chefmd

@blue_dolphin Would love a glass of wine. Riesling? Pinot noir? Unfortunately I am on call for the hospital this weekend and have limit myself to water on the rocks, possibly with a twist. Olives don't go well with water

Home made bread toast with Gorgonzola dolce.

I have GE Advantium 1.7 cu. I do not have an oven. GE is plenty of an oven for me. It fits 13 by 16 roasting pan and 12 inch cast iron skillet nicely. It can microwave, convection bake, broil. There is also speed cook option that I never use and should have bought a model without it. Cost is around 1000 but IIRC there was some rebate offer. Love it!

Great bump on this topic. I miss Dave Hatfield (: who contributed a lot to this thread and to egullet must make cassoulet in his honor. And I have tarbais beans from @rancho_gordo. Bargain at 5.95 a pound. http://www.ranchogordo.com/products/cassoulet-tarbais-bean

@huiray the landnscape is indeed very different from DC suburbs where I live. Sigh.

@Kerry Beal lovely couple is going live in NJ. My DIL got a job with Mars. My son got consulting gig so he will be traveling most of the time, all he needs is an airport nearby.

@johnnyd Greatideas. If my husband ate tripe in China, my in-laws can eat Mexicali!

Crepes, that is the rear end of a free roaming cow, there were quite a few of those trying to cross the road. Thankfully there did not appear to be any dead cows along the road.

And I am proud to report that I survived four days without coffee in Yakeshi. Ditto no coke for my husband. Now sipping on instant coffee in Beijing hotel room and it oh so delicious. I don't even mind the instant part.

Most food we tasted was not spicy. Few dishes had a bite but it was not sweat inducing spicy. Also interestingly I never once felt the need to add soy sauce since dishes were seasoned perfectly.

Also, thanks everyone for your kind wishes to my family.

So the real question is what to do when in-laws come to visit us in America. Taking them on hamburger tasting tour is not going to cut it.

Few pictures taken along the way. Cause we take non food pictures too ;). What a gorgeous place.

There were few other dishes on the table. We were told that all ingredients are local. Fries that were made with something like sweet potato. Lamb soup with greens. Glass noodles Parsley leaf salad Noodle soup Whole fish Desserts (kidney accidentally made its way on a cookie plate)

An unexpected and truly magical meal happened on our last day. Our hosts picked us up at the Hotel and drove to grassland area about two hours west. We passed small clusters of yurts along the way. Some yurts function as mini museums with themed artifacts such as clothes or agriculture. Some are for entertaining. We stopped at the one that also doubled as a restaurant. I had no idea where we were going and what the plans were for the day. Turns out we were about to have an amazing nose to tail lamb experience. Now, there was a slight problem. While I will eat anything that is on my plate and will often actively seek out offal dishes, DH is a very cautious eater (where are the lamb chops was his initial question). This time he managed to try and even to like a few of the offerings other than the muscle part of the lamb. And what a way to honor an animal that became our meal! Inside of the yurt. Meaty part that was mostly the breast plate. Meat was fatty and slightly chewy, very flavorful, served with variety of dipping sauces that sadly we forgot to photograph. This was the first time that I saw small knives served so guests could cut small chunks of meat for themselves. Kidneys. Probably my favorite part of the meal. Heart and liver. Tripe. It tasted none of the offal, more like very flavorful port stir fry. Lungs. Don't know how it was prepared but texture was similar to chicken gizzards. Intestine. Please insert phallic jokes as needed. Lamb sausage Blood sausage with amazing almost creme brulee like texture. Not a hint of the metallic taste that I would expect from blood.

Liuzhou, thank you for clarifying my corn confusion. Now I am surprised that I never had corn dish in a Chinese restaurant in the US. Just shows how limited my experience is when it comes to China.

The wedding was very impressive. There was light show and good old disco ball. Dancers, singers, and musicians. Interestingly, it started at 10:30 AM and was done by 12:30. And of course there was food. Dishes were very similar to the ones we had during previous meals so I will not bore you with individual pictures. I was happy to see guests filling up doggy bags after the event since of course there was a lot of left over food. The floor after the event. People were eating sunflower seeds and spitting shells on the floor.

Of course there was more food. We could not eat very much but my DIL kept filling our plates. Our protests that we can pick our own food were met with explanation that she is supposed to take care of us. Best dish of the night made with "local vegetables". Of course they were mostly meat. Best meat balls I ever tasted. Scallops on the shell Sliced cold pork. Fruit salad Whole fish

After rehearsal we all moved to a smaller room for dinner. This was the only meal that we were allowed to pay for. It was priced per table, not per person. Our contribution was prominently acknowledged in the speech given by the mother of the bride. Again too much food. Lamb ribs. Somewhat fatty compared to the lamb that we get in America but very flavorful. Surprisingly we got a corn dish. It looked like it was from a can but it sure was made with fresh corn, French fries looking dish. Fries were sweet, coated in sugar and sprinkled with small candies. I warned DH but he tried it anyway. "Fries are sweet" was his response. We communicate well in our family. Whole chicken Various cold seafood Delicious deep fried pork.

Dinner was at the hotel. It was part of the "rehearsal" event. I use quotation mark because the only rehearsal we did was walking from down the elevated platform and standing on the podium for a minute or two while emcee was saying something in Chinese. He was using the microphone and the volume was too high for the room. I hope it is not going to be that loud tomorrow. Mostly the event was for the close family members to socialize. Photos and videos of the happy couple were projected on the big screen with English captions such as "history of love". Here is a picture of the happy couple in front of a picture of the happy couple. No smoking signs are posted everywhere. Of course everyone is smoking. There were cigarette butts on the floor of the banquet room. Tables are ready for tomorrow. The welcome hard liquor again. Oh, I miss my glass of chilled white wine!

My usual wake up time in China around 3 AM. Fortunately I am able to fall asleep after an hour or two for a few more hours. I am sure that my daily after lunch naps do not help me to sleep through the night :). But the luxury of being able to sleep any time I want while on vacation is oh so delicious. Hot pot for lunch. We were presented with a pot with boiling water and couple of aromatics in it. The amount of meat that you see in picture was just the beginning. They kept bringing more until we could not eat another morsel. It was lamb and beef. And beer was flowing freely again. This time it was on tap. I don't normally drink beer but it goes very well with spicy meat centric meals.

It is also interesting that Bosch has a winter testing facility in Yakeshi. From Bosch website: Yakeshi, which is some 1,100 km north of Beijing, is an ideal location for winter test facilities, as winter lasts five months from November to March. The average temperature is -30 degrees Celsius and snow depth reaches its maximum of 30 cm in February. Constantly low temperatures ensure reproducible conditions under which the software of safety technologies can be tested.

To take a break from eating we went on a tour of the local park. Gorgeous forest, lakes, mountains. Unfortunately there is some deadly bug that everybody is concerned about so we stayed on the main pathway.

I did not take pictures of the breakfast buffet at the hotel but did snap a couple of pictures of the tanks in the dining room with live sea creatures that can be cooked upon request. That included a lonely turtle. Not your everyday protein.

@Smithy Pickled root was covered with reddish substance that looked like it should be spicy but it was not. It was not deep fried. It was supposed to have medicinal properties. I asked if it was ginseng and the answer was no.