second peking duck experience

This photo is from Made In China since I didn’t take pictures at Da Dong.

Last month I wrote about my first Peking Duck experience and said I had plans to try all of the top five restaurants and compare them.  Well, since I am leaving earlier than expected it doesn’t look like I will be able to accomplish this, but I do have at least one more under my belt and let me say this…

DA DONG kicks MADE IN CHINA’s ass!!

Yes the duck is more expensive, but less than $10 more I think and the difference is well worth it because not only does it taste better, I think we actually got more meat from each duck.  It isn’t as dry, each person got their own tray of condiments, and the service was good.  And if everyone in your party doesn’t like duck, their menu is extensive.

So there you have it, Peking Duck is rather delicious after all, you just have to find the right place.

quick updates

 

RE: is there no reprieve?

So now that it is officially Thanksgiving, in my book that makes it ok to start preparing for Christmas, even in China.  Which is good because in addition to Starbucks, the grocery store I go to is now also decorated and playing Christmas carols.  Of course it helps that Starbucks just played Barenaked Ladies covering some carol which I enjoyed, and currently it is “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley.  Ok, the latter isn’t a Christmas carol, but it is a really really good song.

RE: update on the greatest fear contest and plug

The contest is over, and while they didn’t win, they did finish in the top 10 so they still get a prize!  Thanks so much to everyone who voted.

foods that begin with the letter “s”

Before arriving in China I posted about things Andrew Zimmern had eaten on the Beijing episode of his show Bizarre Foods.  Despite what I said then, a seahorse is actually the first thing I tried when at a night market recently.

The reason I chose it was because at the first stall we came to there were only two options, seahorse or scorpions.  The scorpions were still alive and moving on the stick and the seahorse looked sufficiently dead, so it seemed like a pretty easy decision to me.  But to my surprise everyone else in our group opted for the scorpions!  Now that I could see for myself that they were fried to death before eating, and hearing a consensus of “not bad” I felt confident enough to try them for myself.  And you know what, they weren’t half bad.  Ok so they were kinda gross, but fried and heavily salted, so it was fine.  But that is just my opinion as we met two American girls who were coming back for seconds!  To each their own.

We moved on to the next different looking stall which had more variety.  There I got a starfish.  I didn’t think it was that bad, but just about everyone else in the group said it was the worst thing they tried that night.  My recommendation if anyone ever dares you to eat one… the ends are way better than the middle.

And lastly I tried a silkworm.  My least favorite of the night, yet my roommate’s favorite. 

And that was the end of the night because the place closes up at about 10:30pm.  I think I got my fill and don’t really feel a need to go back, but you never know.  When planning holiday meals it was asked if there was anything I didn’t eat, but after this experience, how could I possibly say yes?

in awe of acrobats

I stole this picture from the Cirque du Soleil online boutique.

Friday night a large group of us went to see the popular acrobatics show at the Chaoyang Theatre and I feel it deserves all the hype it receives.  It is much like Cirque du Soleil, so if you enjoy that kind of thing you would like this as well.  I have only seen two CdS shows, Quidam and Corteo which are both travelling ones, so my comparison is based on those and clips of others I’ve watched online.  The stunts are pretty much the same, but there wasn’t as much story involved so it was really just stunt after stunt which I preffered.  Who goes for the story?  We just wanna see people do cool tricks!  The costumes CdS uses are way more elaborate, but other than that I would say this acrobatics show was just as good.  The things these people can do with their bodies is simply amazing!  My personal favorite was the three guys that showed remarkable displays of stregth by holding positions like the one pictured above.  It is one thing to see photographs of it, but to actually see how slowly and gracefully they move from one position to the next without ever touching the floor… I am pretty sure my jaw literally dropped.

silk market success

Thursday I went to the famous silk market just to check it out, with no intention of buying anything, and walked out with my hands full of stuff.  Those sales girls are tricky little devils.  It all started when I saw mahjong sets for sale, which was the one souvenir I wanted to bring home for myself.  Surprisingly I don’t see them around much so figured I should get it now while it was right there.  So I haggled down from 1400 yuan to 650 yuan.  Still probably way overpriced, but she seemed terribly upset by the deal.  And coincidentally enough two days later I did see the same set for sale at a store for 750 yuan, so even though I think that store is overpriced too, I couldn’t have been completely ripped off.  I also saw most of the other things I bought at the silk market at that store, one I paid too much for and the other I paid half of what they were selling it for.  You win some you lose some.  The fact that I actually got over my fear of haggling was worth the few hundred extra yuan I probably paid that day.

Oh, and I bought the mahjong set without having ever played before which is probably pretty silly.  I am decent at the computer solitaire version, but I know that is nothing like the real game.  A few hours ago I got my first lesson though and had a lot of fun!  Anybody in LA up for mahjong nights?

is there no reprieve?

Last week my Starbucks started serving drinks in holiday cups and playing Christmas music.  Are you kidding me!?  I am in China!  Yes, everyone here knows about the holiday, to what degree they celebrate I am not sure, but I do know they don’t get the day off work.  I have always disliked Christmas music and decorations prior to Thanksgiving, and I thought this year I wouldn’t have to deal with it, but not so. 

