Feasting in Beijing (1)

September 20, 2007: I touched down Beijing Airport at about 2:45 pm. When I walked to the luggage claim hall, I felt like I was in America. The design of the airport is typical of any international airports. An exception to that is the Singapore Changi Airport which has a very spacious, bright and colorful luggage claim section.

The custom was efficient and friendly. The officer who handled my entry greeted me 'Ni hao' - and I was stunned. I didn't expect such friendly service, but perhaps that signalled the approaching 2008 Olympics.

We lined up outside the airport and were sped to Friendship Hotel by a taxi driver with a cool attitude. He didn't appear particularly friendly but did answer all our questions.

When we got on to the streets, I was surprised by the number of cars in Beijing. Many said that the air in Beijing is polluted. But I didn't think the air was that bad. The streets were broad and sometimes covered with expressways. It is a very modern city I thought. I particularly liked the temperate trees along the boulevards. Beijing is beautiful.

When the taxi had to go around the hotel looking for our building- we weren't informed in advance- the driver didn't blow his top. So that was cool. We tipped him and paid 114,000 RMB altogether.

I liked Friendship Hotel 友谊宾馆 immediately. The Chinese architecture is elegant, and the colours aren't gaudy. It was built in 1954, I was told. Good preservation.

I also wonder what it is about the northerners' countenance that make them so pleasant to look at. Their manners seemed alright - there were responses of 'You're welcome' in Chinese each time they were thanked.

We got changed into our dinner attire and rushed to catch our bus to Beida. We were the only two in the second bus. The first one left, half-a-bus full.

When we reached Beida, we went up the hall on the second level of the canteen. It was quite full and at the entrance, I said 'Hi' to a guy who was standing there. We exchanged name cards and very soon we started talking in Vietnamese as his name card indicated that he was a Vietnam specialist. He has studied in Ha Noi and even looks Vietnamese. "I'm a Zhuang", he explained to me two days later at lunch. "Zhuang and Viet share the same ancestors".

The dinner hosted by Beida was buffet style. Many academics, ethnic Chinese overseas included, stacked their plates with the colorful food. I was most engrossed looking at what these food were and went around snapping photos.

The qing jiao chao tu si (stir-fried green pepper with rabbit shreds)caught my attention. The is a bean sprouts dish. I found it quite delicious. There were a dozen more dishes - at least twenty more around the table- but I didn't find any that was particularly outstanding. Maybe I wasn't that hungry.

I saw many friends from my last Chinese Studies conference in Bendigo, Australia. It would be fun then, I thought.

The first day (September 21, 2007) started with a half-day programme of speeches, tea breaks, and a stroll through Beida campus after a more than ten-course lunch. The weather was hot and the stroll a little energy-sapping. The pagoda and the lake
未名湖 in the campus make the place absolutely picturesque.

My presentation started at 4:00 pm. The classroom was full. In no time, I'd to present my conclusions.

The evening ride to Hotel Nikko New Century was snail-paced due to traffic. I took a nap and my leg was aching after the ride.

We entered a very beautiful five-star hotel. The banquet was five-star as well, with probably more than 10 courses, the best being the lightly fried cod with a very crispy skin and a very thin and tender slice of flesh-very fresh. There were many others: beef with abalone, an unforgettable shark's fin broth, scallop with brocolli etc.


The Dragon Seal wine was a divine companion. China may be the next Bourdeaux region of the world.

The diners at my table were easy to talk to. There was our table host, a young gentleman from Qiaoban, Martin from Pathfinder and the professor from NTU. I found the conversation and food flowing very well. Martin threw in a remark that he found my presentation enjoyable and I was much encouraged except somewhat uneasy for getting that over dinner.

At the end of the dinner, my friend suggested that we go out with her friend. We agreed but because we went to the toilet first, the bus left without us. I tried to catch the leaving bus, but it couldn't stop for us at the entrance to the big road.

We went back to the hotel on a bus, No. 102, across the street after asking for directions. The guys at the bus stop were very helpful and so we started our really enjoyable ride. The bus stop wasn't too far from the hotel; the bus was clean and quite well designed as there were grips on the back of the chairs for support.

Day Two (September 22, 2007) was another day of eating. Lunch at Beida was another twenty-course banquet. The dried fried shrimps with sesame were fantastic, most commented.

I felt relieved. My friend from Japan presented. She's skipped dinner on Night 1 and all the seminars to prepare for her presentation. She was glad she made it. Then she shook my hands - they were icy cold. Gosh.

We had dinner at Overseas Chinese Plaza Hotel, hosted by Qiaolian. The courses were out of this world! The semi-dried carp slices was my favourite among the different varieties of appetizers. And so was the wine, a Changcheng (Great Wall) variety. Some people apparently were pissed (a Chinese professor was one of them, I heard on the next day at Yi Huayuan-Summer Palace). My partners thought the spare ribs with tea leaves were one of the stellar dishes. Despite being not so keen on meat, I loved the tea fragrance that seeped into the crunchy meaty shreds on the bone. It was an immaculate recipe.

The dessert dishes included mooncakes with very smooth bean paste. Overall, I'd award nine-and-a-half points over ten for tonight's dinner.

My HK friend and two of us from CHC went to Hou Hai (Back Sea), recommended by the gentleman from Qiaoban the night before, for a stroll. It was like Ho Tay in Ha Noi but really a lot more colorful, cleaner and fancier. There were tea houses and bars on one side of the lake - all with different ambience. The other side mostly were bars and the walk ends at a Starbucks (Xing Ba Ke Kafei 星吧克咖啡). Interesting translation. Before we could decide on where to have tea, we met a boy from Shenyang, Wang Chao, a touter who wanted us to go to the bar he was working at. He wasn't pushy, just chatty and sang very well. He sang a tune for us and said he would continue if we went back. Because the other end of the road was blocked by an acting crew for either a TV serial or movie, we had to walk back to his bar. We climbed up the narrow rickety flight of wooden stairs and perched on big sofas where we had a view of the lake lined with glittering cafes and bars.

We went to bed after chatting for about an hour.

The next morning we were to head for Empress Dowager's Summer Palace after breakfast at Friendship Hotel. What's different for breakfast here was the dau fu nao 豆腐脑, basically meaning 'bean curd'. In Singapore, we eat it sweetened with syrup but in Beijing, it is served with a spicy hot pepper oil, and/or another bowl of mushroom with black sticky soya sauce. I got used to it fast.

Chinese-Singaporean Food (2): Crab with Salted Egg Yolk, etc.

September 7, 2007: A and I thought hard on where to take his rather un-localized Japanese friend for dinner. We both agreed on the cze char place on Upper Bukit Timah Road, Forture Seafood, simply because of its variety and casualness.

His friend came in his best Aquascutum long-sleeve shirt. It wasn't that out of place at this eat-out because some white customers came properly dressed in black night attire, though not overwhelming kind of dinner outfit.

We asked what he would like, and the reply was "boiled crab with ice" -doesn't that sound like Hokkaido hairy crab? We replied, "Oh... sorry, there's no such crab dish here. There're others..." He said, "No chilli crab or pepper crab for me, please". So we settled on the crab with salted egg yolk - which Makansutra recommends.

This crab dish was not that well-done as I expected it to be. It was not as dry as it should be - like the shrimps in salted egg yolk at Imperial Treasure (Marina Square). Though it was not dripping with oil, you can tell it's been fried in oil.

Forture's shrimps in cereal- my favourite local dish- is one of those easily available and affordable excellent versions, though. It's very drained in oil and one can't tell whether it's been fried or not. However, I've also tasted the version whereby the shrimp shells are kept intact-and the shrimps certainly turn out tastier.

We've had a lot that evening. The sheng mian (literally, raw noodles which are crispy instead) was very good. The vegetables with scallop was also fantastic - and I only wished there was lesser oil.

The oyster omelette was unforgettable as well- the egg was soft and the oysters small but plump and succulent. They are better than those at Newton's Circus.

At last, we ordered desserts, but oops, there weren't any. Sorry, we told our guest. Whatabout an ice-cream somewhere else along Bukit Timah? He chose "chatting" as his dessert and seemed quite pleased with conversation rather than with food.
(* 24 April 2011: We suspect a heavy dosage of MSG is used at the stall. We did have to clear our throats several times after each meal.)

Chinese-Singaporean Cuisine (1): Seafood "Sar Hor Fun"

September 13, 2007: Time flies. And it seems that I've hardly completed any of my papers. This afternoon at 15:00 hrs, I went to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for a seminar on "Vietnam: Challenges of Growth and Globalization".

I'd make some quick entries here. The challenge for me right now is to get my paper on this Chinese community written and done with. Time is running out. Let's see...September 5 was the night I'd dinner alone because A went across the border.

We haven't got over our cravings for cze char yet, and I thought on which dish I'd miss in Beijing? (I thought of Beijing because I'd be there next week). The dish would be sar hor fun with seafood. This smooth noodle dish is Cantonese; it's got to be steaming wok mei (the fragrance of the wok) before it could be deemed passable. It's hard to describe what this fragrance is. Apparently to achieve it, the wok has got to be hot and fuming and the ingredients swirled very swiftly around it. The other thing is never to scrub the wok clean with detergent. Splashes of boiling water over it before commencing cooking is the key.

My Hong Kong friend, with whom I had dinner at the East Coast Jumbo Seafood last year, commented that the sar hor fun that she was eating in Singapore at that time did not have the charred fragrance (wok mei). I would agree perhaps; but a characteristic that would differentiate the sar hor fun here and that of Hong Kong is the pickled green chillies -- they resemble Mexican pickles, but taste a hemisphere different. Also, the heavenly scent of the obei leaf (dried bark of the palm) that we use to wrap this noodle in sometimes does not seem to be replicable elsewhere.

Anyway I paired this sar hor fun with Penfold's Semillon-Chardonnay and what delightful combination! I'd recommend Penfold's Semillon-Chardonnay over Rosemount's. I think the "depth" factor matches the lingering fragrance of the noodle, even if it didn't originate from the wok, but in the slippery rice strands.

Weekend Meal: Mini-Zen and Cedele's Tea Cakes

September 9, 2007: I ate unhealthily yesterday- had a hurried lunch at Canteen B in Nanyang Technological University and then later on at about 4 pm, after the opening of Nantah Pictorial Exhibition, there were the oily spring rolls and fried vermicelli to pacify my hunger. I was determined to eat better today and I did.

For easier parking and healthier choice, I went to Donguri in the Japanese Association. I ordered the Mini-Zen set (SGD 12.80).
A., his invariably fixed choice of Japanese yasai karee rice. He finds the curry gravy really different from that of the other Japanese restaurants.

This month's chef's recommendations are good- as I have commented in my previous entry. The Mini-Zen comprised a bowl of sushi rice, saba simmered in miso and ginger, hijiki seaweed (substituted with spinach and mushrooms today) and boiled radish topped with katsuo bushi (bonito fish flakes)- all so wholesome and light (unfilling) that I had Cedele's desserts scribbled on my mental menu as part of this healthy eating.

A agreed, because Cedele's and The Cellar Door (on Upper Bukit Timah) are his sources for breads. He doesn't belong to the crowd of Japanese who flock to Provence (Holland Village) and Takashimaya Japanese-style bakeries where you get soft sweet-tasting breads. I will remember to take the pictures of Cedele's desserts the next round. It is very crowded; it's a place for discerning customers, surely, who want to pay for real food. I wonder why, though, cafes in Singapore are so noisy! There's the greenery outside, it's cozy and people are happily chatting but there's no peace and quiet. That's the only reason why I don't go back to TCC chains now - because the deafening pipe-in music drives me away. Cafes in Europe are generally places where you have your repose over good coffees and teas, and that's my idea of a cafe, but unfortunately I have been scouting for here in vain.

DONGURI's どんぐり Tokusen Bentoo for September; Tea at Raffles

September 2, 2007: Last month's Tokusen Bentoo (Special Bentoo) turned out unimpressive. The adjective for it is bland. There was the cold udon, sashimi, the beef stew -with no beef cubes or potatoes in it, an uninteresting simmered dish of pumpkin garnished with boiled shrimps, agedashi tofu and unagi don. It's summer - the season for unagi which is believed to be energy-supplying, a property to combat the summer heat which can rise beyond 40 degrees. The record summer temperature in Japan to date is 40. 8 degree Celcius in 1938. My only favorite in the set was agedashi tofu.

I am glad there's a sprinkle of creativity and generosity for this month's bentoo. Meats and veggies are varied- and surely more elaborately prepared.

The hamburg is not exactly my fave because I've made a return to the 'more-veg-less-meat' diet after my platecount has reached the normal; but the mushrooms surrounding it was nevertheless tempting. The colorfully presented hiyayako was the most welcoming and the tastier sashimi and roe this month make the bentoo a treat.

The cubed eggplant enclosed by a beautifully carved wall of skin, picqued with sansho herb, came indeed as a surprise.

A final countdown to those outrageous scones at Raffles Hotel for our four-o'clock tea. It'd probably be the last time for these moist cakes, unless we'd be willing to go by the subway and avoid the maddening traffic downtown in the vicinity of Raffles Hotel.

I suppose it's fair if I say "I am fortunate to be in Singapore because I have the best of many worlds!" Seriously I'd have to watch out or I'll break my bathroom scale soon.