Eating in China

Tom D. wrote:
>Ask any American who found themselves suddenly confronted with a plate of
>sweetbreads in France.  Or random parts of a duck in China.

I was in Beijing a few months back, and had some wonderful meals despite the awful ambiance.  Naturally, I had Beijing duck, served quite differently than the way it is served here.  Tasty, but a bit greasier.

But the most interesting meal was at a restaurant in the hotel that housed the Beijing Opera (Qianmen Hotel).  They had two restaurants, one for Chinese businessmen, and one for Westerners.  I managed to convince the staff that yes, I really did want to eat in the restaurant meant for the Chinese.  No one there spoke English, and I'm not exactly fluent in Chinese, but I managed to order.  Instead of a menu, you go past a freezer like a meat freezer in a supermarket, and select the dishes you want, with the raw ingredients.  It was closer to a Mongolian Barbeque style.  I selected three dishes, one was a beancurd soup, one was a beef dumpling, and most interesting was a steamed, spicy sharks fin dish.

Now, I recognized the tripe in the beancurd soup; but there were some very unusual ingredients in the sharks fin.  I didn't let that deter me, and was pleased with the result.  The sharks fin was great, the beef was good, and the beancurd was OK.

And the opera, afterwards, was very entertaining.