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Photos by MJ Klein & Hui-chen, including FOOD PHOTOS

Hui-chen and I went to China for a few days on a business trip.  We went through Hong Kong and up to the far northeast corner of China, in the Black Dragon Province.

We moblogged this photo from my mobile phone upon our arrival in Beijing.  We’ve been to Beijing before but only passing through.  On this trip we finally got to leave the airport and experience a tiny taste of Beijing.

The Olympics sign is left over from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. This was taken right outside the airport.

We went to our hotel which was very near the airport.  We found out that the downtown was more than an hour drive away, so we took a taxi to an area only about 10 minutes away that was known for some excellent restaurants.

We found a “kao ya” or roast duck restaurant.  The taxi driver was on duty and didn’t have anything to do so he waited in the taxi while we ate.

But, after checking out the menu and the size of the dishes, we decided to invite our taxi driver Mr. Fang, to join us.  We just ordered the dishes that we would have ordered for just us 2, and there was plenty for another person.

Here I am waiting for the first dish to arrive.

This is the famous Tsingtao beer.  I used to drink this in the States but the flavor of this particular style was different.  It was still good though – just different.  This is the draft style.  Of note is the fact that we ordered cold beer but it came out of the kitchen rather tepid.  Apparently because Beijing is so cold, people don’t like to drink their beer cold like we do in Taiwan.

This is the first dish out of the kitchen: a delightful sliced beef.

Next out was this mixed mountain mushroom dish.  Excellent!

This soup is one that I used to make back in the States.  I’ve certainly eaten lots of it – this is the famous Hot & Sour soup of US Chinese restaurant fame.

We enjoyed these dishes until the main dish arrived….

Here are the trappings of the main dish:

1. Pancakes (more like crepes) in the bamboo steamer
2. Sliced cucumbers (above the pancakes)
3. Hoisin sauce (the brown dish)
4. Sliced scallions

And here is the main dish: “Peking Duck” as it’s called in many places.  This dish was wonderful.  One begins by taking a pancake and adding some sliced cucumbers and scallions.  Then several slices of the duck meat are dipped in the hoisin sauce and added to the pancake.  Then the whole thing is wrapped up like a Mexican burrito and enjoyed as a wrap.

This shot shows the destruction after the meal.  This was one of the most enjoyable meals I’ve had in China.

I have just one cute shot of Hui-chen that I had to add to this article of course!

We hope you enjoyed reading about our visit to a Beijing restaurant.

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