Daily Life in China: Part II, Eating Out

Bamboo cups of tea

When I first moved to China and Cheng Du Panda was still guiding us, we went to a restaurant called "Grandma's House", which is a chain of good quality, not very expensive Chinese food.  We were appalled at the line outside the restaurant and went searching for another place with no line, but the panda warned us that the Chinese think nothing of waiting an hour or more for a meal, and we would find that eating out is done by so many people in a country filled with people that on a Saturday night we weren't going to find our mythical "restaurant without a line".  She was right, damn it, as she so often is.

waiting for their turn

Last night we had a fantastic massage at one of the malls that has a "Grandma's House" restaurant in it, and we were hungry after all that relaxing, so I bravely went to the line, watched what the others were doing and guessed (inputting their phone numbers and how many in their party), then did it myself and got a ticket.  I was extremely proud of myself.  Next I grabbed one of the menus, and a steel stool and went to sit it out with S and about 70 or 80 other people.  I don't think they take reservations at this establishment; they want to see the whites of your eyes, THEN you get a ticket and wait.  It's actually a system I see more of in the U.S. in cities and it does make some sense.

studying the menu

There are a few differences to note in the crowds from here and the U.S., though.  First, there is some serious studying of the menu by everyone, as they encourage you to check off what you want before you get seated to speed the process along.  Brilliant idea, by the way, except this one didn't have any English. No problem, I put together some of my few words of Mandarin and asked for a menu in English, which I knew usually meant pictures.  They produced one and after that I was very cocky in my abilities to navigate this fun experience.  The Chinese menu features about 250-300 dishes, while ours was about 50 or 60, which is plenty.  We put bookmarks in the menu and waited. The others were still studying their menus and debating what they felt like eating; I felt exonerated completely from anyone who has ever complained I take too long to study the menu.  These people were memorizing it, debating it, changing it, and loving it all!
While waiting I notice several families had brought their snack boxes, and were distributing food to their group.  Genius.  Also, I saw more than one party with their 2-liter soda bottles tucked under their arms as they went in in case this place didn't carry their favorites, or to cut down on cost perhaps?  There is also a grand children's area with computers, a large bowl of cherry tomatoes, and a chandelier.

Seeing my neighbor's food made me peckish!

The wait was about 50 minutes, but then once we were inside, it was no more than 10 minutes before we had our first dish.  From then the dishes kept arriving in rapid sequence, and all without MSG since I used my remaining few words of Mandarin to explain I couldn't eat MSG and it would make me sick (Actually I think I said I was sick, and please no MSG, but tense is just a small detail.)
I finished the meal with a gorgeous fresh blackberry and pear juice, and all told the damage was only 76 quai, which is 12.33 cents USD.  And we have leftovers for S, and it was excellent quality food, not much oil and no MSG.  I need to get used to the lines and join the brigade for more of this excellent fare.  It's in the same mall as our gym, so I'm making some amendments to our gym schedule starting tomorrow.
The only aspect of the experience that was less than enjoyable was their electronic voice system for announcing whose table was ready.  There was a constant, loud announcement that said something like this, (again, guessing except the numbers) "Number A86, it's your turn to eat now.  It's your turn to eat now.  It's your turn to eat now."  A little grating.  I also was impressed by how quickly they left behind any slowpokes, erased their names from the LED display and went on to the next number.  We felt proud to have navigated the experience to such great success and had such a great outcome.  More beans, please!

My favorite dish in China:  Green beans sauteed with garlic and red peppers

Grilled Eggplant with spicy bread crumb-like topping: like buttah

Sweet Pork tenderloin and noodles

Daily Life in China: Part I, The Mall Performance

Every so often S and walk the block to our local neighborhood center/shopping mall to see what's up. What's up a lot of the time is some type of performance/competition on a make-shift stage, and lot of the time it involves cute kids with microphones in outrageous Las Vegas-worthy outfits.  A couple Saturdays ago there was a competition of sorts (Little Miss Star?), complete with a prize table (I believe the bicycle on stage was one of the grand prizes), an emcee with a tux, and a mob audience.  Actually the audience is one of the cultural quirky things.  While like the parents in the U.S. these parents are busy videotaping or capturing their darling's every movement with their phone camera, they also talk freely during the pieces, turning their backs on the stages frequently to do so, and seldom clap or show any emotion about the performance itself.  It's mostly a reason to gather, have some snacks, and let the kids run around loose, which is great fun to see.  Enjoy the photos below.

Last Minute Rehearsal

nervous waiting backstage

Busy on and off stage ramp

Masters of Ceremony

One of several such dances, complete with X-Mas tree background

Prize from prize table

Tai Tai dance group outside, oblivious to anything but their own dances.

