Imperial Li- Eating like an emperor

Last week Saturday was a clash of cultures: China vs America. And...I have to say, China won.

First, we ended up accidentally eating imperial food for lunch. Yes, imperial--from the emperor--the kind of food that the Chinese emperor used to eat (before he got ousted from office in 1911).

We were looking for a place for lunch and I knew that one of Thomas' class mates' parents had just opened a new restaurant, so we went to check it out. I thought it would be a pretty casual Chinese restaurant, but after we walked in we quickly realized it was quite fancy. In fact, it was amazing, and I had some of the best food I've ever had.

During the lunch, we learned that the great-great-grandparent of Thomas's class mate really had worked for the emperor, way back when there still was one. Apparently he was the head of the guards and in charge of keeping the emperor safe, which included being in charge of what meals were prepared for the emperor. Apparently, the great-great-grandfather memorized all the recipes and then handed them down to his children. Years later-- after the emperor was gone and even the cultural revolution had washed across China--the grandson (the grandparent of Thomas' class mate) opened up his first restaurant, which later lead to a chain of Family Li Imperial Cuisine restaurants in Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo.

So the food was really imperial and certainly tasted like it. We ate from lots of little dishes that wave-by-wave arrived at our table: duck, cooked celery, lotus root, sweet and sour pork, ... delicious.

After lunch we had a quick peek at the photo gallery at the restaurant which showed Mick Jagger, Jackie Chan, and Henry Paulson (a former U.S. Treasury Secretary) visiting. We certainly were in good company! :-)

So that was China. One point for China.

Then later that same Saturday, we delved into American culture. I've lived 10 years in the U.S. and never bothered to make a gingerbread house, so I don't quite know what possessed me to try to make one last week. But our "club house" had organized an event, the kids wanted to go, so we went.

What a disaster! I'd like to blame the materials, the lighting, the table cloth, (something, anything, but me), but I could not put together these gingerbread houses. Any time I glued the roof on, the walls would be collapsing underneath. (You can see in the pictures what these houses are supposed to be like, and what mine looked like.)

Picture: what a gingerbread house is supposed to look like.

It was a "kid activity", but the kids were impatiently waiting for me to somehow build a house, so that they could just glue some candy on top. Well, around me little mansions were being erected, and all I had was 2 sets of 6 loose plates with glue all over them. (The "glue" by the way, was just cake icing, and if you ask me, it did not glue at all.)

At some point, a Chinese man came over to help me with my houses. I think that when a Chinese guy comes over to help you with your gingerbread house, you really are in trouble. The kids, at that point, were already gone, playing somewhere else in the building.

When the second house collapsed, I declared defeat. Among the sympathetic looks of my fellow gingerbread house makers, I picked up the pieces (literally) and walked out. Never again am I building a gingerbread house.

Picture: What my gingerbread houses looked like (foreground).

So that was America: 0
China vs America: 1:0

I vote for more Imperial Li and less gingerbread houses in my future.

Walking where emperors walked - Xiangshan park

Hello friends,

It's been two weeks since my last update, which can only be explained by the fact that all of the sudden life is taking over. Instead of sightseeing (or wishing you had time to do sightseeing), our weekends and weekdays are now all filled by school, work, (Chinese) study, birthday parties, grocery-shopping, and other mundane tasks. Much like our life in DC really.

Nonetheless, today I have for you some photos from a recent trip I took to Xiangshan park, which is also called "Fragrant Hills". (For once, I find the Chinese name easier than the English name, as "fragrant" really does not roll of my tongue easily.) It's a park on the west side of Beijing, and I found it to be some sort of weird cross-over between a city park (there were lots of paths, flowers, and man-made streams, ponds and buildings) and a hike up the mountains. It really was pretty beautiful, if you could manage to see it while hiking up hill among about a couple hundred other people doing the same :-)

As I was checking the Wikipedia page about the park, I realized I actually missed tons of buildings during our hike! I suppose next time I better check Wikipedia before I leave, so at least I know what to look for :-). The park was built (and rebuilt and rebuilt) various times for different emperors, and also severely damaged a couple times (in 1860 and 1900) by foreign troups. I suppose that explains why I didn't think the few buildings I did manage to see looked all that great. In any case, I went to see the park with a group of parents from Simon and Thomas' school, and we had a great time climbing the hill and then rushing back down again to catch the bus back to school.

Here are some pictures.

On the way up, we saw this man fold animals out of a long leaf. One of those dragons -- slightly more yellow and dried out -- is currently hanging out in our living room.

At the top, people were taking pictures...

...and tying red ribbons to the trees. (Presumably some sign of making it to the top? I don't really know.)

I didn't tie a ribbon, but I did make it to the top! Careful observers might notice a certain dragon in this picture.

On the way back I had a delicious drink of yoghurt. It was sweetened yoghurt, which you just drink with a straw from the cups shown here. And when you are done, you simply leave the cup in the recycling bin! :-)