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 – Scams…

Scamming is a hazard of travel. If you are a foreigner, particularly in a place you have no hope of blending in, you are going to get ripped off. If you don’t know the language, your only hope is to not feel like you are getting ripped off all the time. Normally, as savvy travelers, Shu Lan and I are able to successfully navigate scams and pushers. Beijing had so many, at every corner, that it was like a weird gameshow or reality TV program. They simply could not be avoided. Here, though, is our worst story:

So, we decided we would go to the Great Wall at Badaling [the easiest to access and therefore the most touristy]. The Lonely Planet says ‘The cheapest and easiest way to get to Badaling is to take bus No 919 from just north of the old gate of Deshengmen.’ This seemed a delightful alternative to the 350+RMB we had seen on tour groups – plus easy instructions, right? Oh boy.

First, Deshengmen is also a Bus Depot with a lot of buses. Second, every single one of these buses seems to be numbered 919. 919s just kept whizzing by but none of them seemed to go to Badaling. We asked attendants, ‘No.’ We tried to read the bus kiosk sign, it seemed to stare ‘No.’ Oh…except one attendant who said, ‘This bus is not going, but one will come soon. Stand here.’ He’s got his blue jacket on, he’s official. Meanwhile, little dudes are running around trying to get people to go to Badaling on their tour or offering taxis to the wall [100 RMB – it’s cheap!]. The guy with the blue jacket starts saying, ‘Oh…it will cost you 80 RMB to take the bus – the taxi is faster. Only 100 RMB.’ I decline, decline, decline. I tell Shu Lan that I plan to walk a little further down to see what is going on. As I ask another official about the bus, a tour guy standing right next to him says, ‘No bus to Badaling. No today or tomorrow.’ I am getting angry at this point and I just turn and say, ‘You…are a liar.’ and I walked away. I saw a Russian couple who looked even more confused than me – and they started to stick with me. As the I stood there talking to them, the tour guy said, ‘If you not take my tour, get out of here.’ Likely ticked I stole some business.

I’ll cut a long story short. We met a German couple that had been standing in that spot for over 40 minutes waiting for ‘the bus’. Then, we met a Chinese couple who knew there was a scam going on too. One of the Chinese people spoke English and kindly offered to try to help us all out. They managed to get another official and after some hard core Chinese arguing – we headed off.

It turns out, the buses we wanted were 300 meters down and a road crossing over [I suppose to give LP a little more credit – it was a bit further ‘north’]. They were bright green, larger and more professional looking, but numbered – 919. These, however, said ‘Badaling’ right on the front. The price – a whopping 12 RMB.

What gets me about the trip is that I’ve been scammed and I’ve had people try to scam me hard. But never, in all my traveling, has an official flat out lied to me or purposefully led me to a tour. Because of their concerted efforts, it took as an hour to just get to the bus to get to the wall. No one, it seemed, was willing to just say – walk that way. Such a pain! But, the experience was humorous and well…it’s a fun story!

Language and food…

I wrote last about following in the footsteps of Bourdain.  One thing I forgot to mention is that none of those places speak English or have English menus.  This seems to be an ever present marker of great food in my travels. When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I stuck to the English offerings which gave me a sense of what I was going to get – and I had, frankly, a mediocre food experience.  While the normal/everyday offerings [and even fast food] were above the standard, I wondered – where is all this fantastic Hong Kong food?  Where is the drop your mouth, thank the food gods, happiness on a platter food?

The answer is that the places with that food are often the places with no translator, no translations, and are near something [disposal area, car mechanic, sketchily washed dishes, etc] that you wish was not near the food you are about to put in your mouth. Sometimes, it seems, you just have to get out of your comfort zone to get some good eats – either language or environment.

Illustrating the language issue – while in Japan, Shu Lan and I randomly stumbled into a restaurant.  We, driven by our starvation, had accidentally gone to the wrong floor [thinking we were at the place with the English menu advertised outside].  When we sat, the menu was written in a calligraphy Japanese, and all the waiters spoke Japanese.  All had assumed Shu Lan could speak it too, hence why they didn’t say anything at the door.  So, unable to read a single item on the menu – Shu Lan just asked the waiter to bring us two dishes he liked.  The experience was one of the best meals we had in Japan.

So, if you are in Tokyo, seek out Rinka. I would give better directions [it is in the Shinjunku district] but I seriously doubt I could find it again.  Here are some photos from that experience:

New vocabulary…

Last week was full of proofreading papers, as many students here have papers due during the same sessions. In addition to some simply odd language choices (ex. “we need to create a puddle of knowledge-based manpower”), occasionally the students pulled a new word that I have never seen (or a word I have rarely seen) in my 26 years of English. Often, these are the result of blind reliance on translator dictionaries or by accidental mistype (spelling the word closely to the intended one) and a digital spellchecker giving them the gem.

Among my favorites:

Mammonism – Devotion to the pursuit of riches.

Abecedarian – 1. Of or pertaining to the alphabet; marked with the alphabet; arranged in alphabetical order, as abecedarian psalms, like the 119th.2. Occupied in learning the alphabet, or pertaining to one so occupied.3. One engaged in teaching the alphabet and merest rudiments of instruction.

To Mug up – 1. intr. To read or study in a concentrated manner. Now freq. with up (on a subject, book, etc.); also formerly with away at, on at.

Often, they are misused and unintended – but they always remind me of the richness of English and the large vocabulary that we rarely use on a daily basis.  While I was in Bulgaria,  this occured fairly frequently.  Once a friend gave me directions to an art museum saying, “Turn by the palace of justice,” which simply made me chuckle because Americans would never describe a ‘courthouse’ as a ‘palace.’  Another time, when I asked why she had no pictures hanging on the walls, said ‘It is forbidden.’  The thought of checking out a new apartment and asking the landlord about placing things on the wall and s/he booming ‘it is FORBIDDEN!’ still makes me smile!