New menu items they are pushing include Toffee Nut Latte, Dark Cherry Mocha, and Carmelized Hazelnut Chocolate Muffin.  It has taken every ounce of will power to resist trying the latter… instead I sit hear listening to Aimee Mann sing White Christmas.

corn yogurt

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but the Chinese REALLY like corn.  Corn on the cob is a common street food, which makes sense and I wouldn’t mind if that trend caught on in the US.  Then I started seeing corn juice… a little weird I thought, but hey, they probably have an abundance of the stuff here and are just making the most of it.  And then one day about a month ago I saw corn yogurt.  Now, I like corn and I eat yogurt daily, but the combination of the two seemed a bit repulsive to me.  Still, I vowed I would try it before I left.  So earlier this week I was at the supermarket, more because I needed to break a 100RMB note then because I needed groceries, and I bought a container of the stuff.

I didn’t know whether there would be actual pieces of corn or not, but there were.  First thing I noticed was how bad it smelled.  But I managed to get it close enough to my mouth to try it.  And surprisingly that wasn’t my only bite.  I got in about a dozen more tiny ones before I couldn’t take it anymore and threw it out.  So in conclusion, not terrible but by no means do I recommend it.

My roommate takes the cake though (cliche intentional).  Yesterday she went to a restaurant nearby that she frequents and ordered a piece of chocolate cake.  Even though she has had it there before, they tossed in a new surprise twist this time… catsup.  Yup, instead of decorating the plate with chocolate sauce as they normally do, they used catsup.  Eeww!

technicolor tour

Today I had a personal tour of the Technicolor facilty in Beijing, something my old boss set up for me when he heard I was coming here.  Originally it was something I thought could possibly lead to a job, but since plans have changed and I am going back to LA, I really just went because he had gone through so much trouble to set it up.  Unexpectedly, it may have turned out to be one of my cooler experiences in China.  The place is new and quite small compared to its LA counterparts, but give it some time and it will grow.

Crazy thing happened, when we walked into the DI stage and I was introduced to the colorist that was working at the time… he recognized me!  Apparently he had been flown in from LA to work on the current project (something very typical for DI colorists) and he usually works at the branch on the Sony Lot in Culver City.  The last big project I worked on before quitting had me spending quite a bit of time at that facility.  I don’t actually remember meeting this guy, which is somewhat embarassing but also kinda cool since the situation is usually the other way around for me.  And for it to happen on the other side of the world, my tour guide was quite impressed and now probably thinks I am somebody important, haha!

Technically everything is pretty much run the same, but I did learn a lot of interesting facts about filmmaking in China.  For example, there is no “G” “PG” “PG-13″ “R” ratings like there are in the US.  Everything that hits the cinemas must be rated “G” meaning it is approved for all audiences.  Now, their “G” is nowhere near as strict as our “G” is, but some directors have started to create international versions of their films which include the footage not allowed by China’s version of the MPAA.  Usually this is the version we see in the US in theaters and/or on DVD.

Everybody I met there was super nice and oddly enough, it felt good to be at a facility like that again.  I actually felt somewhat at home, which is weird because when I am at places like that in LA I generally feel really out of place.  But it was a learning experience and a confidence bulider and couldn’t have come at a better time.  Where yesterday I was dreading going back to work in a couple months, I am actually kinda looking forward to it now.  Well, maybe not “looking forward to it” but definitely more postive about it!

shaolin temple

Photo theme of the weekend was lion statues in the foreground.

It occured to me this weekend that I don’t actually know when or how I even heard about the Shaolin Temple.  I have never seen an episode of the TV series KungFu, despite once owning half of all Jet Li’s movies on DVD I have never seen the one pictured in the last post, and though I did do martial arts as a kid/teenager the style was karate not kung fu and my influences were Karate Kid and TMNT.  But despite all this, I do know that for a long time it has been a dream to visit the Shaolin Temple, and that dream came true.

Am I currently glowing because of the experience?  No.  But I am not disappointed either.  Like most sight-seeing destinations, I probably would have gotten more from it had I known more about it.  I will just have to take the opposite approach and now study up and watch every DVD I can get my hands on and say, “Hey, I’ve been there!”  There was a martial arts demonstration, and though it was just the same as every other kung fu demo I have seen, there was something cool about watching these kids, being at the place they actually live and train.  When walking through the temple there were boys in their robes walking from the dining hall carrying their lunch in small bowls.  How weird to go about your day-to-day routine as tourists wander about taking pictures.

The area is definitely a tourist attraction, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting.  However, it did seem to be mostly domestic tourists because I didn’t see any other white girls there.  The temple itself is actually just a small part of the attraction, and I am embarassed to admit I had never even heard of the pagoda forest.

Originally I thought we were going to train at the temple, and when I found out that wasn’t true and we were going to train at a school nearby, I was quite upset.  But the two hour session turned out to be fun, so I got over it quickly.  The town is almost entirely made up of martial arts schools, the largest boasts about 18,000 students.  Even the restaurant we ate lunch at was selling weapons in the back.  Anyway, turns out our teacher is part of the travelling “Shaolin Kung Fu” show which I actually saw way back when in Seattle.  I doubt he was part of it at that time, but still.

Oh, and I walked up the path of lotus flower designed stones inside the temple, which is supposed to grant you good luck and happiness for life, so if that comes true then there is an added bonus of the trip.  Although, I did also drink from the fountain of happiness at the Mizu Temple when I was in Kyoto, Japan… so I won’t be sure which deserves credit.

away for the weekend

Just a quick post to let everyone know that I am leaving for the Shaolin Temple in a few hours so there will not be any updates for a few days.  Have a good weekend!