There was some strange and seemingly lame show being filmed in the hotel lobby in the morning. I was trying to call up to Woody's room at the front desk and the hotel clerk shushed me! Not in a rude way but still, maybe it's rare for Chinese folk to see film crews and know how to act around them but I'm an American city slicker. I was speaking in a low voice. What cheek!
Woody, victorious atop at the Mei Guo Mao Tou Yin Tsan Ting - translated: American Owl Cafeteria/Eatery. Also known at Hooters. haha.
Maria, victorious in front of Ya Yuan. That might mean Duck Garden? Anyways, we are back for best Beijing duck in the WORLD!
I got to meet my great/grand aunt and uncle. They are cute old folks. My great uncle used be the head of cultural development in China. I'm told he was in charge of the Beijing opera.
4 nieces
3 nephew-in-laws
4 grand nephews/nieces.
family set.
When ordering a meal, let the guy who knows what he's doing make the choices.
Woody proudly displays his Hooters business card. He was very pleased that he had learned how to say "Hooters" in Chinese.
~droooooool~
Let the gorging begin. I only took pictures of dishes I thought we didn't have before.
Duck hearts. Normally... but I eat what ever the master makes me.
Not duck!
Xiao Jiu Puo models her fancy hand knit sweater. The thread work was pretty impressive. It was like the stuff you see in nice designer sweaters but with the pattern and plus it was hand knitted. By a 80+ year old! Impressive.
Remember to smile everybody!
Maria pointing out the not as obvious. Yashow is a shopping center. Showya is Maria. Although that is a strange spelling. We spell it Hsiu Ya although it is spelled (spelt?) Xiu Ya these days.
@ Sanlitun. Here is a giant Reebok China HQ.
more Sanlitun
Met up with some of Brian's friends (from Karaoke night) at a Mexican restaurant for Sangrias.
At another local street near Wangfujing.
Rar!
In the Wangfujing Shopping Center, two oddly named stores.
Yao Ming grows tree from brain, towers over China.
We had a nice fancy dinner planned at the Royal Restaurant at the Sunworld Dynasty Hotel in the Wangfujing district.
Gathering guests in our nice private room with our own private toilet which was kind of weird since you could hear the meal from in there.
Ooo, I'm excited too!
So the guy in the red vest is Uncle Alan's older brother. He was one of Taiwan's first jet fighter pilots.
gossip...
papparazzi
and our VIP connection, older brother's son is the general manager at the Sunworld Dynasty Hotel. niiiiiice.
Can you read Chinese? This is our 12 course meal menu.
1. fancy appetizer cold plate
2. assortment of savory meats
3. shark fin soup
4. awesome fish
5. another assortment of meats
and white wine (Chardonay)
as well as a red wine (Austrailian Syrah)
Cheers!
6. this was new for me. I'm not sure what the one on the left is... Maybe a mushroom or giant fish cheek? Very succulent. The right one is the air sac from a very large fish. It's like a balloon that's inside the fish that they use for going up and down. Who knew it was a delicacy?
7. Shrimp
Maria was starting to get full so she snuck a few of her shrimp onto David's plate. He ate them all, all the time thinking "wow! what generous portions!"
More toasting.
8. Scallop in the shell
9. A salad with this nice sauce. From the color of it, it looked like it would taste like a french dressing but it was anything but.
10. Shrimp fried rice
More toasting.
11. Sago
12. Dessert
13. Bonus course - Fruit.
reviewing pictures
enjoying pictures
So to wrap it up, this was the 3rd best meal of the trip, after duck meal 1 and duck meal 2. Beats the so called "7 star" Pangu meal.
Wangfujing at night.
Wangfujing food market.
You may have seen this place on various food shows.
This vendor was hilarious. I have no idea why but he was saying in English "you are so beautiful. I love you very much" to an American tourist. I think that was his attempt to charm her into buying his food.
meat sticks
Avoid at all costs (according to Gabe). Ignore their siren song. Fried sea horse if you are lazy to click on the image.
Soup buns. w/ bendy straw action.
More meat "sticks"
various insects and arachnids on sticks.
Giant crab back
Seafood stand. I see starfish, tentacle, and squilla
Here I explain to Woody the dangers of eating Squilla.
One last drink with David. He takes us to a nice restaurant somewhere near the eastern gate of the Forbidden city. Walking distance from Wangfujing.
Uncle Xiao Guan requests more Syrah.
the view from the restaurant. It was a glorious day of eats.
1 comment:
for the record:
1) xiao jiu po is 91, xiao jiu gong is 88, she used be an actress on stage while xiao jiu gong was her director.
2) guy in the red vest's name is 楊群 (Yang Qun/), who used to be quite a famous actor in Taiwan before moving to Seattle, where he befriended Alan's family, he's also David's godfather (gan ba 乾爸), his son is the restaurant/hotel manager, the meal is a Seattle people reunion, that explains the fancy food.
3) the jet fighter is 張怙 (Zhang Hu\), the one with blue stripe shirt on the left in the group shot a few pictures later,, he's Alan's older brother's buddy in the air force, after Alan's brother died in a training session, he became their surrogate brother.
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