16 April 2018
The Mongolian spicy cold noodle denial
Eating dumplings in Wangfujing
Tonights update will be short because I did not stay out too long because I got back from the great wall too late and am exhausted and cannot wait to pass out immediately.
On that note, last night I went to bed at 9pm after days of no sleep, I woke up about 2 minutes later (or so I thought) confused as to how someone was phoning me. Turns out it was the alarm I had set for 6:30 AM (late for me). I had no idea where I was when I woke up, and it genuinely seemed like I had been asleep for minutes.
Now back to tonight. I stayed near the hotel and wandered around a couple of giant malls. In them were hundreds of restaurants, a whole lot of different styles. You can get Japanese food but I feel it is not as popular as it used to be because China and Japan are engaged in childish name calling along with Korea over who invented strawberries and where the original plum blossom trees come from. This same drama caused Chinese people to pull the badges off their Japanese cars they were once proud of (another reason might be comfort girls and other war time atrocities).
Instead of Japanese food you can get specialty bullfrog, porridge, eel in Chinese style, dumplings from every part of the world with everything in them and even what I think was a place that freezes everything with liquid nitrogen before you eat it.
I selected a flash looking Mongolian restaurant on level 12. I didnt know it was Mongolian until I was told by the English speaking greeter, but I liked the look of a noodle dish with vegetables piled high. I sat down and waited, the waitress came and I told her what I wanted, in Chinese, she said nothing and looked worried...
Now another waitress comes back with her and tries to tell me in English that I wont like this because it is cold noodles, and spicy sauce. Yes I knew that. I tell them both this is what I want, they understood me, but still looked worried, and now some poor woman was dragged over, possibly the owner but not wearing a uniform. She tells me its too spicy, too unusual, I wont like it. Annoyed by now, I pointed at something on the menu with a lot more chilli warnings than the one I was denied, some kind of special oat based noodles native to Mongolia. They looked horrified. I told them all I love big spice, bring me this, add more chilli!!! I also ordered some dumplings, they felt relieved that I would get something the weak western palette can handle.
China also has Family Mart. It is very similar to Japan, many of the same products. These seem to sell out every day, I have been in this one multiple times to buy water / pepsi, it is fully stocked in the morning and empty in the evening.
You can still also find fruit sellers with their carts. It all looks amazing, but I can only eat fruit if its been cut up for me and put in plastic, like they do at Family Mart.
This place is very huge, and made more so because a lot of the shops are a labyrinth of tiny corridors. I could not find dinner in here.
Nearby I did find this thing. You may have seen the swimming pool with the never ending wave where you surf while staying still? This is the skiing version of it, a moving floor ski slope. Unfortunately its not working on a Monday night so I dont get to see anyone break their neck trying to use it.
This place is even bigger than the other place. Too upmarket for me though, I did not find my dinner here.
The police are everywhere here. These guys are getting yelled at by their boss before they start their shift. Note they wear flashing red and blue lights on their shoulders. Surely that is annoying to have that flashing in your peripheral vision all night? The yelling is all for show I presume, he is probably yelling messages the government wants yelled out in crowded areas so the population can think it is important.
Here is my dinner, the above mentioned not cold noodles and some dumplings that were filled with scrambled egg and pickled vegetables. Very nice but I did not get the pile of cold vegetables I wanted, despite my best repeated efforts. I saw other people getting the thing I tried to order, the ONLY reason I was not allowed to have it is because my eyes are too round.
Tonights dancing grandmas are performing an erotic fan dance. A grandpa may have snuck in there too.