopped there first.

Then we headed to Yilan, where I discovered that I'd missed my calling as a puppeteer:

and M discovered that she had missed her calling as a Qing dynasty princess:

I know, I know, kitschy tourist trap stuff, but we do it with a smug sense of irony. Which makes it all okay. Plus a favorable exchange rate makes it a little more reasonable. (We weren't supposed to take any pictures while they were photographing us, but Gary used his ninja skills to shoot this while no one was looking.)

Next, we headed to the coastal city of Hualien on the East side of the island. So gorgeous-- from beaches to mountain areas, cliffs to valleys, this place is awesome.

M got sick of the same old smiling pose, so I decided to innovate:

We made it back to Taipei late last night in time to watch the famous Taipei 101 firework spectacular. We didn't feel up for heading into the downtown area, so we just watched from the balcony.

The whole time zone thing really throws me off, though. Kind of like how it felt watching Times Square three hours later every year in California, except this time, it was 12 hours earlier and in Taiwan. Hmm.

It was a semi-crazy ending to a crazy year. Crazy, but incredible too. M and I both feel deeply blessed to have the family and friends we do, and, of course, plenty of meals and adventures to share with them.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T15:08:00.003+08:00

To all our readers, dear friends and family, we wish you a joyful and merry Christmas.

A little bummed about not being able to spend it with our families in California, we settled for the happiest place on earth:

I'd been to Disneyland Hong Kong a few years back as part of a family reunion, but M had never been. We figured Christmas was as good a time as any to go. Unfortunately for us, so did several thousand other people.

I'm sure M will have plenty to write about this wonderful place, but in the meantime, for your viewing pleasure:

Not my gumdrop buttons!

And to all a goodnight!

Reunited...

2008-12-23T19:57:00.003+08:00

and it feels so good. (Bet you didn't see that one coming)

I made it to Hong Kong safe and sound, thus ending our international posting schedule.

While going from Beijing to Hong Kong is always a jarring experience price-wise, it's also an extremely comforting one, especially since we have family to stay with. Yesterday, we bummed around a bit and then went out to dinner with my aunt. Halfway through a gleeful dinner of noodles and xiaolongbao, she announced it was her anniversary. We're glad we stuck around to celebrate it with her, since my uncle went to the states a couple days before her. After dinner, we went through a couple malls doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, then met up with Justin (randomly bumping into his friends on the way) at this crazy arcade because Justin's friend wanted to use up 3 months of change. My eyes got all big when we walked in, this place was legit, I'm definitely going back.

It was a rough week and a half without M. We really are pretty weak sauce. Is it possible for a married couple to be too attached? Too dependent? Hmm...

I joked with M that I felt kind of like a domesticated animal released back into the wild. Lacking basic survival skills, I resorted to foraging for food, namely Mcdonalds and Subway.

La Vida Loca

2008-12-19T12:21:00.005+08:00

While M's been down south, I've been trying to keep myself busy. So, when my friend Judy asked me and our friend Zeke to help accompany her at a singing competition, I jumped at the chance. She had already placed in the audition, so this was a finals competition.

Here were the songs she picked:

SeeqPod - Playable Search

Typical to China, Judy had only been given a week's notice about the event, so we didn't think it'd be too big of a deal. Little did we know.

Monday night, we show up to the venue at Peking University and the place is abuzz with craziness. Apparently, one of our favorite brands of ramen noodles was sponsoring the event, so there were stacks of ramen everywhere. People were giving out free hand-clappers, thunder-sticks, glow bracelets, at the door, setting up bubble and smoke machines, dv-cams, and projector screens. While we were soundchecking, friends were making signs for each of the participants:

It turns out this was the Beijing area university finals for a Idol style competition, the winner would perform in the city-wide competition in the spring. The stakes were high for the 11 other karaoke star compatriots we would be facing off against. Zeke and I surveyed the competition, quickly becoming confused. Some of our competitors were androgynous. We spent several minutes debating ("Totally a guy..." "No, wait" "But...").

Eventually, the event started and we were ushered backstage. The night started off with a bang: a foreign student hip-hop crew doing an evolution of dance style routine (as a guest act, not in the competition). While I'm sure some of the jokes were lost on our native Chinese audience (Will and Carlton's dance, anybody?), it certainly got the crowd riled up.

One of the contestants was a hip hop crew + rapper team, replete with full choreography. Another group was an a capella group who did a medley of Jay Chou's Jian Dan Ai, which sounded kind of like these guys from UM, although instead of Where is the Love?, they medleyed Jay with Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. I used to sing those two songs together, so if anyone asks, you can tell them you heard it here first...

