Now, where was I?

It's been a while since I last updated because I've been wrapping up my final project at work. Wow, what a relief to finally finish it. So now I have lots to catch up on. Starting from last week:

Saturday we went for, what else, Xinjiang Uigher food. Got almost all the favorites, including yoghurt and hand pulled noodles and lamb skewers. My mom really wanted to see the Beijing Wax Museum but it was closed indefinitely, so we went instead to Beihai Park. It had a decidedly different flavor from the other hai's... more chilled out, plus some pretty interesting courtyard mansion/temple thing.

It was seriously freezing, and you could see the ice on the lake, and ducks and koi kind of paddling around miserably.

We hopped a bus (my first time on a bus) to Wangfujing, where they were just setting up the snack street stalls. I just realized I never posted pictures of this touristy but pretty interesting night market, where you can get everything from lamb skewers to silkworms and centipedes. One of the more ingenious things I saw were giant xiaolongbao with straws stuck in them so you could suck out the soup before you ate the dumpling. So brilliant:

And of course the obligatory photo of crazy insects and stuff that normal people would never eat:

Then we went to Silk Market, and wandered around looking at cheap stuff we didn't really want to buy. But I did see this gorgeous Yunnanese headress made totally out of silver. It was like having a garden made of silver on your head.

And I ended up buying a pretty silver necklace from the same vendor. Bought a yam off the street before wrapping up the evening with another night at, yes, Cashbox KTV.
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Sunday we went to Prince Gong's Mansion in Houhai, which is probably one of the hardest places to find, buried as it is in the hutong. I'm glad I finally finally got to see it... pretty cool but after a while you realize every Ming/Qing-style mansion in China pretty much looks the same. Some pictures:

Then caught a rickshaw ride along Houhai and had an early dinner at No Name Restaurant. My mom, having been born in Kunming, loves Yunnanese food, especially the rice noodles in broth that she used to eat every day for lunch when she was in college in Burma. She asked the chef to make a special order of suancai zhurou mishen, or rice noodles with pickled mustard greens and pork.

She was so happy about it. We also tried these amazing sweet corn fritters, delicately punctuated by special Yunnanese ham:

Then went to Yandai Xiejie again and found this little boutique specializing in minority-inspired designs, but they owned their own factory and had their own designers to the clothing was pretty unique, unlike any other I've seen in the regular shopping malls. My mom bought a cotton top with Chinese collar, and I bought two dresses, one rose linen halter with hand stitched embroidery along the bodice and another made of blue and white batik in some flowery design. And a kimono-like tunic.

Walked afterwards to Nanluoguxiang. I was determined to find Alba, this tiny coffee shop my friend told me about that supposedly had the best almond tofu he's ever had. We found it and tried it, and yes, it was damn good. I think they add some heavy cream to the almond pudding to make it really thick and rich. Then got some yummy mini buns to go at Hangzhou Baozi.

Monday, took my mom to that amazing Guizhou restaurant near Yuanmingyuan. We had suantangyu, a tomato-based sour hotpot soup with whole catfish and all the fixin's:

Tuesday, bid farewell to Joe and Aki with a quick dinner at Ganges, the Indian restaurant in Wudaokou. Pretty good overall, but I think it's whack they serve Chinese white rice rather than basmati at the Indian restaurants here in China. And the saag vaguely resembles soylent green.

Wednesday, went with the Happy Girls to The Secret Garden, a Hunnanese place close to work that I hadn't been to since my first week in Beijing. It was even better than I remembered. Started with this delectable fatty pork and "wahaha cai," or napa cabbage:

And had some jelly-like potato noodles with pickled cabbage, and yummy rice-based tofu stuffs:

And the crowning signature Hunan dish, fish head covered in chilis:

The rest of us gagged at the idea of eating the fish eyeballs, but that did not deter the intrepid 老P from trying it:


Friday night, after a long week, I went to meet my mom and brother down by Oriental Plaza, before deciding to try our luck at Chuan Ban. Even though we got there at about 8:45pm, we still had to wait half an hour for a table. But it was well worth it and we gorged on all the Sichuan favorites. The laziji proved too spicy for most of us, and at the end it served as fodder for a contest between Lucy and Armin to see who could pick out the most pieces of chicken from amidst all the chilis in a set amount of time. Here they are, each determined to win:


Yesterday, didn't do much. Had an early dinner at 中八楼 again. This time, tried a new dish, stewed beef with Yunnanese mushrooms. It came with some deep fried breadsticks that were delishous. The crock-pot mishen I was not as much a fan of:

Also got a picture of the beautiful peacock lamp along the wall:

At night, my brother and I checked out a different club strip I hadn't explored before, starting with Cargo. I was amazed at how local it was... I'd been under the impression that local Beijingers didn't really do the whole nightlife thing. I was sorely mistaken... there they were, packing the lounge tables at Y600 a pop, sipping their drink of choice, sweet green tea + whiskey, and dancing to super beat-driven house. Snapped this picture of the outside of Richy's before the security guard told me to put away the camera:

Then met up with another coworker at Vic's, and played liar's poker a while before heading to Bellagio for late-night Taiwanese eats. Finally snapped this picture of the sun rising from my apartment window: