Hou to the Hai

It's late so I'm going to make this quick.

It was another beautifully clear day yesterday (I guess Sundays are good for un-smoggy air). Went to church at BICF. Impressed with the international-ness of it, met a very nice couple from Camaroon, one getting his PhD at Tsinghua and the other in the midst of her fourth year at Beida medical school. I would expound on some of the embarrassingly unapologetic racism in this city but that would be opening a can of worms. Hopped a cab and headed to Houhai, where we dined at S'Silk Road, a Yunnanese restaurant right on the lake. Very pleasant.

Silken tofu in chili oil with 1000-year-old (preserved duck) eggs

Walked around Houhai for a bit, marveled at the tourist-trappiness of it all, considered taking a rickshaw ride, got teased for being such a "high-maintenance" guest b/c of my queasiness about squatty toilets and desire for more efficiency and convenience. I say that my issue with squatty toilets is not that they are gross but that it is nearly impossible for me to maintain my balance without missing completely and... well, I guess that is TMI. Ducked into a Tibetan decor place, where the stuff was obviously well-made by hand and very beautiful, but very pricey.

Ate stinky tofu for the first time - raw, it smells rather like a great quantity of pee that has staled on the sidewalk. Freshly fried, however, and dusted with spices and hot sauce, it is quite delicious:


Got tired of walking around in my cheap Silk Alley hiking boots, so we decided to get foot massages. Hour-long. Second only to food, massages and other spa-like services rank among the very pleasant things to be had in Beijing for absurdly low prices (in this case, 60 Yuan). We entered a room that looked like one of our friend's parent's living room, dimly lit with comfortable couches to sink into. We were each given a tea soak for our feet, during which we got a brief backrub, and then our masseuses got down to the business of working the soreness out of our tired feet. We were, how you say, spoiled.

Afterwards, dinner at Bellagio, this fancy place with amazing decor on the top floor of a really posh Japanese mall. They are known for their Taiwanese food, but to be perfectly honest I couldn't tell the difference. We had a number of yummy things followed by delicious desserts of shaved ice, fruit and coconut ice cream. Mmm.

Fried baby oysters and basil

Broiled spareribs

Blended mango with shaved ice, coconut pulp, and pomelo bits on top

Today, not much, just dinner at this place called Gangguoju in Wudaokou, where the gimmick was stir fries cooked on a burner at your table. We found the food amazingly spicy, though tasty, and not particularly filling. But it was cheap - we got like 9 dishes for 161 Yuan. Only drawback for me was that the stir-fry we got was not exactly chicken, but all the random, gristly, boney, gross parts of the chicken that you normally don't want to eat. Half the time I had no idea what part of the chicken it was, but I'm pretty sure I chanced across some of the head, and there was most definitely a foot in there (no, I don't like chicken feet. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. I know what you're thinking--I'm not really Chinese. Sue me).

Suspicious chicken-parts stir-fry

The other things we ordered were really good:

Soba noodles in chili oil and chilis, with boiled peanuts in the background

Went shopping at the Lotus Center (kind of like a Chinese Wal-Mart), browsed the clothing shops (Chinese fashion = another can of worms I don't want to open) and spent almost half an hour trying to decide what kind of shampoo and laundry detergent to get, as I couldn't read the labels and it was anyone's guess what they meant.

Not Snoopy but "Sno Opy."

And lastly, some random pictures I took around Houhai.

Paddle-boats on the lake, taken from the bridge.

Strange still-life at the side of a store.

Mural on a door.