Hot and Cold

The weather did change for the better. It felt nice and cool today, you might even say SoCal like; it even rained a little, and we had partly cloudy conditions the whole day. The air was cleaner, less dusty. Somehow I ended up at two different Sichuan restaurants for lunch and dinner. The one at lunch was recommended by one of the staff members here; it had a thick menu with color pictures of all the dishes and the items were all translated into English. It is located on a major street, so had a decent number of customers. There were some foreigners too: two guys – one Asian, one white speaking American English; and one girl who came in by herself and who ordered in Chinese.

I’m trying to cut down on my meat consumption, so I ordered fried “Japanese” tofu and stir-fried green beans; pretty common dishes you’d find in any Chinese restaurant in the US or China.
They were good, but I guess I forgot how greasy Beijing food can be; not as bad as some other places that I’ve been to but still ... I ate everything. I’m always losing weight when I travel, so I always try to eat what I can. The bill was 41 kuai including a coconut milk drink which I could have done without; I thought it was going to be some clear coconut water, but it was white milky stuff and came in a can. Oh well.

The weather in the evening was even better; it was down into the upper 60s with a light breeze so you needed to wear at least pants. After walking around near Hou Hai, I passed this noodle restaurant; it looked clean, but cheap; I guess I still had Sichuan food on my mind. The restaurant had a simple Chinese menu with 5 or 6 dishes and a few sides; I ordered the cold noodles with one hard boiled egg and a cucumber side dish. It was good, but when the waitress said, “la de?” I just nodded my head and said, “dui”. Big mistake; should have ordered it less spicy. I ate about three-fourths of the bowl before I had to stop. No stomach problems so far on this trip; hope it stay that way. The total for the meal was only 16 kuai, less than 3 bucks U.S. I have to try the jianbing at one of these street places next.