China Crumpet

So I was getting water from the cooler at the office and glancing around to see if any new mooncake shipments had reached our lonley administrative part of the hospital. Alas, it had not. However, I was intregued by these:

On the bag it said beef orchid bean. I know these characters, part of them are in my Chinese name, so I knew I was not making a horrible error and that it actually said “marinated century livers” or something. And yet, it did not look like any kind of beef, or any kind of orchid.

My curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed a handful and tried them. They were pretty good, a sort of spiced up, dried broad bean snack. They tasted salty and savoury and sweet at the same time and were very fragrant (fragrant is my new favourite word, it sums up China so perfectly all year round). I suppose they are meant to taste a little floral and beefy, hence the name.

Perhaps it is time to explore other uneaten snacks in the capital.

It doesn’t happen often.

Every September or October however, for a few days at a time, Beijing transforms itself from a stinking, disgusting, huge, grimy, pile of dust to a gorgeous, urban wonderland. On Saturday, we had spent the sunny day sitting outside the glitzy Shin Kong Place discussing agriculture politics and the outfit of the girl sitting next to us. I was already in a good mood.

As we left, we wandered home next to the otherwise smelly river just south of the China world trade offices. The sky had turned a golden purple blue and bathed the skyscrapers in a pool of fairy dust. Next to the river, migrant workers had turned a rather unattractive group of ramshackle housing and un-hygenic restaurants into rubble and then into a park, complete with pagodas, sculptures and weeping willows. A cool breeze was stroking my skin.

Beijing had me once again.

One of the great things about China is all the things one is able to do here. I have had the pleasure working as a freelancer for Swedish National Radio for almost five years now. It is great fun and I am able to express all the great things about China with background noise and everything which is a great China vent and a good way to focus on all the fun sides of Beijing. Definitely a way to stay sane.

This month, I am “correspondent of the month” which means four little anecdotes, a couple of interviews and some off the street reporting. In my first episode I talk about what has happened to the city after the Olympics.

It’s funny because I haven’t really thought about it at all but reporting about it made me realize that things have really changed in the last couple of years. It was brought home yesterday when I was sitting enjoying a little impromptu picnic in our garden, in the sunshine. Yes, you read correctly, there is a garden with real trees and everything right here in our complex. And we could, in fact, see the sun. They even have a network of ponds, a bunch of goldfish, birds that actually know how to sing, rock gardens and little mini-pagodas spread out around the area so that one can sit and contemplate the fake nature or take ones birds outside and hang their cages up in the trees for exercise, as one of our neighbors did yesterday. My point is, that it’s really quite nice here. Nicer than last year. People behave quite well too, which is strange at first but then becomes quite plesent.

Then I go out into what can only be described in the old cliche as the old “concrete jungle” where people spit and ones heels break on the uneven pavement. And of course, it looks really crappy compared to my garden. Plus, the places that wouldn’t have shocked me at all (read: toilets without running water and wooden floors) two years ago now seem really gross compared to the stainless steel loo’s in the hutong. In fact, just the other day I found a public loo that had a sitter instead of just squatters. And it was not covered in pee from someone squatting on top of the seat while peeing. Nice.

Anyway people throughout the land (and other lands), times (and me) they are a changin’ here in the ‘Jing. Our old roads are rapidly agin’. The order is rapidly fadin’.

You get the gist.

There are wedding shows and there are Chinese wedding shows. Yesterday, as I was walking through my local shopping mall, I stumbled upon what was obviously the Chinese variety and let me just tell you ladies, Chinese girls (and some boys I think) apparently take their weddings SERIOUSLY. I mean, I am starting to become a little obsessed with dresses and flowers but I have nothing on my Chinese counterparts.

The exhibitors were mostly photographers, because as everyone knows, you must have a life size wedding picture taken (framed, of course, in rococo style) as well as an enormous, glossy picture book of you and your beloved. The photographers all had clothes you could rent and they were also happy to photoshop you into a gorgeous landscape, with ummm…. wind farms in the background? Believe me, I tried my best to convince Jonas that we should have some photos taken of us and the wind farms in our gala best but he, alas, did not think it was worth 8000 Kuai.

At least now we know, a wedding is not a wedding without lots and lots of tulle, rhinestones, life size cardboard cutouts and a wind farm or two. Good to know.

A food- and music-blogging friend of mine, chopstick or fork?, wrote to me yesterday and asked for some Beijing expert help on what to eat here. First of all, let me say that I think Beijing should be a place you travel to just to eat. Sure, there is the wall and all of that (and believe me, with these fireworks and firecrackers tonight I wish I was on it instead of in central Beijing! Although, I bet it’s even noisier out in the sticks come to think of it…) but there are just SO many things to eat here now. Not only are there amazing Chinese places but a truly awesome, international dining scene is emerging in the great capital of the middle kingdom.

