Chinese Food

Do you know what they call Chinese food in China?  Food.  Yup, that’s right, in some parts of the world it is just food.  Delicious food, by the way.  I was always skeptical about Chinese restaurants and Chinese food in the USA, mostly because any Chinese food I have ever eaten in the States is a far cry from what I grew to love in China.  There is so much variety in Chinese food, so many distinct cuisines under the giant umbrella we just classify as Chinese food.  Most of which American’s have never heard of.  Americanized chow mein, beef and broccoli, and orange chicken were not items I ate in China. Last night, however, I discovered there is good food (of the Chinese variety) in the Portland, OR metropolitan area.

I have about six days left in Oregon before I head out on my new adventure (to Nashville, TN – check out my new blog) and I had been trying to figure out where to stay for my last few nights in town.  My dad mentioned that he had some friends from Southern Oregon who had a condo in Beaverton and they would be willing to let me stay.  Awesome.  Turns out it is an older couple, my dad sings in the Rogue Valley Chorale with the woman who is American and her husband is Chinese.  They were going to be in town over the weekend, as was my dad, so it was arranged that we would all meet up at their place on Sunday and we would all go out to Chinese food!

I have to say, not only am I incredibly thankful for their generosity in letting me use the condo for a week.  But they were also a lot of fun to get to know.  Gene is a 77 year old man from China, who came to the US sometime after college.  Now, for those of you who know ANYTHING about Chinese history, stop and think about what this man lived through growing up in China in the 1930′s-1950′s.  He has some stories to tell, to say the least.  He also is one of the most energetic, talkative and lively 77 year olds I have ever met.  He was quite a riot.  When we first came in and sat down, he tossed me a newspaper in Chinese and said, “Let’s test her Chinese!”

Anyways… this was supposed to be about food.  They took us to this place called Taste of Sichuan (Sichuan is only my favorite of Chinese cuisines). I had never heard of it and when we pulled up I knew it was new because the building housed a Marie Calendars when I moved away in 2011.  We go inside to a crowd of people waiting to be seated, and luckily they tell us it will only be about 15 minutes.  I sit down in front of the board with some of their specials written on it and see 小笼包 xiaolongbao or steamed dumplings. My first thought is “YUMMY!”  My second thought is “$7.95!?!? I would never pay that much for xiaolongbao!”

We are seated, ordered the xiaolongbao right away as a starter and looked at the menu.  Oh there are so many delightful things it is hard to chose!  But no pictures?  In China, your menu is normally a fat book filled with 15-50 pages of pictures of every single dish.  Of course, when you can’t speak Chinese this is helpful to see what looks good.  But also, the Chinglish translations (although entertaining) leave a lot to be desired.  (Like the time I ordered delicious pork spareribs that were described as octopus in English… hmmm.) Fortunately, in the States the English was more accurate.  However, I did have to ask Gene about some of the characters because I knew the Chinese names for dishes and not the English names.

I opted out of the Tsingdao beer when I learned they had good microbrews to offer as well, so I went Oregonian and ordered a Widmer hef.  Funny thing, I was a little put off about it at the time, but after awhile I realized in China it wouldn’t have been a big deal.  You see, in many non-western establishments in China it is a safe bet to ask for a COLD beer, as they often serve it in bottles at room temperature.  This wasn’t really on my mind when the waitress came out handed me a beer and a glass of ice.  She said, “I brought you ice because we ran out of cold bottles of the beer.”  Indeed my bottle of hefeweizen was room temperature.  In my moment of cultural insensitivity, I was obviously not thrilled with the prospect of pouring my beer over ice and she offered me a different one – Ninkasi IPA to go with my Chinese food.

After choosing items from the menu, with lots of discussion and debate.  I think I shocked the waiter when I did all the ordering for the table – in Chinese.  Okay, so it was broken Chinese and Gene had to help me out with a couple of them, but I did it.  茄子，回锅肉，宫保鸡丁(eggplant in hot garlic sauce, twice cooked pork, Kung Pao chicken) and one more.

Four tell-tale signs that we were in America: there were forks on the table and we had to ask for chopsticks.  The rice came out with the dishes (not last).  Most of the dishes came out at the same time.  And we got a fortune cookie at the end of the meal.  Newsflash America: you don’t get fortune cookies in China. My fortune was pretty good though: You will have a fine capacity for the enjoyment of life.  They know me so well.

Oh…it was delicious.  A bit spicy, as good Sichuan food should be.  But they were all the tastes and smells I have been living without for the past two months being back in the States.  For dessert (which none of us really had room for) we had 芝麻汤圆 or sesame sticky rice balls.

Good food, good company and conversations about China with a little Chinese thrown in… it made me want to go back.  But for now, I might just have to make do with leftovers.

