2nd. day in Beijing: Fish doesn't always taste fish

I decided to walk to the office this morning and not taking cab since I had been told it's not that far. So, it shouldn't take very long. At least it would give me the chance to see how people of Beijing begin their day.

My office happens to be in an area where all the embassies and some multinational companies are located. You pretty much see caucasians all over the places. And exactly opposite it is the Beijing British International school.

For lunch, my collegue took me to a Taiwanese restaurant opposite the office - my first taste of Chinese food in Beijing. I realised one thing - a sea food dish does not necessarily mean all seafood. I dunno about veggie dish though.

At around 6.30 PM we went to have our dinner in a restaurant not very far from my hotel. I was told that the place specialises in cuisines from Sichuan (or something) province in the south west of China. It was such a crowded place indication of how famous it is. It's common among the Chinese that they judge the quality of a restaurant and it's food by how crowded the place it. (I guess it's common sense) The more crowded it is, the more likely people will be attracted to drop in. So, some would resort to giving big discounts and even free food when they first open a restaurant, just to pull the crowd. I noticed the waitresses were very petite in size with very fair, smooth skin and reddish cheeks. Kind of cute. They were not too skinny, neither were they fleshy. The fingers weren't that long and slightly broader than the normal Chinese girls. Apprently they have been brought all the way from Sichuan to work there.

I wasn't involved in deciding what to order, except that I asked only for seafood or veggie dishes. The first couple of dishes were vegetarian and didn't taste that bad. Then came the duck and chicken. And lastly a 1.5 kg shredded fish which supposedly tasted good. But, erkkk ... I don't know how they cooked it, I don't even know if it was a fish at all - it looks more like a snake than fish to me. The smell of the spices was extremely strong. I'd known the smell from before, but I just couldn't recall where. It must've been some weird fish species that is only found in this part of the world. I took a small a piece of the meat and that was the only portion of the fish that went into me. I just could not bear the taste and the smell.

We left at about 8 PM. On the way back to the hotel, I discovered a market where they sell mainly clothes and some female accessories, leather bags, sun glasses, and fake watches. Quite a sizeable place with rows and rows of stalls. May be I'll check it out more tomorrow.

I was thinking of heading straight to the Hard Rock Cafe to get some real dinner since honestly I was damn hungry. A tiny piece of fish meat and a few leaves of veggie are not what I would consider dinner. Then, I decided to just order something from room service - Tuna sandwich and fries. BURP! Now, that's a good meal.



Hey! I think somebody is looking for business. Look at what I found under my door: