Nepalese nook

One of the benefits of living in Okinawa is, of course, some good Japanese food.  Okinawa differs a little because of it’s large American military presence.  While I have some primarily negative feelings about a continued occupation of a peaceful country, the presence does bring an unintended benefit – a variety of cuisines and cultures in Okinawa.  Military spouses, contractors, and the normal influx of foreigners into a nation brings a international flair to some restaurants.

So, yesterday, we headed down to a Nepalese restaurant.  Aside from curiosity about the ethnic cuisine, I had read that they have a version of xiao long bao.  For my friends who have never had one – the Shanghai soup dumpling is a fun eating experience involving clever slurping and chewing.  The small dumplings house a small amount of soup along with pork, which power punches some deliciousness.   The Nepalese version was fantastic.  Spicer and a little less soupy, the blend of flavors worked really well in the dumpling.  The rest of the food was tasty too.

Inky

Sorry for the lapse in postings.  The noodle, when properly prepared, is a minor delight.  I think before I came to Hong Kong and Asia-at-large, I was a little blase about the doughy-wheaty-squiggly foodstuff.  Now, my excitement occasionally borders on frothing.  Recently, at a local ramen shop, I discovered squid ink ramen.  Myth informed me that the dish could potentially turn your teeth black, which simply would make my day.  Alas, this did not happen.  Not so much as even a shade of difference.

But, what I did discover is that squid ink is a delight.  It has a mildly grainy texture and a slight odor.  It adds a vibrant and striking color contrast to the soup base and noodle.  The soup and ramen was finger-scraping-bowl good.  Some major excitement even without the colored teeth:

Noodles and Dollhouses

Two things really made my day in Baise, so I thought I’d share them.  Of course, the first is food:

Hand pulled delicious noodleage.  Really fantastic.  This Muslim owned restaurant served food in a

The second day maker was architecture.  I find now, as I travel, I really notice the buildings and structures around me.  Weirdest thing ever – the majority of Baise’s new housing reminds me of dollhouses:

Burgerpalooza – the pictoral version

Absolute Burger – came with gloves for eating.

Absolute Burger – Good grilled onions, but little else going for it.

Burgeroom

Monster Burger

Atomic Patty

Flying Pan Burger

Wow Burger

Burger Republic

McSorley’s Pub

Taiwan weekend = Gastronomical adventure!

Given a long weekend, I decided to jet over to Taiwan with some friends [one of whom has family all over Taiwan].  Let me tell you, Taiwan is the place to be.  Fusing the best of Chinese culture with subtle aspects of Japanese architecture and cleanliness – everywhere I went was fantastic.   The architecture is cool, everyone uber friendly, and the weather was superb.  Also,  I ate till I thought I might rupture and then ate one more thing.  Exaggeration and hyperbole have no place in that statement, at one point I had finished eating fruit [consisting of 2 mangos, 2 papaya, a handful of tomatoes, and some sections of watermelon] to find that we were going to eat breakfast [salty soy milk, fried goodness breads, etc] then to find out we were returning to eat more fruit. Another day, I counted no less than six hours of solid eating, including a two hour hot pot.  Yet, I still met each meal with eagerness, tried new things, and hoped I wouldn’t end up like a Monty Python sketch [scan ahead a minute if you want to spare yourself a delightful ditty about male endowment].

Taiwan’s selection and the deliciousness of that selection of fruit is simply amazing. Did you know there are yellow fleshed watermelons?  We got to try a another type of watermelon with yellow skin, with red meat – an experiment by a local grower.  Not as sweet or juicy, but a firm flesh that was still pretty tasty.  There are tomatos that call down angels to sing in your mouth and did you know there were at least 4 different types of mangos?   Just amazing.