Buses, Boats, Boas & Lady Boys?

Day 1 – Buses, a Bamboo Boat and Beer

If you are ever hanging out in Zhejiang province and have a spare day or two, I would highly recommend visiting Qiandao Lake (千岛湖) or Thousand Island Lake.  If you visit and are blessed with beautiful blue skies, 70-75 degree (Fahrenheit) weather  (22-24 degrees Celsius) and not too much humidity – then consider yourself extra lucky, like I was last week.

After the fact, I can’t believe I was hesitant about accepting a company paid trip for 2 days when I first learned about it (which was just over a week in advance).  Missing Chinese class the day before my midterm, and getting up at 5am to sit on a bus for 4-6 hours with 150+ coworkers with no idea what we would be doing.  I wasn’t completely sold.  Perhaps I was just in a grumpy mood because now I am so glad I remembered why I am here.  I want to travel and see the world; therefore, I should take any opportunity I get.  Especially when someone else is paying.

I got up early on Halloween morning, to go meet some 140 or so Chinese Kid Castle employees and 15 other foreign teachers to hop on a bus and head out of Shanghai.  Many of the Chinese teachers had gotten a very basic itinerary for the trip, us foreigners got nothing of the sort.  We just were along for the ride… about a 4 hour ride is what we were told, but my roommate told me it took her 6 hours to get to Qiandao Lake by bus.

We all piled into three big tour buses, the Chinese teachers passed around bags of snack food they had purchased for the trip and after probably 20 minutes most of them fell asleep.  I was in the back of one of the buses with six other foreign teachers and we got to know each other a bit more, chatting about China, jobs and life.

After a few hours, we stopped at our first stop for a typical Chinese lunch.  My co-workers were proud of me for leading the way in using the men’s restroom.  When your are traveling with a large group of the people, the guy to girl ratio is less than 1:20, and there are only 2 stalls in the woman’s bathroom, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!

About an hour or so afterwards we stopped again at the Fuchun Taoyuan scenic area. Rumors about hiking, caves and a mountain had been circling, none of us knew what to expect.  But I was certain it wouldn’t be too much to handle as I have found hiking in China normally refers to a paved path up a hill.  It turns out there was a cable car to go up the hill (much like the one to the Peak in Hong Kong).  We climbed aboard in small groups, it was a quick trip up the hill, where we found the cave – Bi Yun Dong (or 碧云洞 in Chinese).

The pictures don't do this place justice - it was massive

Of course we had tour guides, who thoughtfully explained everything in Chinese, but it was way to much for me to understand and I was separated from the other teachers at my school who perhaps could have translated a bit for me.  Instead, I just wandered and looked for myself, taking in the sights without getting all the interesting facts.

At the very bottom of the picture you can see little heads of people... a bit of a reference point for the size of these formations

The cave was unlike any other I have ever been to.  Forget small enclosed spaces to crawl through – other than a few areas when I had to duck my head, this was a massive open area inside of the mountain.  By massive – I mean massive!  The sign by the entry said the largest open area in the cave could hold over 1000 people at a time.  The cave was lit up by colorful neon lights strategically placed, perhaps not the most natural look for the cave – but it was beautiful and well lit enough that I could at least attempt to get some decent pics.

On a bridge with several of my Chinese co-workers

After the tour through the cave and posing for hundreds of pictures with my Chinese co-workers, we took a short walk through the woods and a long tunnel to where we had to decide if we wanted to hike down the hill, or take the little precarious-looking Chinese made sled-like-things down the rickety metal roller-coaster like track for 20 rmb.  I will do the precarious, dangerous, adrenaline pumping option please!  Who needs exercise?  Unlike the long luge-type slide on the Great Wall at Mutianyu, this slide is above ground and fits 2 people on a seat.  The one in back (me) controls the speed.  I went with my Chinese colleague Cathy, and despite it being a quick trip down the hill, I think it was rather exhilarating for both of us.

My friend Char posing with the greenery

At the bottom of the “roller coaster” there was this large obstacle course type thing in the middle of the woods with rickety bridges, rope bridges, and all sorts of things to make your way across and take pictures on.  A quick boat ride, on a dammed lake and then back to the buses for a couple more hours.

The "boat" of the day... if you call tied together bamboo that leaks a boat.

Pretty mountains! All the green trees and mountains almost made me feel like I was back in Oregon!

That evening we made it to our hotel, got all checked in and met for dinner at the hotel restaurant around 7pm.  Dinner was Chinese style again, but unfortunately, not my favorite of the Chinese cuisine I have eaten.  When about 12 of the 15 dishes are fish, even people who like fish long for some variety.  Not being a fan of fish myself, I was delighted when the lone chicken dish and the bullfrog came out from the kitchen.  (The wild hare was too boney, not much meat.) We also got to drink (endless amounts) of the local beer, CheerDay, hardly any flavor or alcohol content, but it kept us hydrated for the long dinner and hours of karaoke afterwards.