One of the most epic performances was Livin' La Vida Loca by one of the aforementioned ambiguities. Shortly before the performance, Zeke and I had confirmed that she was indeed, well, a she. As she began, these two scantily clad dancers walked out from either side of the stage. Halfway through the song, the dancers shimmied up to the singer and ripped away her white shirt to reveal another a black shirt with tears in it (I think it was cued to that part about waking up in New York City). Pretty exciting stuff. I'm just glad she didn't do a different Ricky Martin song, infamized by one of my floormates in college: She Bangs.

After we performed our first song, we got some feedback from a panel of pseudo-famous people. It was surprisingly fun, actually, the whole Idol/reality TV feel. Then they narrowed the competition and we performed our second song. Unfortunately, here's where we lost to one of the girls who sounds like a guy. She eventually went on to win the competition, though, so it's kind of like we got second place :).

Most of the contestants at the end were the guys who sang like girls or the girls who sang like guys. Judy says it might be because Chinese people think that's really impressive. Hmmm...well that's cool, I guess. Too bad they haven't discovered this guy, Nick Pitera, yet:

(Oh, I just read that Nick works for Pixar now...Berkeley crew, you guys should find this guy and be his friend! So hot.)

So what ARE you doing in China?

2008-12-16T16:32:00.004+08:00

I get asked this question a lot, so I figured I may as well start a series here to talk about my research and work in Beijing. So, technically I'm still a UM student, who is here on a research fellowship for the completion of my thesis. Once I'm done here, I will be done with my program. As part of my research, I'm basically interning for China's first and arguably most well-known* independent documentary director Wu Wenguang. His breakout film was an independent documentary called "Bumming in Beijing," or <<流浪北京>>。(*When I say well-known, I mean in international academic and independent art circles, not in China. In everyday China, he's about as famous as...well, me. Which is not much.)

Basically, he came to Ann Arbor about a year ago to screen some of his films, and that's how I was offered the opportunity to come intern at his independent arts space, Caochangdi Workstation (CCD). I do a lot of translation work for them, mostly film subtitles for their Villager Documentary Project, and in return, I get to hang around and use their archives, and basically get to know how things work so that I can write my Masters thesis about this space and the Villager Project.

Some of you already know this, but the Villager Documentary Project is Wu's latest and biggest project, and it basically features four villagers who were given digital video cameras three years ago, and told to film their villages (the project actually began with 10 villagers, but most of them have fallen off the map). Each of these villagers has now completed one short film and two feature length documentaries, and are on their way to producing a third. Each year, they gather footage of their village life on their DV cams, and then come to Beijing to edit their films at CCD. You can already guess what issues might arise from a project like this: everything from fascination about the footage they capture, to questions about the quality of their films, and even deeper to what an opportunity like this might do for their roles in society. More on this later.

I know this is all very complicated. Don't worry, no pop quizzes anytime soon. Anyway, I'll update about my work little by little, but that's the general introduction to what I'm doing here.

On a more recent note, I just spent the weekend in Shenzhen for a contemporary arts festival that invited CCD to screen documentaries and perform at the OCAT Art Museum and Contemporary Art Terminal. Shenzhen is one of China's special economic zones, and pretty much any of you blog readers probably has a much closer relationship to the city than you realize: unless you're an avid American Apparel shopper, your underwear, shoes, bags, Apple computers, you name it, were probably all produced there. Between Olympics policies and the financial crisis, many of Shenzhen's factories are closing down, leaving throngs of Chinese migrant workers unemployed.

Meanwhile, it appears the city is trying to build a hip, yuppie indie art culture into its industrial infrastructure. The bourgie "Overseas Chinese Town" (OCT for short) is now overrun with posh hotels, art museums, lofts, and of course the obligatory Starbucks. Throw in some amazingly cheap Southern Chinese cuisine (crab and garlic noodles, anyone?), not to mention some gaudy theme parks--you know, for irony's sake--and you have the hipster traveler's dream come true.

We spent two full days and one extra night screening and discussing the villagers' films, as well as a film by Wu himself, and another three films by young documentary filmmakers also supported by CCD. It's been hard for me sometimes, because at this point in the Villager Project, we're beginning to see the growing tension between the villagers' rural identities and their newfound posts as documentary directors. What must it feel like to be wrenched from your familiar (if difficult) life, and plopped into the already complicated Chinese independent art scene, drooled over by international artists and academics, and made to feel like somehow Change is in your hands? Who are they, Obama?

