KennethT

Our hotel near the Great Wall site of Mutianyu is located in Bei Gou village, which is apparently a fishing village, for trout. The village is tiny (we walked through it in sbout 5-10 min) and there appears to be only one restaurant thst evidently closes around 5 or 6 or whenever they feel like it. So we had dinner at the hotel whose menu consisted largely of western dishes, save for a couple varieties of fried rice and a plate of jiaozi... But they also had this trout: And I'm very happy to report that it was perfectly cooked! But unhappy to report that it cost 110 Yuan (about $17).. Talk about hotel prices! ETA Sorry the price is incorrect.. It was 163 Yuan or about $25 - even worse!

@DiggingDogFarmGood call! That looks like a winner.

@WayneInteresting, but it looks more like a vine than a tree... Unless it's a tree you can espalier. But it gets really cold here during winter, so I don't think it could be tamarind.

Our hotel near the Great Wall (near Mutianyu) has an organic herb garden... Most stuff is standard and marked, but I saw these growing on a trellis and wondered what they were... I figured I could ask someone here, but maybe it's more fun to ask you guys instead??

Driving to the great wall now, well I'm sitting not driving... We needed to have lunch close to the hotel as we had limited time between checkout and when our car was picking us up. We were originally going to go to The Grandma's, which is evidently a very popular Shanhainese chain of restaurants. Their Beijing branch is in a mall a couple minutes walk from our hotel. Well, the queue was probably about 2 hours long so instead we went to an old friend Din Tai Fung...

Here's a teaser for dinner tonight.... I've had a lot of Peking duck over the years. But this was THE.BEST.DUCK.EVER You 'll have to wait till I get home for the rest of the pics and descriptions. Tomorrow we're off to see the Great Wall for a couple of days, so I dont know what kind of food we'll have there or how good the internet will be. Right now, when not on the hotel's wifi, I'm rocking 2G...

@liuzhouwhat type of mint is #2?

Hotpot Yep, it's charcoal powered, not that that translated into flavor.

We had Xinjiang food for lunch... Awesome. Seemingly a marriage of Asia, Middle East and Russia. Mutton stew with potatoes and carrots (and a little bok choi) Mutton skewers - super tender with very interesting spices. The fat was slightly gamey in a good way. Xinjiang Nan Cucumbrr salad.. Nice and garlicky Rose tea

I wonder if 'ferv' is fluff? Also I am amazed at the clarity and uniformity of the handwriting. Makes my chicken scratch look illiterate.

Jaozi....

Yep, donkey meat... I wouldn't call it a burger- but the bread was awesome, flaky and crispy. The donkey meat was not as gamey as I thought it would be. It was mild and tender... And I think it was braised in some kind of 5spice liquid. Thre were some chopped mild chilis inside too.

Lunch:

Typing prose us a real pita on a cell phone. So I'm going to limit post to just a few photos here and there. When I get home, I'll collate the photos from different sources (main camera, my cell and my wife's cell) and make a more comprehensive story.

I find the flavor of sawtooth to be stronger and just different, but I like it better for many applications. I got seeds from Evergreen seeds... But beware, it takes a notoriously long time to germinate.

Nope, it's just the menu choices. You still get asked "chicken or fish" when they come down the aisle. Air Canada was pretty good... But I liked EVA better... Seats were similar but eva comes around with water every 20 min. AC never came around but you could serve yourself some in the back. Food was decent but Eva us typically better... Very serviceable. As expected I only got a couple hours sleep... So I'm running on fumed getting ready for bed. We had dinner in the hotel which was actually quite tasty if not overpriced... And we were basically the only ones there...

I think I'll try to take my sedative of choice (glass of wine + 2 Benedryl) after 'dinner' and a movie...

Food for the next 13 hours... Air Canada economy....

@blue_dolphinno problem... I'm now waiting in Toronto to board my connection. Any minute now... Years ago we stayed in a hotel in Hong Kong that had similar carpet in the elevators. I used photos of them to mark my photo set to know what happened on what day!

Off we go on another adventure! I'm still here in NYC, about to get in a taxi to take us to the airport. Unlike the past few trips, we are not flying EVA connecting through Taipei, but flying Air Canada, connecting through Toronto. I don't know what to expect, since this is the first time we've flown to Asia during the day, rather than leaving around midnight or 1AM - but the benefit is that rather than taking about 20 hours to get to the final destination, it's a short flight from NYC to Toronto, then a 13 hour flight to Beijing... the downside is that since we're leaving in the late morning, there's no chance of sleeping on this flight - maybe we'll catch a few hours before landing in Beijing, since we will be landing at 4AM NY time (4PM Beijing time) but I'm not counting on taking a sedative and sleeping for 6-8 hours mid-flight. I don't know how much I'm going to post while I'm there, but I'll try to put some teasers up if I see something incredibly interesting. Also, I don't think we'll be straying too far from the tourist trail this time - even recommendations from my wife's friends living in Beijing were similar to what I've read all around. But, we'll be getting together with 3 of them on 3 separate nights, which should be a lot of fun.

@liuzhouI just downloaded the Waygo app - it includes 10 free translations per day in the free version.... so I just scanned a bunch of the above characters - and each was translated almost exactly as you had done! So exactly, I wonder if they based their app on your descriptions! After that trial, I think it's definitely worth $6.99 for a lifetime of free translations!

Topping up this thread as I will be headed to Beijing in a couple days... anyone have any recent recommendations for: Hotpot Peking Duck Jianbing Roujiamo Jiaozi/Baozi Chuanr (kebab) Any other Beijing or northern specialties not mentioned?

Is it common to add the salt prior to baking pretzels? All the soft pretzels I see here in NYC (tons are sold on the street every day) look like they've had the salt added after baking. I imagine this is done in some kind of factory where the baking is conveyorized, and after a bit of cooling, they spray a fine mist of water or something, then shake on the salt and blast with some heat for a short time to evaporate the excess water.

I'd also do a som tam green mango salad with one or two - assuming that they are truly green and not already starting to ripen. Once ripe, I just love them au naturel or with some sticky rice that has been soaked with coconut cream, palm sugar and salt... my favorite dessert in the world...

I love sawtooth coriander. Every time I have seen it used in Thailand or Vietnam, it has been served raw... in Saigon, it was one of the many herbs on the table to accompany pho, or is wrapped up in rice paper wraps... in Thailand, it usually accompanies fried fish and seafood, and is eaten raw in between bites of fried stuff. I love the scent and flavor of it... BTW, it is a REALLY slow germinator from seed. It took 5-6 weeks! I was getting ready to throw it out and give up...