One of many fish dishes. Julia the fish hater actually ate this one! I stopped before I got to the head and eyeball though...

Cheerday - has about as much flavor as it has color. Won't ever become my beer of choice.

Don’t worry… I will explain the lady boys in my day 2 segment.

台湾 = Food!

Taiwan = Food!

October 1st is National Day in China, a celebration of the formation of the People Republic of China.  The whole county has (at least) three days off of work, but I hear the custom is to not return home to be with family for this holiday – as they do on Chinese New Year – but to go on vacation.  Either way, the 1.3 billion residences of China are on the move, ticket prices are high and everything is crowded.  I decided to spend this holiday away from the crowds and took a nice little trip to Taiwan.  (No, they do not celebrate the founding of the People’s Republic in Taiwan, they have their own national holiday on October 10th to celebrate the Republic of China.)

My dear friend May was in Taiwan for the holiday and I traveled mostly with her, but also spent time with some other Taiwanese Kid Castle co-workers and met up with several fellow MIM alum from Taiwan for dinner one night.  My theme for my 6 days in Taiwan – FOOD!  As my status message said on Facebook:

What did you do in Taiwan, Julia? Oh, you know… I ate, then ate some more, then we went and got some food and ate a little more. Oh, wait… then got a drink and decided we needed something to eat with it!

That was on my second day in Taiwan.  May and I had gone to Danshui (淡水), a section far north in Taipei that is right on the mouth of the Danshui river, normally a touristy place and very beautiful but it was raining the entire day. (We also learned that all of the tourist attractions closed the first Monday of every month, which happened to be when we were there.)

Soaking wet and nothing to see, so we continued to eat!

However, that didn’t stop us from trying all the famous local cuisines. My third day, I was a little nausea – but I only let it keep me away from all the delicious delicacies for sale from vendors lining the streets for a couple hours.

Here are some of the lovely foods I tried in Taiwan!  (With the MIMers I had the best hot pot ever at 無老養生鍋 – Elixir Healthy Pot, but didn’t get pics of the food.)

阿給 or A-Gei, tofu stuffed with rice noodles and deep fried

A-Gei served cut up and with a sweet/spicy sauce - I wasn't terribly impressed with it.

Possibly the best pork baozi I've ever had

One of Danshui's specialties. Iron Eggs - dark in color and hard (or chewy)

I was a bit hesitant to eat black eggs, but they weren't bad!

Also delicious pork wrapped in carbs - these were juicy and delicious. Here they are being made.

They are then stuck to the walls on the inside of these ovens and scraped off when done!

I’m so glad May and I got to this little shop when we did because after we bought two the man told the next customers it would be 30 minutes before the next batch was ready!  Oooohh… they were juicy goodness!

Had to check out the local beer! Nothing exciting - but more flavor than Tsingdao (which doesn't say much).

Samples of many types of little cakes, flakey and crisp on the outside with a multitude of fillings.

After a wet afternoon in Danshui, we went to the Shilin （士林）night market.  Another Taiwanese specialty – night markets, sometimes even multiple night markets, in every town.  Where you can buy just about anything you want and where there is always tons of delicious food!

Cooking on and eating off of the counter - at the night market

Fried oysters and eggs (didn't eat this one)

A few other things I opted out of ordering - pig liver, brain, stomach and heart

I did eat this! Which is way tastier than it looks. Just a fried egg with veggies and special sauce.

Huge sausages!

Cut up and served with fresh garlic! Yummy!!

Whew… I feel fat just looking at all the pictures of foods I ate – and that was just the first DAY!  While in Taipei, we were staying at May’s aunt’s house in the Yonghe district.  Yonghe is famous for their soybean milk, so of course we had to start out with breakfast one day at the Yonghe Soybean Milk Magnate!  Where we had a traditional Taiwanese breakfast.

Two types of soy milk, sweet and salty (the salty had some bread like stuff in it as well) and fried dumplings.

We then left Taipei, where it was still rainy and traveled to Taichung (May’s home town) where it was sunny and warm!  That afternoon I didn’t feel so well, perhaps from all the new foods I had tried the day before.

My nausea kept me from trying the pork blood and rice dish May bought here, suprisingly the thought wasn't what made me sick!

By night fall I was ready to sample foods at the night market again!

Like my super tall ice cream cone!

The following day, after cycling around Houli, we decided to go western for dinner.  May learned from a friend that the “good burger place” she knew of in town also brewed their own beer.  So we decided to go for dinner!  Turns out it is an American chain brewery restaurant – but not one we have in Portland.

