Istanbul awaits.
As does Prague, Sicily, Rome, Shanghai, Bali (again), Cape Town, Bath, and so many more.
We want to see the world.
But for now, we'll settle for seeing Beijing.
Yesterday National Day, and although the main festivities were in Tiananmen Square, we watched from the comfort of our couch, the sounds of children enjoying their Monday off wafting up to our open windows. It looked pretty closed off, anyway. The majority of China watched the way we did. Maybe without the mug of Nescafe, but close enough.
We tried a new restaurant, and while we didn't originally intend to eat there twice in one day, we did.
The fourth from the top, on the left, and the first one with five characters were lunch's fare.
The fourth from the top on the right, and the third from the top on the left were dinner.
Super husband and I are both getting colds, so the soupy, spicy goodness was much needed.
This restaurant is definitely going on our list of favorites.
(So, the reason I'm not telling you what we were eating is because I don't know what it was. We play Chinese Roulette here, a lot. The fourth from the top on the right is ChauBing, or fried shredded pancake with vegetables. Other than that all I can tell you that it is noodle-y goodness. The last character on the majority of rows in the left column, the one that kinda looks like a house, that's the character for noodles. Other than that, I'm stymied.... Chinese Roulette is where you look at a menu, and just point, hoping that whatever you've just ordered will be appetizing. We've only failed once or twice, so far. At least unlike the Russian version we walked away with our lives, a bad taste in our mouths, but still breathing.)
In China, a week off isn't really a week off because you have to work on Saturday. But because it's National Week, or Golden Week and National Day (no one has been particularly clear about this yet) the kids made Moon Cakes. Not one to let a cultural cooking experience pass me by, I joined right in.
My Moon Cake
Super Husband, happily consuming my Moon Cake.
So, to make moon cake, look up a recipe.
I'm only half joking.
Because we were making these with 5-year-olds (I took pictures, but those aren't for a public blog, since they're kids, and not my kids) the dough and red bean paste came into the classroom pre-prepared. From what I could assertion, through a mixture of my own knowledge of baked goods, and some weird, weird Chinglish, the dough is basically like a good sugar cookie dough. I have no idea how to even describe the red bean paste. If you're not a traditionalist, I would suggest subbing some candied fruit, or chocolate type thing for the red beans. Otherwise, here's a recipe I found online: Red Bean Paste Recipe. I do not, in any way, vouch for this recipe. It has good reviews, that's all I know.
Anyway, you take your dough and roll it into a ball. The size of your ball depends on the size of your moon cake, obviously, but keep in mind that you'll be filling said ball with something. My ball was about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Once you have a nice sphere, pat an indentation into the middle. You can use your thumb, or a spoon. Pull the edges up, so that when you've added your paste you can easily close the dough around it. Add the paste, (I used about a teaspoon of paste, because honestly, I was afraid of it...) close the dough around it. The Chinese teachers seemed to labor a bit about making the seams from where you close the dough disappear, as much as possible. I don't know if this serves equally for aesthetics as for not letting the paste seep out, but either way... So, here's the fun part.
Grab yo'self one of these bad boys, and get to molding... Oh, right. Maybe I should have mentioned that earlier? Okay, so I figure that these are really only necessary if you're going all out traditional. Especially since I saw a thing on tv yesterday (saw, not understood or even listened to. Saw.) where these army types were making moon cakes into dolphins, tigers, the whole bit. So, get a cookie cutter in a shape you like: a flower, ghost, a German Shepherd (that might be a little hard, what with the legs and tail...) whatever. Mould your little ball of dough and paste to fit the shape. If by some miracle there is a China Town close enough to warrant a drive, go pick one of these up. Because really, who doesn't want a traditional Chinese moon cake mould? Anywho, mould your moon cake into a shape that pleases you, and bake that sucker 'till golden brown. About 15 minutes on 350, if I'm to trust my understanding of the broken English I was communicating in.
And voila! Moon cakes abound!
While in China Town picking up your mould you might also run across pre-packaged moon cakes.
BUYER BEWARE!
I don't know if they sell them abroad, but here some moon cakes come filled with egg. And not the hard boiled kind, neither. I have yet to experience this, ahem, delicacy for myself, but I have been told that when you bite into a moon cake and yolk runs down your chin... Well, I won't repeat the expletives used.
We were awoken this morning, Tuesday, by what we came to discover were firecrackers. But at 6:30am, well, I'm pretty sure I asked if they were cannons. I'm not sure why cannons came to mind. Ceremonial cannons, perhaps?
They were being set off first behind a large apartment complex across the river, and then in the park that lines the river. Apparently at some point this week we will be treated to a large display of fireworks. My apartment should provide a decent vantage point. My porch looks directly south, almost in line with Tiananmen and the Forbidden City, but slightly east. We shouldn't even have to crane our necks to see the display. I hope. If it proves underwhelming from here we have a standing invitation to the apartment I used to occupy. The 27th story should have an almost unrivaled view of, well... everything. And there's always the roof access.
When I asked Super Husband what he would like to talk about he said "Chopstick Cereal". This is not what you might think. It is the art of eating cereal with chopsticks. Which he has done at least twice now. I don't eat cereal, but if I did it would have to be with chopsticks because we don't have anything else. We bough one pack of 10 sets of bamboo chopsticks, and have no other utensils. Which has been just fine so far, except that it means that I stir my morning coffee with chopsticks, smash ginger for ginger tea with chopsticks, and, well, eat with chopsticks.
Honestly, I don't know if I'll go back to the traditional fork and knife procedure.
Chopsticks are awesome.
Today we plan to go to Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and Wangfujing. Of those three I believe wangfujing is the only one that needs an introduction. Here is what TripAdvisor has to say. As we have yet to go, I can't tell you much more than that, but I hope to be taking a ton of pictures. I've got my 8G memory card all ready, and the camera is charged.
So, look forward to some pictures, hopefully.
Unless the internet continues to thwart my efforts to share China with the world.
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