Eating My Way Through China: In the Countryside

Here is a rural village we stopped by on our way to Hwang Shan. It full of tiny streets and bridges over small streams flowing into the lake you see here, bordered by enormous waterlilies.

Although it's a tourist trap now, folks still go on making their living, cooking, crafting wares, and washing their laundry in the surrounding pools.

Here are some chilies, drying in the baking sun.

Flatbreads and cakes for sale in a quiet corner.

This villager is drying tea - when I took this picture he joked,
"Don't - I'm too old and ugly!"

Eating My Way through China: Beijing was Peking, but Duck is still Duck

Of course I'm going to write about food in China! What do you take me for? Let's begin at Beijing, where I was stranded with my sister and then with my sister & mom for a few days (my dad lost his passport the night before our flight!!). Luckily, we had Peking Duck to comfort us - and this was no ordinary duck...

We begin with pate de foie gras in gelee.

Then dry smoked duck in a nest of lettuce and fine fried noodles.

The main attraction follows: Peking Duck at its finest,
with crisp skin and lean meat.

The duck is eaten on thin crepes with the above accompaniments: (clockwise starting from top left) garlic puree, sugar, plum sauce, scallions, cucumber, radish. The bottom left dish holds sour pickled vegetables to clean one's palate. The sugar is eaten only with the skin alone. It is perfection.

Put all together, ready to be folded up and devoured.

Finished off with a soothing duck broth.

I like duck in all its manifestations - but Peking Duck has got be my favorite. Followed by foie gras.

China: The World of Tomorrow and the World of Yesterday

Yes, I've been in Asia again. This time there was some family business to be taken care of (long story involving my mob family and a fantastic car chase John-Woo style... well, not really), but we also had some time to tour around.

Of course I will be uploading lots of food pictures. But here are some general trip photos before we begin - I think they really reflect the absurd paradox that is China:

Here we are in the World of Tomorrow - Shanghai. Behind me is the Bund, a mix of old colonial buildings (old German, French, British embassies, etc.) now dwarfed by towering corporate giants of steel and glass.

But China is also still the World of Yesterday, the world of calligraphy, poets, scrolls, temples, and burning incense. China makes it clear that these things are not dead and are not actually "yesterday."

And then there's the In-Between, the FOB-China that is totally Bhabhian - "not quite, not right" or "not quite, not white." China absolutely mimics the West - but not quite. For example:

Everything is translated into English, you see, and here the English is perfectly correct. But something is just off, missing the cultural mark by a long shot.

Beijing 2008 Olympics should be veeeeerrrry interesting.