Beer! At Gorden Biersch in Taichung.

hm!

BBQ sauce, bacon and cheddar cheese on a burger and garlic fries! Oh yes, Taiwan has GOOD food.

The last stop on my trip was Nantou county – the only county in Taiwan which does not boarder the sea. We stayed with my friend Osteen’s family in Caotun and visited the town of Jiji.

Meat balls in Caotun - pork and some sort of starchy substance served in pink sauce

Jiji is famous for bananas!

Banana egg rolls - not the egg rolls you are thinking of, but more waffle cone like dough cooked and rolled - these were banana flavored. (We also had delicious local banana ice cream!)

I finally tried a tea egg! (Hard boiled eggs cooked and soaked in tea)

A Taiwanese classic - beef noodles

Food – that is what I saw in Taiwan!  Okay, there was a bit more than that, but I will save it for another time.  All in all, with enough walking and cycling, I only gained about one kilo in my week of eating my way through Taiwan!

Beijing – A love/hate

Beijing and Shanghai are different worlds.  When I first came to China, just to visit, with the MIM program in 2010, I enjoyed the history, historical sites and tourist attractions in Beijing.  But when we got to Shanghai, I was blown away.  Shanghai is an awesome city.  Even at that time, after spending only about 5 days in each city, I said, “If I were to even live in Beijing or Shanghai, I would live in Shanghai.  Beijing is great to visit, but I would rather live in Shanghai.”

The Temple of Heaven! A rare shot without a million other tourists.

Well, fast forward 18 months, I’m living in Shanghai and when M&M (mom and Matt) are in town, I take my second ever trip to Beijing.  Another 4 days in Beijing and I draw the same conclusion.  I much rather be in Shanghai.

The air was awful in Beijing, not that I can hold that against them – chances are if you pick four random days out of the year to visit Shanghai you won’t be blessed with blue skies either.  Foreigners aren’t as plentiful, which isn’t a bad thing while living in a city – but I think Beijing gets enough foreign visitors who don’t know anything, that everyone assumes you can just screw over and rip off every foreigner you see.  In Shanghai, there is such a large expat community, with people from all over the world that LIVE here.  There are plenty of laowai (foreigners) in Shanghai that have been here for 3, 5, 10 years, who speak Chinese, who know what they are doing.  I don’t think Beijing is as used to that large of a community of foreign residents.  So taking a taxi, for example, becomes a major headache unless you look and speak like them.

I hated taxis in Beijing.  The worst cab riding experiences ever!  And if you think you can top me, just tell me this: Have you ever had a cabbie stop to get gas (when their tank was half full) AND go take a leak while you were on the meter?  Plus, he was coughing like crazy and spitting constantly, he told May he had been sick for the past few days but was back at work because he needed the money.  I love taking cabs in Shanghai.  I hate taking cabs in Beijing.  Even if you can manage to flag one down (empty cabs drive by and just ignore you constantly), it doesn’t mean they will be willing to take you to your destination, or they don’t want to rip you off by bargaining a price and not using their meter.

Do I need to say where this is? It is at 慕田峪 actually.

This being said, everyone – if given the chance – should visit Beijing (and eat the roast duck).  The Forbidden City, Tiananmen, the Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and the access to many locations on the Great Wall are fantastic, beautiful and historic sight seeing opportunities.  Even with hazy skies, you can get stunning pictures.  The culture runs deep and history surrounds you – unlike the westernized, modern, metropolitan Shanghai.

Obligitory Forbidden City photo

My favorite part of Beijing though – was not at the historic wall to keep out the mongols, it was not in the palaces and forbidden gardens of past emperors which survived the many dynasties. My favorite part of Beijing – the part of Beijing that I loved, that I wish Shanghai had – were the huotongs.   Hutong (胡同 – translation alley or lane) are small, old alleys, passageways of historic homes and buildings that make up large areas in Beijing and have been protected by the government so they are not torn down and replaced by skyscrapers and tall apartment complexes. I thought it was just one area of town when I first went to Beijing, but I quickly learned there are hutong all over Beijing – each a huge network of these small alleys, waiting to be explored and full of treasures to discover.

Wandering thru a 胡同

I loved walking around in, getting lost in, finding new places in the hutong.  May and I went to a bar one night to meet a friend of hers from the UK – he gave us instructions on how to get there.  As we turned off the main road into this teeny, dark alleyway, about the width of a car, we wondered if there was actually anything down there.  It was about a ten minute walk down this alleyway to the bar.  At one point we saw some neon lights and signs of restaurants, but the bar (Yes Bar or 好吧) was not there.  A few more minutes of dark houses and no sign of anything that looked like a place of business we found it – a little teeny bar, stuck in the middle of an seemingly abandoned hutong – with a selection of beers from all over the world.  We went back again the next night.  In the two nights we were there, we were the only customers  and we just hung out and talked with the bartender from Xinjiang, China (the far northwest province in China).