Adventures in Travel: The Sim Card Guys

As we take stock of the previous year in terms of travel and look forward (here we come Japan and Italy!) I must give homage to the slick operations of the SIM Card guys in airports.  When traveling to less developed countries than the U.S., where the monopoly noose of phone plans fits tight around our necks, one can easily buy a cheap SIM card for the country at the airport, and therefore easily communicate in country with taxis, restaurants, and hotels. [Except in India ,where even the simplest of exchanges devolves into a quagmire before you take a breath.]
  In theory, it's a lovely, friendly idea.  In actuality it is an absolute crap shoot, based on the premise that you understand how phone plans really work.  Back in the day when all one had was a land line, or even a cell phone AND a land line, but no texting, images, We Chat, Instagram, apps galore, it was easy to know what to ask for, and easy to understand what you were able to do.  Those halcyon days are at an end, and instead the day is ruled by half-smiling sunglass-wearing men sitting smugly on their stools behind their glass and offering you "the same plan you have at home."  As if I understand that plan.  Good joke.  The trouble starts when you begin asking questions about whether this limit applies to images, or texting, or calling another continent.  It's all equally confusing, so my advice is to put on your own set of shades, walk up confidently and put down some money, and ask nothing.  Let them do their best; you'll still have some random phone number that you can use to see if a restaurant will be open, and that's the alpha and omega of what I need when I'm in a country short-term.  Everything, everything, is smoke and mirrors in these transactions, so blow your own smoke of confidence and wear your own half-smile;  it's only 10 bucks, and as long as you don't try to do anything silly like call another continent, you'll probably leave the country with excess minutes on the SIM Card, waiting for you when you return....maybe?  Who knows.  Don't care.  Just buy it and get out of the line.

Shanghai Day Trip

We made a day trip to Shanghai yesterday to celebrate the end of a 3-week Christmas vacation, and we enjoyed what the city had to offer. Specifically, we started at the knock-off market where we bought fake Uggs, fake Ugg slippers, (it’s cold around here now!), fake North Face gloves, a great fake Swiss Backpack for S, and even a fake Rosetta Stone (for $4!) to help learn more Mandarin, in case it works!  All this buying of fakes requires a steel will, and an ability to be impervious to pleas to help feed their starving grandmothers or help them make a profit.  Set your highest price you’ll pay, start a little lower, then hold fast when the pleas and groans inevitably come your way.  I’m happy to say almost every vendor I purchased items from whined about my bargaining virtues while wrapping up my wares.  I just smiled, as we both knew we were gaining from the exchange, but I’ve been here long enough to know how much even knock-off stuff should cost.  Still, I enjoy the game, while S is ready to settle for about anything that sounds reasonable to him.  Obviously I do the bargaining for our party of two, although I gave S a price to stick to for the Rosetta Stone while I went to see about some great fake athletic socks, and he followed my directions, including the ever-effective walk-away, and he snagged the set for us.  It all felt very Oliver-Bill Saks, in which I played the redoubtable Mr. Saks.

Shanghai also has great restuarants and great sites.  In addition to our foray into the world of xiaolongbao (see former post) we also had a great Turkish meal, which made me want to return to Istanbul.  Luckily I also made a trip to the U.S. Consulate to put additional pages in my passport, so I’m ready for whatever comes.

Finally, the highlight of our day was a trip to the Shanghai Museum (free admission!) and spent most of my time in the ceramics and bronzes galleries.  There are no words for the beauty of the ceramics, particularly from the small city of Jingdezhen.  Jingdezhen is known as the epicenter of all things ceramic for about 10 or so centuries, and it’s in the same province as Suzhou, so a weekend trip is in order, perhaps as early as Chinese New Year.  Enjoy the photos below of some of the beautiful pottery.  The photos don’t come close to capturing the true colors, the subtlety of design, or the translucence of the pieces, but it’s what I have to offer.

Personal fav among favorites

XIAO LONG BAO

Xiao long bao, roughly translated as “little (xiao) dumpling in the bamboo steamer”  are the small dumplings filled with soup broth and some combination of meat.  They are famous in Shanghai, and we went to a famous shop to get the best, Din Tai Fung.  We were not disappointed. We had 3 baskets:  pork filled, black truffle & pork, and mushroom.  All were delectable, but the pork filled won the day.  We have a couple of green side dishes, but it was all about the xiao long bao.  BTW, this is a famous chain, so check to see if there is a shop near you!  See the photo essay below for the very detailed, precise manner in which one constructs a xiao long bao.

Also, I must take a minute to sing the praises of Chinese public eating.  This culture has such a good time at their meals, it’s catching.  The restaurants are almost always noisy affairs, with lots of hustling and clanging, but also lots of conviviality among the customers. Every Chinese restaurant I’ve been to here has hosted at least one family celebration, and many times several, with people cheering, clapping, toasting, and crying.  As I went to the washroom yesterday I saw an older man standing over a young woman in tears and raising a glass.  There were 10 pair of adoring (all female?) eyes on the pair, and lots of joking and cheering during the toast.  I wanted to ask about the nature of celebration and sit and join them, but I kept moving.

The assembly line

First make balls, then roll out into discs

Apply 18 folds in circular direction

beauty itself

Add to steaming basket

prepare necessary dipping condiments

Dipping the goodness

ready for taste explosion in the mouth

Green accompaniments

Keeping your Monetary Wits About You When Traveling

This is not as easy as it seems sometimes, because just when you think you’ve got a handle on the exchange rate, if you are skipping from China to Hong Kong to Cambodia, for instance, not only the currency changes, and thus the exchange rates, but also the interactions with money differ.  For example, in Cambodia, their economy is tied to the dollar, so they take dollars everywhere…..but no one tells you this at the money exchange offices at the airport.  Not their job and not their fault if you didn’t take the time to read the guidebook section on money. Next, if you don’t have the exact change when using US dollars, chances are you are getting the change in a combination of Cambodian riels and US dollars.  The first couple of times this happened I vacillated between thinking I’d been robbed, to wondering if I’d been robbed, and finally not caring if I was robbed.  By the time I left I just about had it figured out.

Complicating the matter is the fact that Cambodian money wins hands down as the most confusing money I’ve tried to decipher.  The bills are roughly the same size, regardless of denomination, and most are so worn they are about the same color (dirty) and to top it off at the top of each bill (if you can find the top since I don’t read Khmer) there are 2 or 3 zeros and a Khmer letter, I presume.  Could be a decoration, but looks a bit like the other beautiful swirls that were part of their alphabet.  So it looks like all the bills are worth zero at first glance. Check out the photo closely for the final hurdle:  they have bills that are different sizes and colors but are the same denomination, such as the 1000 in the pics.  India did that with their coins, but I made a practice of just dumping those somewhere and dealing with them later or asking our beloved driver.  BTW, these Cambodian bills are deceptive examples because I always choose the few newest ones of any new currency to save for a couple of nephews, so don’t think I’m exaggerating the confusion.  Besides, me exaggerate?

China also has some funny looking old 1 Yuan coins, and the worse thing is they are very similar to the small “dimes” that take 10 to equal a Yuan.  I don’t know the Chinese names for those dimes, but they come in handy at the fresh market, as long as I don’t give them the wrong coin.  Actually I do give them the wrong coins sometimes, and they just laugh and shake their heads, then ask to see my change with a nod of their chins, and I oblige, open my hand, and let them take what looks good to them.  There’s a lot of trust going into those transactions, but I never heard of a swindler dealing in dimes, so I assume they are just trying to get me out of their line.

For a commentary on how money can reflect a nation and its history, take a look at Hong Kong’s dollars.  Printed expensively, with smooth paper and many colors (yellow, red, pin, blue and white for this one), and a hologram to boot to thwart forgers. Stylized junks to give you the feel of the sea, letters in both classic and simplified Mandarin and English as a nod to their Chinese mainland “friends”, and a Chinese-like ribbon running through the design to add additional flair.  And also, I had no trouble finding 3 good ones to save.  Somehow using this pretty money just makes the transaction a little more pleasurable, albeit a little slower as I oogle the bill instead of handing it over to the patient clerks. 

I recently led 2 fourth grade reading groups in a reading about ancient money, and I saw at a market in Suzhou some fake, cheap, old-time Chinese money, so got a set for each group and gave them each one coin.  They were treating them as if they were gold, and more than one kid asked if they could take it somewhere and spend it.  The most modern response to money comes from a child, of course.

Cambodia Marvels

Here's the FLICKR link to over 90 pictures from our recent trip to Cambodia.  If you don't want any commentary, skip the following and head on over to some incredible scenery:
For those who want a little background, here's what I know.  Cambodia is a very friendly, very warm country that is recovering from perhaps the most heinous genocide of history; over 1/3 of its population was massacred in 4 short years in the 70s by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot.  We visited a school that was used as a torture prison, and it was difficult to take the tour and see the photographs of both the victims and the soldiers in charge of the torturing. We opted not to take the trip out of town to see where they buried everyone, the field that was immortalized in the film "The Killing Fields".
We focused on the beautiful ruins of the Khmer civilization, and most of the ruins you see in the pictures are from the 11th-13th centuries, I believe.  I've never been one for nitpicking about which century something happened in, so that may be off a bit.

We first visited Banteay Srei, about 35 KM north of Siem Reap.  This is sometimes called the most perfect of the ruins, and it is quite dramatic as it is build of rose-pink sandstone and is the most elaborately decorated of all the Angkor monuments.  We saw several scenes from the Ramayana that reminded of us our roots in India, and I also became captivated by the Apsara dancers and figures, which you will see a lot of in the photos as well.
We next visited Angkor Thom which is really 3 places, and
includes the spectacular Bayon with its dozens of eroded towers carved with giant sized images of the half smiling face of the bodhisattva Lokesvara (Buddhist).

The other big stand out at Siem Reap in a city of archeology stand outs is Angkor Thom, which features the half-jungle half-temple look with huge roots of the Kapok trees draping various ruins, reminiscent of Tikal in Guatemala.

The heat reminded us of life in Trivandrum, and we learned early on to get out of the mid-day sun and lay low, preferably at either a massage place or a place that served cool drinks, or both. We had numerous massages of various styles and decided the best massage is the one you have just gotten or are about to get.  I focused on every tropical fruit I could get my hands on, and specifically the unparalleled taste of Passion fruit, which was in season and which I counted 4 occurrences of ingesting before noon one day, in four different forms.  All were winners.
There was lots more to see but we ran out of time, and were exhausted anyway.  But it was divine to get away from the cold and get to know our neighbors in Cambodia a little better.