For this list though, we’re going to go old school and we’re going to go authentic. This is what we keep coming back to and it what keeps our wallets and our tummies happy:

1. Peking Duck. When in Beijing there must be duck. Forget about any other place, just head to Hua Jia Yi Yuan on Ghost Street (dongzhimen nei), the famous Beijing food strip. They have two locations on the street, a sleek modern building and a swanky courtyard. I love the courtyard location furthest west even though it has become a little touristy and slightly pricier lately. The duck? To die for. SO worth it. The presentation is also gorgeous. It won’t be listed anywhere specifically as a duck place but just trust me that it is no doubt the best duck in the city. Gush, gush, gush.

2. Lao Beijing. For a taste of authentic Beijing and a little of that screamin’ hospitality (you will know what I mean once you are yelled at), head to Fu Jia Lou, at Dong si shi tiao (just west of the subway station). They pack a mean Beijing noodle and they have a GREAT deep fried duck. Yes, it’s greasy, yes, it’s unhealthy, yes, it’s more duck but YES, in the words of Nigella, it’s gooooorgeous!

3. Dumplings! There’s a good and pretty clean little red restaurant right opposite the Australian Embassy that has a massive amount of different fillings but I like to go to a daggy little place just near my house… so I say just find one that’s close and that has lots and lots of mashed garlic and vinegar so you can smell like a Beijing Taxi driver when you’re done.

4. Street food! Get chuan’r from the side of the street. Preferably ones that have been grilled over coals with the help of a hairdryer. Oh, and jianbing. Look out for the little carts with stacks of crispy looking flat things (still have no idea what on earth they are) and a round frying plate. Don’t skimp on the la jiao!

5. Ok, so I would also say ma la crayfish on ghost street, there are several places that have it but my favourite is a restaurant with pink neon all around the windows and red tables. It’s cheap and delicious BUT they only have crayfish in the summer. So, in the winter, a good option is to get a gang together and go for hotpot instead at the same place. They use the coal fueled copper pots so rest assured, it’s authentic. Get heaps of lamb, veggies, tofu, lamb and lamb.

And if you’re sick of Chinese, there are a bazillion options so it’s no use complaining about Beijing food any more. We all know better.

Happy eating!

For the sixth consecutive day now, fireworks have been going off outside my window. I am not speaking figuratively and I am not just talking about firecrackers. The Beijing sky has, for the last six days, literally been ablaze with every color of the rainbow and glitter cascades off the skyscrapers on a nightly basis.

Chinese new year, however, started less than auspiciously this year when the local firework shop was huffed and puffed down by the bad old siberian wolfish wind. Unfortunately, this picture does not quite do the scene justice:

Call the bread cars!

As a consequence, an army of little mini-van’s or so called “bread cars” (due to their similarity in shape to a loaf of bread) had to be carted out to save the fireworks and rebuild a smaller version of the firework shop. Luckily, just in time for Chinese New Year Eve, the house was re-built and order was restored to the neighborhood.

Fireworks and firecrackers, especially noisy ones, are an integral part of Chinese New Year. They are set off in order to scare away potential evil spirits and to start the year in an auspicious way.

New year’s eve was absolute mayhem. I fell asleep with my earplugs firmly secured at 2 am with my bedroom curtains flickering with the noise and color of the mayhem outdoors and with my nostrils filled with the scent of freshly blown gunpowder. I dreamt of Admiral Nelson and the Spanish Armada.

Begone ye evil spirits!

As I write this, it is the fifth night of the new year. Thousands and thousands of Chinese Yuan must have changed hands at the little firework shop in order to fill the insatiable appetites of little boys and men alike, all wanting to set things on fire and watch them blow up. The evil spirits have no doubt fled far beyond the Great Wall and on to the silent Russian Tundra.

The fifth day is somehow significant I am told, something to do with eating dumplings in order to “wrap up” the broken fifth night. All I know is that they are at it tonight again and it is almost as bad as new years eve. Or as good. Depending if you are an evil spirit or not.

The end of an era. This is how I often feel when confronted with a career change, and this time especially. Over Christmas, I not only went back to Sweden and had obseen amounts of food (and gained a few pounds) but also mulled over my life and decided to quit my job as manager and sales executive at a neurosurgical stem cell clinic. Reading that last sentence, I wonder if I am at all sane… but then I think back on the past year and I think about the coming year of the ox and I relax again, well aware that I have made the right choice. Anyway, on January 1st I wrote to my employer and, as politely as I could, informed her that I would be leaving at the end of the month. Since Chinese New Year is early this year, it means this week is my last. And so, with no regrets, I went in to the office today and had a little cheese cake on paper plates and got my celebratory bunch of flowers. Yay.

So I found this website today and I have to say, that I am so in love with the Obamas. What a power duo! And I know a lot of people thought her dress was off at the inauguration but I absolutely loved it. It just goes to show that you don’t have to be frumpy with a helmet to be a first lady. Love, love, love Michelle, love her clothes, love her style… AND she seems like one of the brighter crayons in the box. Ok, end of rant.