Way back tucked away in another hutong – in a nearby part of town – is another killer find for any beer loving American tourist. Thanks to MJ, brewmaster at my all time favorite, Boxing Cat Brewery, I knew of this little treasure in Beijing.  A microbrewery run by a bunch of Americans that has been brewing and selling beer out of a location in a Beijing hutong for less than a year.  Great Leap Brewery was one of the top things on our to do list in Beijing.  It took some time to find – both times we went – but it was well worth it.  With 9 freshly brewed, local mircobrews on tap, a killer garden setting to sit and relax in, and the owners there to chat with you can’t complain!  Oh, yea – and the beers were FANTASTIC too.  If you are ever looking for beer in Beijing, I highly, highly, recommend checking them out!  (see link here – they are also on Facebook.)

We found it! The door to the best beer in Beijing!

The view from the door of Great Leap Brewing - this isn't on some big, busy street!

The menu - 9 delicious beers on tap! (Actually, I think I only tasted 6 of the 9)

BEER! I believe this was the Danshan Wheat, a wheat beer brewed with tea leaves for a very unique but refreshing flavor.

The hutongs are old houses, communities. Not big fancy houses but little small rooms (which now can be extremely expensive to rent or buy) where Chinese families grew up and many still live.  Things are simpler in the hutongs and things like, well, your own bathroom, aren’t necessarily available.  My mom was shocked with the number of public toilets everywhere in China – but especially in the hutong.  After I witnessed an older woman coming and dumping a bucket with her days “waste” in one of the public toilets, we inquired about it.  My friend (and fellow MIM alum) Junyi, who grew up in a hutong near the Yes Bar, confirmed our suspicions.  Most homes within the hutong don’t have their own bathroom.  They use the public toilets and probably bathe in a sponge bath manner.  Some of the nicer residences, with the help of a larger income and lots of official paperwork, may have added bathrooms to their homes.  The majority, however, even the businesses and restaurants, rely on the public toilets.

Life in Beijing takes place in the hutong.  I would go back to Beijing, despite my many frustrations with the city, just to explore hutongs.  And of course, take more pictures.  Below are a bunch of the shots I got of life in a Beijing hutong.

Cleaning

A front door

We wandered into this little area - several families probably live here.

Front gates left open allow you to see into people's lives.

Sitting on the roof, watching the birds

Playing in the street

Selling a variety of eggs

Veggies on the street

Along a touristy/popular hutong

Shanghai 2nds

Well, you can’t always be number one, but China seems to be pretty good at being number 2.

I mentioned previously, it was announced early this year that China beat out Japan as the second largest economy in the world.

I also posted when they broke ground for Shanghai Disney (links: my blog, Shanghai Disney Resort) which will be the second Disney resort in China (the first being Hong Kong Disneyland).

In the past couple days I have been reminded of a couple other 2nds happening in Shanghai:

The world’s largest IKEA is in Sweden, naturally.  The world’s second largest IKEA – SHANGHAI!  At 49,400 square METERS (almost 532,000 sq. feet), the largest IKEA in Asia and the second largest in the world opened today in Pudong.  Link

Shanghai, as the article mentions is the first city in China to have more than one IKEA.  A third will be opening in 2014, and discussions are underway for a forth.  Apparently, the growing middle class needs furnishing.

Shanghai is home to the 3rd tallest building in the world (the Shanghai World Financial Center seen from my bedroom window below) but why stop there.  It was briefly the 2nd tallest (after the Taipei 101 Tower) until the Dubai Tower (Burj Khalifa) was built in 2010.  But we will let the SWFC slip back to 4th place in order to put ourselves back in second place.

The Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao tower as seen today from my bedroom.

Under construction for some time now, the Shanghai Tower (or Shanghai Dragon) is starting to make an appearance as its construction has hit the 100 meter mark.  By 2014, when it is completed it will be 632 meters, dwarfing the 492 meter SWFC and the 366 meter Jin Mao Tower it will sit next to.  Of course, there are plans for an even taller building to be completed in Shenzhen, China in 2015.  But we will take number two while it lasts.

You can see some pictures of what the cool tower will look like and the construction so far here: Link

Or you can just check out my view point.  By moving from my bedroom to the kitchen and REALLY utilizing the zoom on my little canon, I come up with this shot of the cranes working on the new tower right between SWFC and Jin Mao.

This might be something big...

Looks like my view is only going to get better… maybe I should stick around awhile.

