There has been many new places to visit since my last stay here, but getting back to the old ones has been even better. I found it particularly interesting that wherever you go now, there is a hotdog stand around! I know most people reading this won't find it special, but for all those laowais around (and especially the ones outside Beijing and Shanghai) it will make sense.
Talking about food: getting back to Beijing also reminded me about how much I love Chinese food. It is not that I have something against Southern cuisine... well, maybe I do... it is just that the marvelous smell of Sichuan cai, toasty flavour of Jianbing with just a bit of sweet sauce instead of two ounces, and (my friends won't be surprised with this one) real-peanutsy-spicy-absolutely-wonderful Gongbaojiding. I really should get one of those t-shirts at Nanluoguxiang: 宫保鸡丁.
But the greatest thing about being back is the people. I know, cheesy. While I'll miss the old friends, it's good to have a place outside your hometown, outside your own country, that also makes you feel welcomed. And I'm not talking only about my friends here, that's too obvious. I'm talking about people like the neighbors, such as the tall Chinese guy with very good English that looked at me and just said "hey, you are blonde now! how have you been?"; the woman from the store across the street that looks at me wondering if I am the same person or not; the young guard that smiles and says "Hi! Ni hao!" even if he just saw me 3 minutes before. Bumping into acquaintances: like my newest one getting off the bus with a bouquet of 30 white roses in his hands. Randomly delicious.
But deliciousness has its price, and I'm already having a Beijing Roasted Duck hangover. That won't stop me for having it again soon I'm sure. It is not only that I love the taste of it, but there is something so familiar about getting the pancakes out of the little basket, like tortillas out of the tortillera, organizing the structure of the roll like if you were finding the balance in a taco while all the time making sure you got the right amount of sauce on it. Or maybe it is just me and my Mexican genes.
The Beijing police never had a record of me leaving Beijing, as I learnt when I went to re-register. They were right: I never left.
- laowai/老外/foreigner
- cai/菜/food, dish - also: vegetable
- jianbing/煎饼/some sort of Chinese crepe
- gongbaojiding/宫保鸡丁/better known as Kum Pao chicken in the West but not exactly the same taste
- Beijing kaoya/北京烤鸭/Peking roasted duck
