Embracing Freedom

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Food Tourists Episode 1: Beijing Duck

From Smogrise to Smogset

To explore Beijing, Cao Li Ping recommended that Chris bring his swimming goggles for the expected downpour and confirmed that there was no need for sunscreen in smoggy Beijing. He didn't bring the goggles but rather chose to wear his "natural wool long underwear" for the 87˚ F weather, much to her (and other unsuspecting locals's) surprise. That's what they call hairy legs in Chinese, by the way.

Other lovely translations from Cao Li Ping's iPhone dictionary:

SmoovLatte:

A caffeine-o-holic's dilemna: Lydia happens to be addicted to caffeine. Or rather, she takes it as medication to treat her migraines. The Chinese and Russians are fantastic at tea. Let me say that again: the Chinese and Russians just don't get coffee. The two options are instant coffee or…(drumroll, please)…instant coffee with instant powdered milk. Really? Even though there is a jug of fresh milk in the fridge right over there, just to add insult to injury you are offering me milk powder with my instant coffee? We'd have tea if we didn't have migraines to prevent… I guess it's another market gap that is probably filled along the touristy route we didn't end up taking.

口水鸡:

It took about 10 minutes for us to figure out why this was funny, since Cao Li Ping's iPhone literally just translated this dish as "chicken strips in chili sauce". We thought our Asian humor radar was off, but it was still really hard to force a polite laugh. Second try. "Slivered chicken?" Still not LOL funny. Try again. "Saliva chicken?" Yeah that's pretty funny. Even for the two white kids.

Say Eggplant:

Pictures upon pictures in the botanical gardens (which include moving, screeching plastic Dinosaurs…so scary!). So many pictures in fact, that we wondered what that kid kept screaming: CHEEEEEZI. We didn't understand but once again our lovely tour guide and hostess Cao Li Ping came to the rescue with her iPhone: in China for cheese pictures we say 茄子. What does that mean? Cheese? (copy cats!) One moment later she says with conviction: "yi puh lan ti". Close enough for "eggplant", if you get to read over her shoulder. Yum. So we frenched things and went with the oh so nasal "aubergine". Thus the distorted facial expressions in that day's pictures. Lang lebe Multi-Kulti!

The Twinkie Ride to Breakfast

Our flight from Seattle to Beijing had us sandwiched between hoards of friendly Chinese passengers, including two families with adorable children. They served us what ended up being our 2nd and 3rd lunches and even the cheesiest Chinese Karaoke songs on the music channel couldn't distract us from the discomfort of being squished into Chinese-sized economy seats for eleven hours.

Upon arrival we walked the catwalk that is arrivals hall at PEK, where Chris witnessed Lydia's joyful reunion with Cao Li Ping. She had translated for Lydia a year ago, and was a superb hostess: she gave the taxi driver directions to our hotel (they don't read maps), checked us in and took us out for fantastic Szechuan food; dinner for her but breakfast for us, considering we were still on Chicago time.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Photo of the Day: Seattle

Chris drying his clother--we travel in style!

Thursday, August 30, 2012

一路平安

We are about to board our flight to Beijing, China where we will start our two week adventure on the Trans-Siberian Railway. After some initial confusion with all the time zones, we decided 10:22 am was still a decent time for lunch and indulged at the seafood place in the Seattle airport: salmon and rockfish followed by local peaches was the way to get started with this long and tight (no aisle seats available) plane ride. The longest flight either of us have ever been on, that's for sure. Still not exactly sure how many hours, though.
Lydia went into a enthusiastic obsession upon being handed her boarding pass, which was - of course - in Chinese! And Chris learned how to pronounce our soon to be tour guide of Beijing, Cao Li Ping. Progress.

一路平安！（Bon Voyage）