Today for lunch, my office served up chicken neck. While I usually bring leftovers for lunch most days, sometimes (like when there are no leftovers) I am stuck with the hospital canteen. In China, this brings a whole new meaning to adventurous eating. We will be served everything from jellyfish to un-recognizable pickles and I have to say, most of the time, I like it. Today the meat looked dodgy. The bits of neck were not only dodgy by themselves, they were also served with a side of black goo which I later discovered was eggplant stewed with star anise and bay leaves. What can I say, I hope I am strong enough to force my kids to eat everything that is put in front of them like I was so that they too some day will find themselves sucking on the neck of an old hen.

While I remember: my old boss, the former Ambassador of Sweden to China Mr. Borje Ljunggren, has written a book. It is called China – The drama of our time and it discusses how we should engage China instead of isolating it to bring the world forward. Super interesting point, very interesting book, another very smart cookie. I hope it is translated to English from Swedish but until then, you Swedes need to get out there and read it!

As November rolls in and time continues to fly by, I am harrassed by a feeling of getting older and older. I go to sleep earlier, I wake up earlier and a dinner at a local yakitori hut which ended later than planned was much more than I could handle this weekend and resulted in me having to take a long, healthy walk on Saturday and then get up early on Sunday to get all my weekend chores done.

And I’m not even MARRIED.

The yakitori was great though, we had a blast at the little place which has everything grilled on a stick: quails eggs, mackerel, chicken with wasabi mayo (a personal favourite), leeks… you name it, they grill it. It should be chicken, I know… but the variation is good and I embrace it. At the end of the night, we were stuffed full of yummy meat and veggies, grilled to perfection over the coals. The little hut was crammed full of Japanese business men getting sloshed on sake, I guess that is as good a sign of authenticity as any. Life could be worse and there could be worse things to do on a weekend evening. Another weekend joy came in the form of a little guilty pleasure called Top Chef. This week, my favourite Italian, Fabio, won the elimination challenge and scored well above average in the quick fire which was to make a hot dog.

“I lova to eata di hotdog. Do I know how to maka di hotdog? No!”… Classic.

Today we went to get some baby clothes for my spanking new little nephew in law. He was born just a month ago and is really very cute. Luckily, he has an Aunt who lives in the shopping mecca of the Eastern world and who loves shopping for baby clothes! They have really cute baby stuff in all the markets here but we decided to make a day out of it and go to the famous Zoo Market in Beijing, where there are no tourists, no foreigners and still pretty good clothes and things. The bargaining is minimal as the prices are too low and the shop vendors leave you alone while you are looking through their piles of stuff. A no-brainer, right? Well…

To get there, we took three subway lines and squashed in with all the other people apparently going to the north west of the city. I understand now why I stick to my little click of town, there are just too many people everywhere else. It was a gorgous, cold, blue-sky day and we had started the afternoon with a lunch of spicy lamb noodles and a Chinese meat sandwich at our local Xi’An restaurant. As we got off the subway an hour after we had gotten on it, I realized that the walk to the market from the subway stop was another 30 minutes in the bitter cold and with pretty much all of Beijing’s population between 18 and 25. About halfway there, I also realized that my stomach was not sounding very pleased. It could have been the goose dinner from last night, or the spicy noodles I had just devoured. Either way, my tummy was unhappy. I held it in for as long as I could, broke a sweat and decided I couldn’t hold it any longer. I was now in pain and desperately looking for a toilet. Anything would do, I would have squatted in the middle of the street if there were not so many people around. I dove into the nearest building which turned out to be some kind of bus station. After what felt like forever, we found a bathroom in the basement, a smelly squatter which was slightly gross but it would do the job. Twenty minutes later I emerged, wiping the sweat from my brow and panting slightly. My stomach had indeed had cream and butter overload (let this be a lesson to you all!) but it was all better and we could get on with the shopping.

The Zoo market is really a series of huge buildings stuffed with clothes. We went into the first one and entered jeans heaven (or hell, which ever you fancy). Shop after shop was filled with denim, every wash you could imagine, rhinestones, skirts and pants, cropped versions and baggy versions. We decided to leave this place as it was obviously for Beijing hipsters and not for new mom’s. I remembered that I had seen baby clothes in another building further along and we decided to go there. We found what we were looking for but as we rummaged through the stuff, we found that 70% of the stuff was H&M and since we were going to Sweden where my little nephew lives with mom and dad, buying stuff in China from the most generic Swedish clothing shop seemed like a waste. Finally we stumbled upon two really adorable, non-Swedish little sweaters and I was thrilled. A bargain at 35 RMB each, my goal was fullfilled. However, as I left the market and got on the subway again I had a realization of why people pay more.

Next time, I will brave the tourists and go to the more accessable markets (with five star hotels around them and thus five star toilets), or just stick to normal shops.

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