Second is better than last, which is how our milk is rated.  As the Chinese dairy industries have the lowest standards for milk in the world: Link. Why I drink the stuff is beyond me, but it hasn’t killed me yet.

Second place is also better than being used a second time, as are many of the bottles from imported beers and liquors.  Oh yes, I have long known that you must be wary of the quality of beverages you are served in bars.  So when I saw this little piece of news about thousands of bottles – with foreign labels – being refilled with local cheap beer I wasn’t terribly surprised. Link

Okay, enough of China’s seconds.  What about being first!  Well, according to North Korea’s “Global Happiness Index” China is the happiest place on earth!  The United States, by the way, according to North Korea – is in 203rd place. Link

Ah, yes…. life is grand in Shanghai!

Beer in Qingdao

Qingdao is famous for its beer.  In 1903, German merchants founded Tsingtao beer (then known as Nordic Brewing Company) in Qingdao which at the time was colonized by Germany.  Since that time Tsingtao has grown to be an internationally recognized brand with revenues (in 2009) of over 17.7 billion RMB (over US $2.7 billion).  Tsingtao beer was first exported to the United States in 1972 and in 1993 was the first ever Chinese company to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

1979 Tsingtao Beer label - Brewed in Qingdao, Imported to US

Obviously, one of my goals and intentions for my trip to Qingdao was to drink beer.  There is a museum/brewery tour at the Tsingtao brewery (on Beer Street) in downtown Qingdao, but I didn’t put it on my priority list as I was traveling with 3 Chinese girls who probably A) could care less about beer and B) probably wouldn’t want to spend the money on the ticket price for the tour. Drinking, however, was a necessity.  I drank surprisingly less than I had planned, however, I still got the chance to sample a few beers and draw up my opinions.

The first day we arrived in Qingdao, we made our way down to Beer Street in the evening.  I had been in Qingdao for hours and had yet to try the beer.  I heard the beer you can get in town is WAY better than the stuff in the bottle for sale elsewhere in China (which honestly, doesn’t mean that much…) and I wanted to test it out.  Plus, I had heard many tales of beer being served in plastic bags and I figured a trip to Qingdao would not be complete without such an experience.

Beer Street - The sculpture is made entirely of Tsingtao beer bottles and is the character 九 which has the same pronounciation and tone as 酒 which is part of 啤酒 or beer.

Walking down Beer Street, on a cold, foggy day, Monday night when everyone in China was enjoying the last evening of a three day weekend, it was quite empty.  There were seafood restaurants lining the street, and most of them had stacks of kegs sitting outside with beer for sale.  But no plastic bags were to be seen.  We stopped at one where they had prices listed for a pitcher and a glass and asked if we could get the beer to go, well of course!  How do we take it to go?  We will give you a bag!  Ah… perfect!  Now the beer selection…

There were four beers available on tap along beer street – all were listed in Chinese (at least at the places I went to) and apparently describing the attributes of beer is not one of the things my friends had learned over the course of their lives studying English.  So, here are my basic descriptions I had to work with:

Tsingtao’s regular beer, filtered.

The same beer not filtered.

Green Beer

Black Beer

All of them were (supposedly) brewed that very day.  I doubted the claim at the time, but now thinking about it I realize not only would they have been really fast at distribution –but it was a NATIONAL holiday.  I don’t think that the brewery was cranking out kegs of beer to distribute to the local restaurants on a national holiday. Hmm…

Options... Outside a restaurant on Beer Street

Anyways, I decided to have the unfiltered beer.  I was served my beer in a thin plastic bag, nothing special about this plastic bag, just the incredibly thin plastic that many street foods are served in.  To drink – tear a hole in one of the corners of the bottom of the bag and squeeze the beer into your mouth.  Not the easiest way to consume beer, but I managed (while spilling a bit… I think tying the bag shut may have made it easier.)

Am I doing this right?

The beer was indeed far better than the bottled stuff around China.  But by all means it wasn’t a GREAT beer.  It was okay.  But not the exceptional beer I had been told of.  Then again, I have high standards.  With plastic bag in hand, we decide to go get dinner at one of the restaurants along beer street that had a big sign outside that says “The Birthplace of Beer Culture”.

The Birthplace of Beer Culture

Ironically, whoever made the little packets of napkins translated incorrectly and printed "The birthplace of wine culture".

We order our food and a pitcher of the filtered variety of the beer I had in hand and sat down.  I poured the rest of my bag o’beer into my cup for drinkability.  The filtered variety was also just okay.  I didn’t notice the sweet flavor of my beer to go, but I definitely felt the filtered pitcher of beer was very sweet, almost fruity (like apple juice) and again just OK.