So, seeing as how this is my Masters thesis, I'm still processing through the myriad tumbling thoughts in my head, and I'll spare you the mess in there. This can get the ball rolling, and the next time I start spewing about this stuff, you'll at least know the basics.

For now, I will leave you with a couple pictures.

Here's Wu himself treating us to McDonald's. It was pretty sweet to document China's premier independent documentary filmmaker patronizing this familiar global establishment. Muahaha:

From Beijing Dou

And here are a couple of the villagers, starting with Wang Wei, from Shandong Province:

From Beijing Dou

and my favorite, Shao Yuzhen, who lives in Shunyi, near Beijing:

From Beijing Dou

She's invited us to her home to visit sometime during the Spring Festival vacation. Will definitely post about that!

Anyway, just some brief comments about how I spend my time here. More to come in the "What ARE we doing in China" series. Maybe Josh will tell you all about his dream to start a massage parlor slash Chinese school.

So cold

2008-12-11T14:16:00.002+08:00

It's freezing here! We were forewarned that Beijing would be cold, and this isn't even the worst of it. Our friend Tim says it gets as cold as 5 degrees fahrenheit during the day in January. Yikes!

We thought the puffy jackets that got us through a Michigan winter would hold up, but if it gets any colder, I'll have to add more layers. I've been perpetually wearing my long underwear bottoms too, but I still feel cold...maybe I'll do what I did in Mongolia and wear long underwear, sweats, and pants. That way if I come across any stray horses I can ride them without fear of chafing.

Also of note, M and I found an awesome Korean restaurant. Monday, our friend Nate took us there; we ate ourselves silly for cheap. Then yesterday, we took Justin there and ate ourselves even sillier. Oh, and last week we found a decent Pho/Vietnamese restaurant. I've been telling M that Beijing feels so much more livable now. Heh, we sure love to eat.

Tomorrow M leaves for a film festival in Shenzhen, and then she'll stay in Hong Kong with my aunt and uncle for a week before we fly to Taiwan from there. This'll be the longest we've been apart since we got married! :(. So sad.

Bait and Switch

2008-12-07T00:10:00.007+08:00

Every other Friday I have a private tutoring session with a 10 year old boy named Tom, after Tom and Jerry. He's a blast, and, just like his namesake, he really enjoys meowing. Since M had the day off, she came along for kicks.

The session was mostly uneventful. M sat at the table with me so she could draw pictures of random vocabulary from his English textbook to help him understand the words: piranhas, porcupines, turkeys, cacti, ice skates...you know, essential words for a ten year old.

After the session, we were talking with his mom for a few minutes when she offered us some snacks. Conveniently stored in a metal Danish Butter Cookie tin. I bet some of your parents totally did that growing up. Inside she had some tamarind candies, some kind of strange haw-jerky/brick, and an unopened bag of caramels.

They looked kind of like these bad boys:

I used to love these guys when I was growing up. Total teeth killers.

I eyed the caramels, but decided against making a move for them, opting instead for one tamarind candy. Somehow, Tom's mom started telling us how her husband had brought them back from some business trip to Thailand but she doesn't really know what they are. Hmm...She offers them to us, but we politely refuse, she insists, and hands the bag to Tom to open. As she passes the bag, I get a glimpse at the tag:

Durian Toffee

For those of you who have never had the experience that is Durian, a bunch of us in Berkeley realized it tastes a lot like: Gasoline...ice cream...onion...egg (in that order. For full effect, please march in place in between flavors).

Alarms went off in my head. Abort! Abort!

It was too late. Tom comes running back with scissors and eagerly cuts open the bag. All of us hesitate, staring awkwardly at the open bag. I gingerly pick one up, the crisp wrapper crackling in my hands as I remove it.

Imagine that you took a toffee candy, hid it inside a durian fruit, and buried the fruit underground for two weeks.

The only real saving grace was that I could lean over and breath my durian breath on M for the rest of the night. Good times.

This, by the way, is what a durian looks like:

Uncracked, it looks like some kind of medieval torture device. Inside, it looks like alien baby after-birth.

Thanksgiving in Beijing

2008-11-30T23:50:00.006+08:00

As this was our first Thanksgiving outside of America, we were a little unsure about how we'd fare. I'm a big fan of the traditional Thanksgiving spread. Mostly because I can only get that particular combination of dishes and flavors a couple times a year. The week before the big day, M realized that she had to go to a lecture at Beijing University at 6 on Thanksgiving Day. Oh no!

