<p>Watch the video of this man pulling noodles. What a workout! Maybe Gmom can find something like this in the rice noodle variety in China. (and Bears could visit this NYC restaurant and give us a review).</p>
<p><a href=“The Long Pull of Noodle Making - The New York Times”>The Long Pull of Noodle Making - The New York Times;
<p>I think Drunken Chicken is marinated in wine before cooking.</p>
<p>So I’m now deep in the heart of China and relieved to be in a western style hotel with a proper toilet. I’m not looking forward to the ‘squatty potty’ thing. My knees hurt enough as it is.
So there was some talk of cuisine. In Hong Kong, we did have a nice Chinese lunch with delicious dim sum and several courses… chicken in XO sauce (a Hong Kong specialty I think, but might be cantonese or from Shanghai), prawns in some other sort of sauce, a vegetable dish, a pork dish… and then there was a deliciously refreshing dessert of ‘sago cream with mango and pomello’. It was a little daunting because most of the people at this meeting were Asian and you sort of had the feeling they were just waiting for you to fail with the chop sticks. The wait staff did come around and offer the westerners western eating utensils, but we all sucked it up and declined. That night, though, we were all bused to the “JUMBO KINGDOM FLOATING RESTAURANT”. It was all decorated for the chinese new year with lights out the kazoo and golden dragons and what not. We were go have dinner at the ‘Top Deck’ restaurant. So here we were in this quintessentially chinese atmosphere and at our places were the menu cards with what we would be served: Scottish salmon carpaccio with field greens, Boston Lobster Bisque, Angus beef steak with Idaho potato fingers and kalamata olive sauce, an alternate entree of fresh perch prepared in some fancy french way and fresh cherry tart for dessert. We westerners would have preferred a Chinese dinner… but that’s the way it goes.</p>
<p>Now I am in Guilin. D1 and I just got back from venturing to the hotel restaurant, which we figured would be pretty safe. Our delightful tour guide assured us it was ‘clean’ and top notch. So we’re hampered by the celiac disease thing anyway, which may be a good thing. There were five different kinds of prepared fish heads, pig intestines served various ways, brains and pig knuckles, just, um… I dont’ think so. It would be better to not know what was in this stuff. We showed the waiter the chinese translation of D1’s diet and he said she could only have ‘egg fried rice’ and vegetables. This trip is going to be really boring from a gustatory point of view. sigh. Even the rice noodles were off limits because of the soy sauce. She tried to get the waiter to agree to the ‘beef fried rice’ and he insisted it would ‘taste wrong’. So I ordered a half serving of hot and sour soup and then we had a plate of sauted vegetables… oyster mushrooms, garlic, and baby bok choy, I think, and a plate of ‘egg fried rice’ which wasn’t fried at all, it was steamed rice with some egg and scallion. Oh well. The veggies and the rice beat the organ stuff hands down. Sorry, Loveblue, if you like that stuff… D1 ventured out to Chang Chau island yesterday with some coworkers of mine (i had to work) one of whom has a brother who lives in HK and offered to show them around. So he translated for D1 at the restaurant they went to for lunch (she got rice paper wrapped dimsum and fried rice for lunch yesterday)… anyhow, she told me this brother said that the flavor isn’t what appeals to the chinese people so much as the textures of different foods. I’m just not adventurous enough to go for it… but maybe by the end of the trip I’ll be tired of sharing D1’s boring food, lol. Anyway, I don’t really know what all exactly was in the hot and sour soup anyway (and it was delicious).</p>
<p>G
I will go see (eat eat!!!)when I get back
it fades compare to Gmom’s adventure -ing but LA Chinatown noodle was good kind. I did not wanted hunk of meat with bones so asked wonton only, no meat. no discount nor extra wonton but can’t complain for $5.25 I know if I go deep into local eat, it should be cheaper but topping of tripe and stuff would be inevitable, and me looking like this, they’d assume I can talk/eat/ act as they do. Asia, is as big and strange as how much room it take on the map geography wise and how long it take in timeline history wise.