After dinner we wandered around the surrounding area, our beer drinking was complete for day one.  I never did try the Black beer or the Green beer – but I wasn’t terribly impressed by drinking Tsingtao beer in Tsingtao.  Maybe I should have toured the brewery and learned more about the beers… oh well, next time.

Tsingtao Brewery on a very foggy day

Day two:

The other beer I wanted to try in Qingdao was Stong Ale Works beer.  Never heard of it?  Well, I don’t think may people have.  The only reason I knew of this beer was because of an article I saw a few weeks ago on craft beers in China: http://www.echinacities.com/expat-corner/quenching-a-thirst-on-the-search-for-craft-beer-in-china.html. The author of the article, John Herrington, brews SAW beer in Qingdao and from their website: http://www.wix.com/strongaleworks/qd, I learned the beer was available at TWO bars in Qingdao.  (Actually, I believe those are the only two places in the world where the beer is currently available.)  And I was set out to find it.

We went to Laoshan mountain that day (to be blogged about later) and on the bus on the way back we decided to go find one of the two bars I had written down the addresses to in order to try Strong Ale Work’s beer.  We jumped off the bus near Book City (a large bookstore) and thought the bar was within a couple blocks.  Tired from waking up early, about 4 hours in a bus, and walking around Laoshan, we decided before beer we needed coffee, but before coffee we needed a restroom.  There was a small coffee shop on the corner – directly across the street from Book City, we noted it as our next stop and ran into the bookstore for the restroom.

Osteen and Amanda got distracted looking at books, but I was exhausted and cranky having not had a coffee all day.  So May and I said we would meet them across the street at the coffee shop.  The shop we had seen, however, didn’t seem to have a place to sit and enjoy coffee.  As we were running across the street we saw two other locations which were possibly better suited for a cup of joe.  A bakery and some old looking café named, “Old Jack’s Café”.  Wait… Old Jacks?!?  That is the name of one of the bars that serves SAW beer… but it can’t be the SAME Old Jacks!  (Right… how many Old Jacks are in Qingdao?)

May waking up with coffee at Old Jack's

We glance at the address –it IS the same Old Jacks!  We stumbled upon it before we started looking for it!!  They served coffee as well, so we sat outside and had Americanos (Amanda had a latte – not being a coffee drinker it was a good choice for her) then I ordered myself a beer.

My search has paid off!

Amazing, smooth, refreshing… WOW.  This is a GREAT beer.  I let May, Amanda and Osteen try it and wished I had caught the absolute, surprise and shock shown on May’s face when she first took a sip on camera.  They all agreed – this is a mighty fine beer.  There was only one variety to be had and it was the “Origin Ale”.  Described on the website (and on the label) as, “A beer with roasted malts, bitter hops and a higher alcohol content. Brewed locally with fresh ingredients. Unpasteurized and unfiltered. Amber colored, lightly carbonated and smooth.”  I really didn’t think it was bitter, neither did the other girls, but smooth – oh yes.  Fantastic!

Origin Ale

Label - Origin Ale

After a delicious afternoon coffee & beer break, we did some more sightseeing, then took a cab in the direction of the second location serving SAW beer in China and had dinner nearby at a Shandong restaurant recommended by our cabbie.  We drank the local province’s iced tea with dinner and waiting until after dinner for the beer drinking to commence.

After a fabulous dinner (will blog about food later too…), we walked to Kings Head Pub – SAW beer location number two.  We actually had to look for this location, but were pleasantly surprised when we found it.  A cute, small English pub – was completely empty when we arrived on a Tuesday evening, except for the musicians (who I assume play there live on weekends) practicing at the bar.  We took a seat and asked about the beer.

They had two varieties of Strong Ale Works beer available for purchase, the Origin Ale and the Black Ale.  I normally shy away from dark beers, but I wanted to try something new so I ordered one.  May ordered the Origin Ale and we learned they had two bottles of the Origin Ale in stock, one was not refrigerated.   We took the cold one and went through a few bottles of the Dark Ale as well.  (I drank the majority of the beer, but we shared the bottles between the four of us.)

Dark Ale

The Dark Ale was really good! Uh-oh – it looks like I have a whole new selection of beers to sample now, if I like dark beers.  Again, very smooth and fresh tasting, molasses is the only thing that comes to mind when I think of describing the flavor.  The label described it as, “A black ale brewed with dark malts. A beer with rich roasty flavors. Brewed locally with fresh ingredients. Unpasteurized and unfiltered.”  We all liked it, and all agreed that the Origin Ale served at Kings Head was slightly more bitter than the one served at Old Jacks.  The labels were also different so I’m assuming it was a different batch. Batch number 48 – actually, according to the label.

Origin Ale and Dark Ale - both delicious!