That’s just fruit.  Let alone the pieces of fried chicken as big as your face, the stinky tofu, the fried blood, fishy peanuts, and the oddities of cuisine that cause my heart to leap with joy.  My favorite, by far, was the deep fried potato, covered in a neon nacho cheese [which turned out to be vanilla-ish flavored], and covered with your selection of toppings [mushrooms, bacon, pork, etc etc etc].  This was, by far, one of the most gross things I think I’ve eaten.  Your brain is prepared for the salty gooey-ness of nacho cheese, coupled with the crisp of potato.  Instead, something sickeningly sweet greets your tastebuds -  give me the barn-yard flavor of stinky tofu anyday.

And desserts!  Ice confections that melt joyously in your mouth.  Just a land of culinary delights.  If you are hungry, you must go to Taiwan.

Oh..and there are sights too. 

Learning to cook

So, in Ho Chi Minh City [nowafter only titled HCM] we saw a lot – Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, markets and bazaars, temples and churches – but the coolest thing I did was take a Vietnamese cooking class.  It was also the most delicious food we ate during the entire Vietnamese phase of the trip.  Obviously, I’m just THAT good of a cook.  Cooking is also a blast when everything is prepared for you, cut and ready to go, and you don’t have to clean up afterward.  

We learned how to make fish/chili sauce, spring rolls, carmelized pork, coconut rice, and sweet and sour soup.  I even got a little certificate and a cook book at the end of it all.  Really, a grand little start to a wonderful day.  Here are some pics:

I recommend checking the place out if you are in HCM.  Here is their website.  It is a little pricey [34 USD] for Vietnam, but grand fun and humorous if you go with a group.  After the class, I asked about a good place to get coffee.  The hostess looked at me sheepishly and said, “Um… all the places near here are really small.”  I encouraged her and said it was ok.  She directed us toward the coffee shops and we set off.  We walked down the road and came out to a street, confused at how we missed the shops.  By small, she meant these are people’s homes that happen to serve coffee.  We awkwardly went up to one and the ushered us in friendly like.  As we sat, we realized we were sitting in someone’s living room.  She prepared the coffee and we laughed as we realized we were breaking every rule in the guidebooks – drinking local water, eating ice, who knows what being brought to us in the form of snacks.  If a stomach ailment was coming, it was coming early on this trip. But, the family was super friendly, excited to see us, and the coffee was delicious.  They say buy local, and I doubt you get much more local than drinking coffee in a random person’s home.  Here it is:

An aside, when googling the Vietnam Cooking Center website I found this blog about a guy’s experience there compared to learning to cook with his Vietnamese mother.  There are also some cool photos at his blog.  The menu seems to change, so check ahead.  He also writes about Pho 24, one of the worst pho places I have eaten at.  But, as he points out – free air con and wifi makes up for the pricey and mediocre food.

Penguins and BBQ

Life in Hong Kong has settled for a little bit.  I’ve got no super items going on – just the usual teaching, eating, and reading a lot.  Adventures will soon continue I’m sure but we are currently in a natural lull.  But, I’ve started a new blog and in that process I ran across this random gem:

So, one day my boss said something about seeing a random Penguin around town.  I joked she had lost her mind, going senile with old age.  Well, one day I’m driving around town and I see this Penguin.  ”Great,” I thought, ‘Now I’m insane too.”  Or at least I was going to have to eat my own words.  I didn’t have my camera and by the time I got back it had vanished.  A mobile Penguin was lose in Fayetteville!  So, I set my mission to photograph this elusive beast – and capture it I did.  Turns out it is a promotion effort by a delicous BBQ place, Penguin Ed’s Bar-B-Que.  Also turns out – the goofy penguin has a name, Oreo.    If you are in F-town and haven’t eaten there – go and get some goodness.