If I’d stayed in Japan I’d not know much about anything despites that craming tourturous gavernment issued social study classes.
oopps better go, see you all soon!</p>
<p>G-mom…I was wondering how Idaho potatoe fingers managed to make it so far! Great descriptions of the food. I did hear about the challenging items in China and, like you, would prefer a blind taste test and then find out what I was eating.</p>
<p>G-mom:
it is so interesting to read your story in China! There are many good food and hope you can find them. Yes, “egg fried rice” is cook steamed rice … the translation is not clear.</p>
<p>years ago, when I had a conference meeting with my co-worker in San Fransisco . every evening I went to China town and one time my co-worker went with me and he tried chicken feet. He is still brag how bold he is now.</p>
<p>still remember the first time I tried pizza here and how surprise I feel when I see people eat raw cauliflower …</p>
<p>Terrible lag and spotty internet access… Can’t log into Facebook or my regular email account… haha-- work portal is impossible (hurray). I’m on vacation anyway, so they’ll have to manage without me.</p>
<p>Today we are in Yangshuo after spending the day cruising on the Li river and seeing the beautiful mountains and Karst formations. Karst is a kind of limestone. This area of China used to be under the sea a long time ago and then there was a large earthquake and upheaval of the earth’s crust… the softer earth has weathered away, leaving the Karst. There is a famous picture of this area of China on the Chinese Yuan note. It’s a very famous scenic area with lots of famous paintings; leastwise in China. D1 bought two Chinese books on art and has been busy searching out the Chinese characters for “Guilin” where we were staying before. Right now she is standing at the window painting again… there is a very steep hill with a pagoda clinging to the side and the New Year’s Fair at the foot. The food actually hasn’t been too bad – considering that we have to deal with D1’s celiac issue. The tour guide is 27 years old, speaks very good English and she is like a mother hen when it comes to D1, fussing over her and actually going and supervising the chefs (chiefs, she calls them) to make sure that D1 gets ‘safe’ food. So for instance when we went to Longshen terrace fields we went to a restaurant and they gave us green peppers with beef, rice, mushroom soup, and bamboo shoots with pork, rice, and oranges for dessert. Yesterday we were at Guilin again and the tour guide got D1 (and me) corn soup, egg fried rice (again), mushrooms with chicken, snow peas, beef with vegetables, and again oranges. Today on the cruise there was a buffet and the tour guide was sorry to report that everything had ‘wheat powder’ in it, but she wrangled rice noodles with vegetables and chicken, egg soup, rice, and oranges from the chef on the boat. </p>
<p>So I have to say that I’m so glad that we came to the countryside in China. It is so beautiful. The Longshen terraces were amazing… it was like being in Shangri La. We had to walk for an hour from where we parked the car, climbing thousands of steps high into the mountains – it was so interesting. Pigs being slaughter and carried on a pole (move over move over!); icicles hanging from the roof tops (yes it was COLD); friendly people, and hardly any tourists in sight, since this is so close to the big holiday, most of the souvenier stands were closed and most of the tourists stayed home, so it was really very nice. I think those steps would not be so fun with hundreds of tourists climbing on them under the hot sun. The restaurant we ate at in the Zhong village there had no heat. Most all the heating here is done with a brazier on the ground and the people crouch around it. No fun for my bad knees. The restaurant was so cold our breath hung in the air. The longer we had to sit and wait for the food, the colder we felt, lol. </p>
<p>From the Longshen terraces we went to Sanjian to spend the night. D1 was to scared to go and sample the local cuisine and the tour guide decided that there probably wasn’t anywhere that could deal with an English speaking customer, so she invited me to come with her to get rice noodles across the street. This was one of those cases where it’s probably better if you don’t know what it is. it was a small shop with the front open to the street. There was a huge vat of broth with oil skim and scummy stuff on the top of it. The cook took a basket and put the noodles into it and then dipped it into this vat of broth. Then she ladled the noodles and the broth into a big bowl and added various bits and pieces of … lets just say condiments. The tour guide asked me if I wanted egg, and before I could say yes or no, she decided for me and we got egg. It was a dark brown hard boiled egg that she said they cook in tea. So then we sat down (regular sized table and chairs, thank goodness) and I tried not to think too hard about whatever the ‘condiments’ were in my noodles. I know for sure that there was some sort of organ meat that the tour guide labeled ‘beef’… but really I just prayed I wouldn’t get sick. The broth and the noodles were very very good, the egg was too tough for my taste and the ‘condiments’… well I don’t like the same textures that Asian people like. But I was able to avoid most questionable items.</p>