It quickly hit us: Thanksgiving is American. For most of the rest of the world, it's just some random Thursday. Speaking of which, who was the wise guy who put it on a Thursday? Seriously. I mean, it was nice to be able to get Thursday and Friday off back in the day, but really, it just caused heaps of trouble. Anyone else remember the Tuesday night all-nighters, stumbling to that 4:00 class the next day to take that mandatory midterm from a very un-thankful professor? Or the 12+ hour bumper to bumper rides from Norcal to Socal and back again? Oh America!

Since I had a couple hours of work in the morning and M had the lecture at 6pm, we weren't really sure how we'd celebrate. But some of our newly reunited friends here in the city invited us to their potluck shindig that started at 3pm. Perfect! And what a shindig it was. M has repeatedly exclaimed that it was quite possibly her best Thanksgiving meal ever. She's still whining about how that lecture prevented her from just eating non-stop all night. It's possible we've been craving normal Western food for so long that our taste buds were in withdrawal, but the meal was freakin' awesome.

Those of you who know us well enough are probably laughing by now, since you probably figured we'd just gush about the food first. Yes, we're a couple of mini-gluttons.

We are thankful though. The holiday was a nice opportunity to step back and reflect on the near overwhelming sense of blessing and provision we've been feeling lately. We talk a lot of trash about being here in China, mostly for a good laugh and to keep the blog interesting, but also because there are times when we're genuinely freaked out about being here. In all of the craziness, though, there are these amazingly clear pinpoints of God's love and provision--surprising and exciting job opportunities, chance encounters with friends we needed to see, great conversations with new friends that we really enjoy, the list goes on. And we're nothing special; I guess all I'm really trying to say is that Beijing has, in many ways, made me more grateful, more able to see and appreciate the ways we're being cared for. I need these reminders, ungrateful wretch that I am.

On that note, a happy belated Thanksgiving to all of you!

PS: I totally rickrolled one of my classes today. I brought my guitar to some of my classes, and one of my younger classes, 7-8 year olds, was acting up while I was trying to sing them some kid's song, so I stopped. Paused. And said, "Ok, fine, now I'm going to sing you a very famous song." I just couldn't let them down.

Marilyn's Guide to Procrastination

2008-11-24T10:28:00.004+08:00

1. Take a summer course that's more play than work.
2. Get used to it.
3. Take note that there's a paper to write, "technically" due in December.
4. Tell yourself you should just get it done before the summer's over.
5. Of course, don't listen.
6. Spend most of your time "doing research" for your thesis, watching American TV shows on youku.com, and fleeing the country because of "visa issues."
7. Learn from your Professor in mid-November that the paper is now due on Thanksgiving Day.
8. Freak out just a little, but not enough to spur you into action.
9. Spend another few days telling yourself to write it, but find yourself playing 80s hits on bass guitar at a Chinese rehearsal studio, then playing card games over ramen and kimchi. (Proof that sometimes the most exciting things happen when you're procrastinating.)
10. Write a blog entry about writing your paper instead of actually writing it.

**Edit**
11. FINISH THE PAPER. After a 5am bedtime and only 3 hours of sleep.

OK, so do yourselves a favor and don't actually follow that guide, because it's terrible. J and I are always talking about how I have the worst combination when it comes to productivity: Type A expectations with Type B habits. This wreaks havoc on my psyche anytime a deadline shows up on the horizon.

Now is one of those times...a 15 page paper looms over me like an ion-infused cloud threatening to pour down rain, and I just keep popping up umbrellas of all different shapes and sizes to elude its existence.

Today, I'm really going to work on it. I promise. I just figured that since I'd promised a post about my school-related stuff, I'd use this as a chance to flesh out my thoughts a little. ;)

Anyway, I'm comparing two films, one by Jia Zhangke and the other by one of the villager documentarists I'm writing my MA thesis on, a woman named Shao Yuzhen.

If you want to check out any Chinese films from the last few years, most people would tell you Jia Zhangke is the guy to watch. His films (Xiao wu a.k.a. Pickpocket, Unknown Pleasures, The World, Still Life, etc.) consistently pick up international art film festival awards (including the coveted Golden Lion from Venice for his latest, Still Life), and critics and scholars alike drool over his raw post-socialist realist aesthetic and tongue-in-cheek commentary on Chinese society:

Of course, his films contain a lot of the same characteristics we've all come to expect from Chinese cinema: slow pace; long takes and shots; raw image quality; no "ending"...so don't expect Jerry Bruckheimer or anything. But, if you're feeling like brushing up on the global indie culture scene, here's a decent place to start.