Ramen Dinner

Back in the US, if I said, ‘Oh, I’m having ramen for dinner, ” most of my friends would just shake their heads, thinking that my laziness had driven me to eat my dinner from a cup or instant packet.  Japan and Hong Kong have completely changed my expectations of noodles.  I’ve already shared with you the divine noodle, but last night I had some fairly divine ramen at a little place called Yachiyo.  Located in Central Sheung Wan [one stop west of Central on the MTR] at 8 On Wo Lane, this little Japanese ramen shop serves up probably the best ramen noodles in Hong Kong.   I gave you all that information so that when you make it to Hong Kong , you’ll go there.  I had a plate of the cold noodles with organic vegetables [the picture with the tomatoes on top].  Good grief delicious!  Nothing goes better with food than pictures, so get hungry looking at these:

Beijing – Day 1

On the first day we decided to take in the major sites of Beijing. I will try not to bore you with detailed descriptions of areas you can read about all over the web. Suffice to say that the area of Tiannamen square is full of monuments, which are generally Mao-o-rific, and the Forbidden City is a must see. The gardens of the city are simply impressive and we could have spent all day there. There are also these dragon claw trees that I want to have wherever I wind up settling down.

The highlight of this day was definitely food. First up, scorpion:

The minute I saw them, I knew I wanted to eat them. They are crunchy and a little chewy. But, word to the wise – watch out for those stingers. This was actually my first fear when we bought them. But, I figured what harm can they really do? Turns out your hard palate isn’t scorpion proof and yours truly managed to sting the area right behind the front teeth. At first, just a little prick. I yelped but finished chewing. Then, it bubbled a bit and felt a lot like an ant bite. Thankfully, all the pain subsided after about 20 minutes – but man that was a scary little while.

We also ate some of the famous Peking duck. Man, deliciousness with no limits. Pieces of the roasted skin come, and you dip it in sugar – and heaven erupts in your mouth. Shu Lan says there is a limit to the amount of duck she can eat – but if it is Peking duck, I think I could eat a flock.

Qingdao

When I first pitched Qingdao to Shu Lan she asked why I wanted to go. I said, ‘Oh, it is suppose to be the most beautiful city in China. They are known for their beaches and coast. Just suppose to be a cool city.’ I must have mumbled something about it being the site of the sailing Olympic games too. Now, the ladies are savvy, so she immediately saw through this and asked, ‘Why do you really want to go?’ To which, I was forced to answer, ‘Um…they make beer.’ Thankfully, I’ve got the kind of lady who doesn’t mind getting behind that – so Qingdao was our next stop!

Thankfully, Qingdao was even more beautiful than I had been told. The beaches are clean and gorgeous. We have a lot of great pictures – typical disgustingly beautiful beach scenes.   Those pictures that make you groan because people live there and see it everyday.  The problem was, though, while we were there Qingdao was freezing. This didn’t stop the locales from swimming, but it brought a lot of complaints from a cold Shu. Qingdao is really a coastal city, so I recommend you travel when it is a bit warmer.  Though, the upside is service was fast everywhere we went because there were few travelers.

Quick snapshot of our itinerary – again, two days [Christmas Day and after]. Christmas day and off season in China means that a lot of places were closed. So, we decided to take a impromptu walk down the seaside scenic path. We walked all day, taking in areas of the coast, seeing a castle, sculptures, and in general having a grand day bundled up in scarves and hats. All that walking, though, made for a tired pair – so we rose late the next day and then headed to tour the Tsingdao Beer Factory. We decided to take it easy, since Beijing was upcoming so we went back to the hostel to rest up for the adventure of Beijing and watched terrible movies on TV.  Not the super exciting adventures you were probably hoping for but a great vacation nonetheless.

The hostel we stayed in was amazing. Far from the penny pinching at a lot of places, they gave us tons of stuff for free – even throwing a friendly Christmas dinner party. A converted observatory, the rooms are big and have nice views of Qingdao. So, I recommend checking it out if you head there.

Qingdao was also great because we started getting more adventurous with food. Since neither of us speak Mandarin nor read simplified Chinese – we had previously limited ourselves to restaurants that either spoke some English or had English menus. De facto, this means our food in Shanghai was a little subpar. But, Qingdao offered us the opportunity to dive in. We took the express to Beijing – so best to express to some posts about that!  But first, I’ll post some pics of the seaside walk.