<p>The hotel room…in Sanjiang… we should have had a clue from the receptionist and the bell captain in the lobby all bundled up. No heat in the room. Let me tell you it was freezing cold too. This is supposed to be subtropical/tropical climate, but you sure couldn’t tell the difference between there and New York last year when my furnace went out. We had extra blankets and wore extra clothes to bed (and I ended up with a terribly itchy rash across my chest, don’t know from what) but it felt like the longest night of my life. The bed was a mattress, (none too thick) on a board (I’m too old for camping) --but really the cold was hard to bear. Today I made sure that the bell captain turned ON the heat and I could feel it blasting before I let him leave, lol. It is still cold here. Poor banana trees are all brown from the frost. </p>
<p>We had another amazing day today, after the cruise we went by a golf cart sized electric car into the countryside to a farmer’s house. I made soy milk from soy beans and peeled water chestnuts. We sat in the living room under Mao’s watchful gaze from a huge poster. I assume the other one was probably the current leader (though it didn’t look like the recent photos I saw of Pres. Hu). Anyway, I hope that this trip has had some impact on D1 and she has some sense of how privileged she actually is and how other people in the world have to live. </p>
<p>I guess I’ve gone on long enough now. Tomorrow we have a free day here in Yangshuo, then we go back to Guilin on Wednesday and fly back to Hong Kong. Back home on Thursday, though I hear rumors that there’s a dreadful snowstorm brewing. I hope it is over with by the time we head for home.</p>
<p>Gmom:
my D graduated half year early and than we send her to a Chinese Art School for one semester and she said facebook didn’t work and she need to run something to fool the firewall to get on facebook. You will be back soon, so I don’t need to bother to ask.
The rice noodle from a small shop with the front open to the street maybe is the famous one called “rice noodle crossing bridge”. My translation is not good but have the meaning.
There is a story about it: In the old time, every year the king will have a big exam … The person got first place will get very good position in the government and a lot people prepare years for that.
one man stay in a inland to study for it and his wife send food over all the time and in the winter, the food getting cold and the wife find a way to make sure the food is good and fresh and warm …</p>
<p>Band D you are going to LOVE this! OK…my S put a link on his facebook status a few days ago; it was a link to a Saturday Night Live music video called the “creep” that looked eerily like theirs…it definitely had many of the same ideas (including the dinosaur mask). They suspected some copying and I guess it got around…today they had their story told by ROLLING STONE magazine!
['Saturday</a> Night Live’ Digital Short Echoes College Freshman’s Dance Video | Rolling Stone Culture | Video Blog | Music Entertainment Videos](<a href=“http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/rolling-stone-video-blog/saturday-night-live-digital-short-echoes-college-freshmans-dance-video-20110131]'Saturday”>‘Saturday Night Live’ Digital Short Echoes College Freshman’s Dance Video – Rolling Stone)</p>
<p>I think it is a great example of why kids love CMU…the interdisciplinary aspects and the way kids just put it all together. CMU has this reputation for being techie but the kids are all so creative and I know you have students from all the different schools involved in making something like this. Then, they are so damn nice about being ripped off…I told my son they should angle for a visit to SNL at a minimum…spring break for example…that idea seemed to resonate!</p>
<p>FAMMoM: That is SO COOL!! I’ll have to look for the SNL segment – and he should definitely see if they’ll at least give them a visit to the set if they are going to rip off their work! I see connections and possibilities there!</p>
<p>Tell your son we’re rooting for all of them!</p>
<p>This thread should be renamed to “after the lunch”. Ugh i just ate chinese food and now hungry again.</p>
<p>Famm, that is awesome. I agree that they should get at least a visit to the SNL set!</p>
<p>I ma midst of running around can’t see the RS link yet but
you know that one of the most watched Utube video, chinese kids are lip synching in the dorm (street boys? or something) was a school project that gotten business deal.