Shao Yuzhen, on the other hand, is exactly what I called her: a villager, who now happens to make documentaries. That's because the director I'm interning for, Wu Wenguang, gave her (and 9 others) a digital video cam, and told her to film whatever she wanted around her village. Then he invited her to come to his studio in Beijing to edit her footage. Shao got some great material of a CCTV crew coming into her village, feeding her husband almost word for word some praises about the CCP's new rural tax exemption, then broadcasting it on the news like it really came from his heart. Hmm. Shao works in relative anonymity (especially compared to the likes of Jia Zhangke), which is part of the whole plan, because then she's able to just live among her fellow villagers and capture these amazing nuggets of video gold about contemporary village life in China.

So, I'm interested in comparing the two, particularly with regards to how they use absurdity (and a little absurdism) to highlight "realities" of their post-socialist society.

Ok, ok...back to work. Wish me luck.

Bike Hero, FTW!

2008-11-20T09:18:00.004+08:00

Update: Okay, so it's totally viral. I still love the video. Here's a funny response to it but some guy actually shredding guitar hero on a bike: Bike Hero on Expert

And now we see how deep this viral rabbit trail really goes.

**

Normally, I refrain from just posting links and videos that I like here. I spend so much time in the underbelly of the internet that I'd flood you all with weird stunts.

This particular stunt, however, is so awesome that I have to share it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Bike Hero.

Hat's off to these illustrious teens (or viral marketing team) and the inordinate amount of free time that they have.

Only in China (Lightbulb Edition)

2008-11-16T23:11:00.006+08:00

Late Friday afternoon, M and I returned from a trip to the Silk Market, where we had bought some shoes for me and boots for her. (Random tidbit: I hate wearing shoes, but I like to buy them. Having lived in Ann Arbor and now Beijing, though, I've gotten to wear the shoes I've bought much more often than when I lived in California.) We opened the door to our apartment and turned on the light. There was a bright flash, a snap, crackle, pop, and then glass shattered onto the floor in front of us. As you can guess, one of the lightbulbs had exploded. Oh, China.

All the power in our apartment was fried. Thankfully, the management of our place is helpful, so we called them to see if they could send someone up to look at what happened. We figured it was probably just a short and we could reset the fuses to restore power. But when your lightbulbs are exploding, it's worth having a "professional" take a look. While we waited for the maintenance guys to come, I swept up the bits up burnt broken glass. Eventually, the guys showed up and took a look around. They mumbled something about how it was just a short and flipped a few switches, which turned the power back on. They did offer to change our lightbulbs for 5rmb once we had bought replacements.

Now I've developed a semi-conscious habit of not standing under lightbulbs. I guess it's the "avoid shards of flaming glass embedded in my skull" instinct kicking in. The thing about Only in China moments is they can often be followed up with "Wow! If I'd only been [a foot closer / a moment sooner / a day later] I might have been [killed / maimed / neutered].

Mongolia : Day 6

2008-11-13T14:13:00.007+08:00

It's hard to follow up such an exciting post. Especially such a well written one. And especially with the details of another 30 hour train ride.

I do want to tell the Marmot story first, though. On our way to Mongolia, Justin intoned sober warning to us: Marmots in Mongolia carry the bubonic plague. Apparently, these strange little creatures are out scavenging before winter sets in and carry a disease we only knew from the history books. Every so often we would remember Justin's warning and wonder out loud, "What the heck is a marmot anyway?" Our only clue was Justin's Marmot jacket. Which wasn't really much of a clue at all. Eventually, we settled on either a bird or a rodent.