We enjoyed our beers, the impromptu live music and conversation then headed back to the hotel – with King’s Head’s last bottle of unrefrigerated Origin Ale in tow as a souvenir.  Apparently, in my opinion, the American’s currently residing in Qingdao brew a better bottle than the company founded by Germans living in Qingdao 108 years ago.

May, Osteen and Amanda in King's Head Pub

Beer – America’s milk

Shanghai does have good beer – and this is my new favorite.  It is being featured as the “brewer’s choice” at Boxing Cat Brewery right now and over the past 5 days I have made it there twice because I wanted to try it!!  It’s a Belgium tripel brewed with ginger and sichuan peppercorn.  It was love at first sip… and it only got better when I learned (on my second trip to the pub specifically for this beer) that it has over 7% alcohol content.  A tasty AND strong beer!

Yummy beer ala Shanghai

So I had been craving this tasty beer since I heard about it online (thank you wonderful world of facebook).

The brew master for Boxing Cat happens to be from a lovely little place known as Portland, Oregon – heard of it??  He used to brew for a little company called Widmer, know them??  Oohh… a Widmer Hefeweizen, a slice of lemon and sunshine does sound like a lovely spring afternoon treat!

Anyways, I heard of this beer (Belgium Tripel) a week ago kept trying make my way over to Boxing Cat after work one day to try it out.

Saturday night, I finally got some of my coworkers to join me for a little slice of America at Boxing Cat Brewery.  My Chinese coworkers.  I have to say, it was quite the sight.  The sweet, innocent, young, English teaching, Chinese girls I work with who (some of them at least) never go out, never drink, never had tried beer and probably thought the prices at Boxing Cat were beyond outrageous were convinced to go with me.

As we first walked in, a waiter went by with a couple beers and one of my co-workers (who had told me before she has never drank beer and would never like beer) said, “That beer looks good!!”  She was intrigued because the beer had – wait for it – color!  It is true folks, not all beer is the color of Budweiser and Tsingdao.

Eight of us (me being the only “westerner”) crowded around a table in the bar, as the restaurant was packed with expats on a typical Saturday evening.  The girls didn’t want to pay the prices and the portions at Boxing Cat are HUGE (I normally roll myself out after dinner…) so we decided to share.  I told them that it wasn’t going to be like traditional Chinese-family style dining, it is a bit harder to share a hamburger with the entire table than a plate of noodles or stir-fry.  I suggested ever two people just decide what they want and they could share.

I ordered my beer (Belgium Tripel) as soon as we sat down, and told the girls they could try it and then decide if they wanted that or something else.  They all had a sip, declared it ok – but weren’t wanting to invest in a pint.  At my suggestion and after much deliberation, it was decided they would order one pint of a traditional, light, German style helles for them all to try.  It went over okay, but it was more similar to “regular” beer they decided.  As Boxing Cat selects four (of their own – see them here) brews to have on tap at any given time, and two were no-goes, they decided to search the cocktail menu and were delighted at the sweet & fruity cosmopolitan & appletinis they ordered to share.

Cocktails for my coworkers

I wanted to get another pint of the delicious new beer I discovered. So I was disappointed to hear they had tapped out and had something else pouring.  Instead, I opted for the Sucker Punch pale ale which I had tried in the past and enjoyed.  I hadn’t recommended this one to the Chinese girls because I knew it had a stronger hops flavor than some of the others.  Based on my own experience (and admittedly limited knowledge of beer) I thought a beer that wasn’t as hoppy (if that isn’t a word, it is now) would be a good place to start non-beer drinkers.  Much to my surprise, when my Sucker Punch pale ale was passed around the table for sips, it was declared the favorite by the girls.

Sucker Punch Pale Ale

Between my drink orders, the food came – absolutely delicious as always, the eight of us shared a dinner size steak salad with blue cheese crumbles, some of the most juicy hamburgers ever, spicy BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and a Cajun chicken club sandwich all served with thick cut steak fries.  As I ate my half a hamburger, I watched in amazement as the girls cut up their hamburger into 6 pieces to make sure everyone was able to try it.  A look of absolute astonishment crossed the face of one coworker as she exclaimed she would be SO fat if she lived in America – she had tried hamburgers before but this was NOTHING like KFC or McDonalds!  Yes, this is what REAL Americans eat and drink.  The good stuff.

The girls took pictures of themselves holding beers to prove to their boyfriends they could drink, we laughed and talked and were probably a sight to be seen. It was a memorable and fantastic experience in Shanghai; taking Chinese girls into a completely foreign environment and letting them experience a little of my culture in the city some of them grew up in.

Boxing Cats bar - Yongfu location

Oh, and if anyone at Boxing Cat wants to thank me for this free endorsement – I’ll take a pint of whatever you have on tap.