December 21, 2013 in Beijing

Nǐ hǎo. Saturday, December 21, 2013

Thanks for all the notes.. Glad you’re enjoying the ride.

Beautiful sunny day and a little warmer today (at least if you walk on the sunny side of the street).

After a very light breakfast (definitely didn’t eat enough for our club membership fee), we headed to what is known as “old Beijing” — Luilichang Street. Started out on a main thoroughfare and then walked down a small street, but after meandering a while we figured out that this was not “exactly” correct. I think the taxis don’t like to get caught up in the narrow hutongs so they drop you off at the edge of the neighborhood and then you’re on your own — which is probably a lot easier if you speak Chinese. Anyway, we were exposed to yet another hutong complex.. and then decided to cross the major street and see what was on that side, which we could tell housed yet another (or perhaps a continuation of the same) hutong. Most likely, the center part of this hutong was demolished to make way for the 12-lane road that now completely cuts the neighborhood in two. We walked through the maze of streets and finally asked a few people if they speak any English. Trick is to find someone young (under 30) and then they are more likely to speak English. Apparently English is now required throughout all school years.

So we approached a young couple that appeared to be in their 20s and yes they spoke English. We showed them some pictures from the Internet on the iPhone and they knew immediately where we needed to go. So they took us.. We were in the general area, but it’s such a maze of streets that I don’t know if we would have found it. Liulichang Street sometimes called Luilichang Culture Street dates back to the Yuan Dynasty when the Mongolian emperors set Beijing as the capital city. Little villages sprang up around the outskirts of the center of town and one was called Haiwang Village, which later became part of Beijing. But Haiwang Village is known for producing glazed tiles that were called Luili Chang.. the tiles were used in building projects.

Through the years, the vendors started selling other goods and over time these commercial ventures replaced the tile factory. Calligraphy shops were added later and the area became known for selling paper, brushes, ink slabs, etc… and for its book stores.. From what we’ve read, it became a haven for scholars. But in more recent years it fell into disarray. In the 1980s it got a facelift (maybe payback for removing a good chunk of the neighborhood?).. and now there are about 100 small shops lining the little narrow streets selling books, stamps, art, etc. It’s quite delightful. We strolled around and eventually bought two stone “stamps.” We spent a lot of time in the shop looking around before we picked the ones we wanted.. I think you’re supposed to buy your “sign” but we just picked what we liked.

Then the guy gave us a very thick book.. with all English names.. never knew there were so many. He didn’t speak any English but we realized he wanted to know our names. Next to each English name was the Chinese characters for that name. He then carved each of our names into the stamps using Chinese characters. I think mine is something like “Feess” and Mike’s something that sounded like “my-car”.. We took lots of photos of the guy doing the carving by hand. Actually years ago I had a stamp made when I was in Hong Kong.. but this guy today really turned it into art.

From there we hopped a cab (well not quite that simple.. first we went to a corner that had a taxi sign and two taxis standing around.. but no drivers.. ) so we walked back to our new favorite place — The Temple Restaurant where we had dinner the other night — the one in the 600-year-old former Buddhist temple and monastery that had been turned into a television factory in the 1950s. Walking down that alley was a riot with two taxis trying to get through — one in each direction and people walking and carts.. and with about 1″ between the two cabs.. but everyone was calm and inched forward without accident. This time it would be brunch at The Beijing Restaurant.

Another amazing meal.. we opted for the 5 course vs. the 8 course even though we knew that all portions would be very tiny. So we got to pick 5 things from a menu of about 15 choices.. But since Mike was picking 5 and I was picking 5, we actually picked 2/3 of the menu..

Mike started with some kind of drink that had pickled vegetables, ginger beer, and vodka (following the complimentary champagne); I stuck with wine. Mike called his drink “salad” and determined it would be very healthy! A basket of incredible breads came to the table immediately. For the foodies reading this, I’ll do my best to remember all the dishes (each of which was presented as a work of art to perfectly match the setting and the general ambience down to the wait staff all wearing grey simple shift dresses and black tights):

• smoked salmon with freshly grated horseradish and very finely chopped hardboiled egg yolk
• beef tartar (with all sorts of spices mixed in) sitting atop egg yolk alongside some greens and marinated mushrooms and some kind of balsamic reduction (I think)
• an orange fennel salad (orange sections that had been soaked in some kind of wine or port, I think) and marinated fennel and also fresh fennel and some paper thin radishes
• beet and gorgonzola salad with candied walnuts
• we had two small pieces of fish; one had pumpkin seeds encrusting it and a side of some kind of eggplant mixture
• braised eggplant with ginger and scallions
• a very tender breaded pork with lemon and some kind of cabbage
• a small piece of super tender chicken sitting on top of a sweet potato puree and some other stuff
• bread pudding with a dollop of homemade ginger ice cream

I had mentioned that it was Mike’s birthday, so they also brought out an over-the-top, way too rich flourless chocolate cake in a cylinder shape on a stark white plate with “Happy Birthday” inscribed in chocolate… and some really nice port to have with the dessert..

After we “rolled” out of the restaurant (where, by the way, after they lay out the table cloth on a table they use a cordless iron to eliminate any fold marks!), the manager took us on a tour of the facilities which are amazing. They have a small 8-room hotel (next time that’s where I’d stay).. The manager (female) who speaks excellent English because she lived in England for 10 years) is trying to come to the states for a vacation — to the west coast. Her plan includes San Francisco and Napa.. and maybe Seattle, so we told her to get in touch. Maybe she can show us few tricks on that food presentation deal.

From the restaurant, we took another taxi (very cheap) to something called the 798 Art District, which turned out to be way further than we thought.. so we got to see a lot of the city from the window of the taxi. The District is a little like Soho in the 70s.. but quickly turning into Soho of the 90s. In any case both the morning in old Beijing and the afternoon at 798 were easy walking areas and away from the 12-lanes of traffic. Walked around a bit, bought a few funny keepsakes and then braved traffic back to downtown.

For those that have asked..

• We haven’t really seen any other Americans.. and there are very few tourists this time of year, which is fine for us. When the rare person who speaks English stops us on the street to ask where we are from and we ask them to guess, their first guess is Russia, which is what happened in Shanghai as well just a few years ago.
• It’s been cold, but not unbearable and actually quite delightful when the sun is strong.. but as you know I hate the heat and melt at 80 degrees; I’d probably opt for cold any time.
• My black, black, and black wardrobe, with the addition of scarves and vests, has served me well these first 5 days. We’ll see how long I can deal with that… but then again, I’m usually wearing black in the US as well.

We’re off for the birthday dinner.. hope my choice was a good one: Duck de Chine.. sounded good and can’t leave Beijing without having Peking Duck.. right? I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Fern

PS.. Mike wanted me to tell you that the waitress at Temple Restaurant guess Mike’s age to be “52!” — obviously angling for a big tip. In any case, she said that was “through her eyes.”