On our way through the Mongolian countryside, Justin decided to slip some questions about Marmots into his friendly chatter with Tushik, our driver. "Tushik, have you ever seen a Marmot?" He grinned, "hmm...Yes, Marmot, I like." Tushik tells us that he likes to eat Marmots. Apparently, he hunts them, although they're hard to find in late autumn. Then, he goes into detail on how to skin a marmot, place hot stones inside of it, and grill it over a fire. Apparently, that's the best way to enjoy a Mongolian marmot.**Justin asks Tushik, "So what does marmot taste like?" To which Tushik wryly grins and politely retorts, "Marmot... tastes like marmot."**(Justin had to remind me about this, hehe). We try to ask whether the marmots have the bubonic plague, but all we really learn is that it's best not to eat sick marmots. hmmm...Justin decides to change the subject, so he asks Tushik, "Well, what's your favorite meat?" He grinned, "Marmot. Do you want to try?" Backpedaling quickly, Justin politely declines. The three of us make eye contact while thinking exactly the same thing: "If he thinks we want to try Marmots, he'll convince the family we're staying at to cook Marmots as a gesture of Mongolian hospitality..." Images of me rolling on the Mongolian plains, slowly and painfully becoming a zombie because of the bubonic plague, flash through my mind.

Later, when we climbed up to the Buddhist temple, we noticed a strange brass carving of a rodent serving as the handle of the entrance door:

From Beijing Dou

"Could this in fact be the dreaded mythical Marmot, the very one that struck such petrifying fear into our hearts?", we mused.

When we arrived back in Beijing, M looked up the wikipedia entry for Marmots. Apparently they're just oversize squirrels. Cute ones at that:

To which Justin replied, "They are cuter than I expected… I can’t eat that."

I was sorely disappointed, since I was expecting more of a Rodent of Unusual Size:

But consider yourself warned; next time you're wandering around the Mongolian plains shortly before winter, stay away from any cute curious rodents that want to play. They'll turn you into a zombie.

Ok, so enough about Marmots. (Although I am curious why a rugged outdoor clothing company chose Marmots for their moniker. You don't see me wearing a "Prairie Dog" jacket.)

Day 6:

The next morning when we rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn, we were extremely stiff and sore. After muttering and grumbling about horses for a few minutes, we managed to get our stuff together and head out the door. It was lightly snowing outside, and still mostly dark. We hopped in a cab and made it to the train station with time to kill. We had blown all our money on Indian and Mexican food the night before, leaving us with only 300 tugrug (30 cents). Justin wandered up to a few of the counters trying to use his remaining money to buy sour gummies, but to no avail. Finally, just before the train left, he drove a hard bargain and got us a small bottle of water with our remaining money.

Upon boarding the train, we were pleasantly surprised to find that our two rooms (since we were forced to buy the expensive 2 per berth tickets) shared a bathroom. We spent most of the trip with the bathroom doors open so that we could lock the main doors and keep an eye on our stuff.

This time it was my turn to sleep on the top bunk. Unfortunately for me, I was so sore that every time I had to swing up there, every muscle in my body screamed out in pain.

The train's heater on the way to Mongolia had only run for a short time in the morning and a short time at night, but apparently in the expensive seats, the heater runs 24 hours a day. All three of us were quickly dying of heat. We did take advantage of it, though, by placing our leftover Mexican and Indian food on top of the heating coils to warm our lunch.

Sometime on the trip, Marilyn had introduced me and Justin to a card game that she called PaiQi (Rows of 7) growing up. Apparently it's also called Sevens or Dominoes in other parts of the world. Whether we got the rules wrong or she learned it differently, M's version of Sevens included the exciting rule of being able to "burn" cards when you couldn't play. Since the goal of the game is to take turns building out from each suit's seven up to the King and down to the Ace, a burned card meant other players were stuck with unplayable cards, which would then be counted against them at the end of the round. We wiled away hours upon hours of this game, often squabbling and bickering about how tightfisted and withholding the other players were being. Despite M's insistence that I would sneak up from behind to win it, she easily took the first 3 games. I was finally able to sneak past Justin in the final game for the 500 point win. It was a controversial last hand as we were pulling into Beijing, so we grabbed our stuff, disembarked, and ran across the street to Mcdonald's to grab some food and replay the last hand. We started up a new tally in Beijing, although Justin now aptly calls it "The Evil Game". Currently, Justin's up by about 150 points on us. Looks like his turn has finally come.

Other than that crazy card game, we spent the rest of the time moaning about the heat, sleeping, and eating ramen and peanut-butter/jelly or nutella sandwiches. The return trip went by quite fast, and before we knew it, we were home:

From Beijing Dou

The Mongolian Adventure was over. We returned victorious (and very sore).

So that's it. Thanks for following along on our crazy trip. I'm sure we went into a lot more detail than you needed, so you're a trooper for reading all of it.

We've tossed around the idea of trying to do the whole Transiberian next time: Moscow - Irkustk (Risk players, you know wassup...) - Ulaan Baatar - Beijing. Who's in?