beijing day 1 was mainly travel. the airplane food on ana airlines was pretty damn good. probably the best airplane food i've ever had. there was a little salmon sashimi with a vinegary salad, cold soba noodles with wasabi and dipping sauce, as well as a small piece of steamed salmon with japanese root vegetables. oh, and the 2 kirin beers and a chardonnay helped keep me relaxed while enjoying my upgraded seat on a very long flight.
so yes, food in china can be had for very little money and for very lots of yummy. after a relaxed morning at the lama temple, yonghegong, on day 2, a starved shimi and i went searching for lunch. we were strolling aimlessly down a side street full of tiny stores hawking incense and paper money for offerings at the temple...
when we stumbled upon a small doorway in front of which was a large metal cylinder with tall stacks of bamboo steamer baskets quietly spewing white steam...
that could mean only one thing: xiao long bao! with minimal hesitation (this was a hole in the wall joint and we still had 9 days to stomach after all; we had to avoid traveler's diarreah at all costs)...
we hopped up the stairs into a tiny room about 8' x 8'. there a lady in a red jacket stood furiously making little dumplings for the 8 or so locals having lunch.
so imagine, if you will, 2 chinese-americans, stepping foot into this obviously locals joint, not knowing how to speak mandarin nor able to read the menu. we had several stares. kinda funny. but we knew what the food was and we knew how to point and say basic things like liang ge (2 of them), pi jiu (beer), xie xie (thank you). as such shimi and i were rewarded with 2 baskets of dumplings, one xiao long bao, one gao ji (gyozas), and a couple of yanjing beers, a local light and refreshing chinese beer.
to eat the dumplings we dipped them into small dishes of soy sauce and chinese black vinegar with a little bit of grated pickled radish as a garnish. i don't know how to explain to you HOW GOOD these dumplings were.
a perfect ratio of meat to starchy wrapper, well-seasoned ground pork and spices, all piping hot and fresh from the steamer.
wow.
as we enjoyed the home-cooked food, we watched the lady roll out little balls of dough, likely a mixture of only rice flour and water, and flatten the edges with her rolling pin...
then place a small amount of pork filling in the center and gather up the edges around the filling to make a small dumpling which would go into the steamer, seam-side down.
she worked quickly and efficiently, taking orders from the steady stream of customers coming in, while barking soup noodle orders to the cook inside a kitchen in the back 3' x 6' (i kid you not).
we realized after watching what others were ordering, that the soup noodles were also popular. but looking at the menu hanging above us did nothing to help us figure out what to order.
but shimi knew a few basic chinese characters from learning congi in japanese (she's fluent), and i could recognize and spit out a few mandarin phrases, so we teamed up to order a bowl of noodles. no easy task, i'll tell you that much, a lot of guessing and elimination, but we finally got the lady to get us a bowl of pork and snow cabbage noodle soup.
o. m. g. what a reward. i mean, the dumplings were still the best, but after all that hard work, success never tasted sweeter. handmade noodles, made fresh next door that morning. clear and clean tasting pork broth. salty, stir-fried pork. salty and tart preserved snow cabbage. and a sprinkling of fresh scallions on top. let me say it again. oh...
my...
gawd.
but the best part? how much we paid at the end. all of our food came out to 25 kuai. divide that by 7 and you get about 3.5. that means lunch cost a total of US $3.50, or $1.75 a person. hm, let's see, 3 baskets of dumplings, a big bowl of noodles, 2 beers...
.
.
.
.
.
9 days later shimi and i were still giggling over the amazing meal that cost us $1.75 a person. yummy. little money. if you're ever in china, be adventurous. the results are immensely satisfying, and tasty.
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