Chinese Dining

I finally ventured out into the wild Beijing night in search of an authentic Chinese dinner. Once again I was accompanied by an Irish guy (in Croatia, I befriended an Irishman too). I think I get along well with the Irish--they're brash but down to earth in a way the Brits are not. The both of us were dressed way too casual for the outing, but what the hell? Many Chinese gave us looks, but don't stare for too long. This is Beijing after all. While roaming the streets, we spotted a flicker of neon down some alleyway (neon usually means "food" or "shopping"). So we ventured inside. Turns out it's packed with Chinese families--so it must be good eating. We motioned for a table. Nobody spoke any English, nor did we speak any Chinese (the entire night consisted of pointing and gesticulating). They sat us in the window as "dressing" for passerby to gawk at. Luckily they had a picture menu for us foreign folk, but gave us absolutely no time to look at the menu with any detail before making our order. We ended up ordering 6 items: -Delicious Chicken (swimming in chili powder soup) -Duck Soup (lots of skin, very little meat) -Sweet and sour Chicken (tasted familiar...best item we picked) -Egg Fried Rice -White rice/wild rice mixed -Another meat dish that was extremely spicy and had tiny itty-bitty bones in it (thus: unedible).

Obviously this was twice as much food as we could eat. It was ready in 5 minutes. I took a few bites of the "delicious chicken" and the unedible menu item and instantly my lips, tongue, and throat burned with wicked fury. I tried washing the hotness down with beer, but beer only made it worse. The best dishes were the rice and sweet and sour chicken. The duck soup wasn't bad either.

...Next Time: The Great Wall...