MILK it! till dry!!
you smart an’ cute boys!! you guys can count money, read fine prints plus I am sure your folks are lawyer writer prof doctor economist (wink wink) there, you have it. wining formula.
now
would I get any % for pushing famkid toward CMU and pointing out likelihood of young Dylan those kids had no idea what it is?</p>
<p>Gmom if you are back, check the book thread.
Working class Brown grad travels pre-internet China with her blue blood ballet trained school friend and all mayhem.
it had all those fish guts stuff, soup stand thing, food. good and scary.
and
all the beauty of Chinese land scape and people.
thou the author('s memoir) is this over-sexed b***h. may upset you, love blue.</p>
<p>Fammom - so interesting! I have to admit I had seen the SNL piece already and didn’t notice any similarity, but that was because I had forgotten the CMU dance was called “the creep” too. Knowing that makes it different. </p>
<p>Also, the SNL clip, in it’s first and only outside shot, shows that it’s clearly not summer. That may even be snow in the distance. Still, they could be correct about having started it over the summer and we’ll have to hear from John Waters for corroboration. </p>
<p>Maybe the CMU kids could be on an upcoming episode’s “creep off”?</p>
<p>CMU is really cool and still remember D love the student studio SO much when we visit there!
fammom: your sun did a very good job, obviously!</p>
<p>Cooper started to have an interesting class this semester. it is a two hours class every week and each time they went to a gallery in Chelsea. It looks like they may have more focus on fine art.</p>
<p>I am going to NYC in 2/18. Feel it will be boring to stay in Manhattan for 4 nights. Talked to D and she said we can stay in beacon for a day. any suggestion ?</p>
<p>bears and anyone here who know NYC well, any suggestion you have? I don’t want to rent a car, so it have to be somewhere near by and can be reached by public transportation. thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Finally got to see the SNL clip (can’t get video here at work!), and personally I liked the CMU students one better.</p>
<p>love
Beacon got great contemporary art place called Dia Beacon (I wrote in Cooper thread somewhere during summer) There are artists’ studios and such might your D know where they are. Downtown is trying hard to be hip but not there yet.
It is nice to spend a day but don’t know how mush you can do.
Metro North train goes there, like, $13-sh one way. check the weather for snow cancelation.</p>
<p>I want to say why not Boston? if not winter. have you seen Atlantic ocean? Boston spoke to me first time I been there.
history galore, museums, whale watch boat. then again, it’s winter, don’t go there.</p>
<p>How about DC? trips should be easy and cheap. museums are free. Have your D ever been there? you just have to show it to your kid if you are immigrant, as much as Disneyland or something.
pre requeste would be to see “Mr. Smith goes to Washington”
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Smith_Goes_to_Washington[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Smith_Goes_to_Washington</a>
and MLK jr’s speech.
G or switters would know more. I say two days would give you good sense of America!! the beautiful!!!</p>
<p>ok dia is this
<a href=“Visit Our Locations & Sites | Visit | Dia”>http://www.diabeacon.org/sites/page/1/1001</a>
and my cooper post in on page 7 # 104</p>
<p>thanks bears, YES, DC!
Will talk to D to see if she want to go to DC with me. She already went to Dia Beacon though.
Feel happy/crazy to fly over to have a weekend of mom/daughter time. My friend recommend me to see D every month until she object to. I will see how long I can continue…
maybe until she start dating ? lol
thanks again, bears</p>
<p>If you go to DC, you can go up in the Washington Monument and not have to wait in any hideous lines if you reserve a spot first.</p>
<p>[Washington</a> Monument National Monument - Fees & Reservations (U.S. National Park Service)](<a href=“http://www.nps.gov/wamo/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm]Washington”>http://www.nps.gov/wamo/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm)</p>
<p>Of course, the lines won’t be hideous in February, everything should be nice and calm and uncrowded. Just waiting for the cherry blossom season to start the insanity of the spring tours.</p>