mmm-yoso!!!

Nanjing: Another Dinner and what our T-Shirts said

I figure I'd better get going with more China posts before my memory really fades.......

After our visit to the Sun Yat -Sen Mausoleum, we caught the bus back into the city. My foot was feeling pretty good, so we decided to walk up to the major shopping district of Nanjing....which was packed to the gills with people. Out of curiosity we even walked through......

 

Which was quite interesting.....

We soon tired of the crowds and decided to walk back to our hotel and grab some dinner on the  way back. We had passed this restaurant earlier, another multi-leveled place.....fast food on the bottom, casual restaurant second floor, restaurant third floor, and banquet area on top....

The Missus and I decided to stop here and have dinner. The place wasn't very busy, and the service here was pretty good. The menu was fairly vast with some interesting looking dishes on it. Like this one......

 
Because I'd already had sprinkles on a dish during one of our banquets in Beijing it didn't have quite the same effect on me.... but I still found it a bit odd. I'm waiting for the day I'll open a menu somewhere in the SGV and see a savory dish with sprinkles on it! If you can read Chinese you might find the story of the dish on the menu interesting.

We ended up ordering a whopping five dishes of the menu, which varied in quality and taste.

The worst was the grilled lamb rib which was really dry and tough....and had almost no flavor....

 

I didn't think much of the classic Nanjing dish, the bean curd soup.

 

If I recall, the true classic version of this is supposed to have vermicelli in it...this one had bean sprouts. The Missus thought it was tasty though.

The Baihe (Lily Bulb) with Celery was passable. Not as good as other versions, but pleasantly gooey....

 

Of course after seeing the "Scrolls with Treasures" on the menu, we just had to try it!

 

This was actually better than it looked. The sprinkles were really just a garnish.... call it parsley on the plate if you will, and really didn't interfere with the flavors of this dish. The sweet soy and peanut oil mixture was very tasty. This was very much like the "seaweed roll" you'd see served in dim sum places.

The best dish of the night by far was the minced duck served with cups made of wheat flour......which looked like wo-wo-tou.

 

First off the duck had a wonderful flavor, and the sauce, a mild fruity-sweet, along with a nice salty-soy flavor went well with the minced duck. The vegetables added some nice crunch and helped to cleanse the palate a bit. The "cup" were wonderful, mildly grainy, nutty, with a restrained sweetness that just brought everything together for us. This was one of the most memorable dishes of our trip.

After dinner we walked back to our room....pass the now brightly lit "Disco Palace"....

 

To get some rest...... my foot needed some elevation, and the next day we were headed out to Xi'an, a city that I was really excited about visiting.....

 What our t-shirts said:

On my last post on our visit to Nanjing I had a photo of sort of matching t-shirts the Missus and I bought. I was surprised that folks wanted to know what the shirts said:

 

Mine on the left said, "I don't eat, but I do the dishes". The Missus on the right says, "I eat all the food, but I don't do the dishes."

Oh, and the one we bought for my Mother In Law, who is very frugal (and proud of it...she sent us a photo after we mentioned the shirt in our post) says, "I make money, but never spend it!"

 

Nanjing: Jianbing, Linggu Temple, and Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum

I got a good night's sleep after a hectic day, anf the next morning my foot felt better. We had made plans for the day, and I just couldn't see letting my foot get in the way. After waking the first plan was to grab some breakfast we walked a couple of blocks and saw a couple of food stands on a side street. Of course it was the Jianbing (rolled pancake/crepe) that really caught our attention. Actually, this stand tried to pawn off some pre-made Jianbing on us, but the Missus "persuaded" the woman to make me a fresh one.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile the Missus went for some porridge being sold at a neighboring stand.

 

Pretty much what the working person in Nanjing might grab for breakfast. Nothing exotic. I thought the Jianbing was okay, but the Missus said that it wasn't made very well; the texture was too chewy and "dead", and the youtiao was very greasy and soggy.

 

Still, it was nourishment. After this quick breakfast we set out looking for the bus to take us to the Zijin (Purple-Gold) Mountain area. We tracked down the bus route on a map we had, but couldn't find the bus stops. After walking all the way to the Fuzi Miao area we were stumped. After asking around, we found that due to road work the bus route had been temporarily changed. We were given instructions on the new bus route and finally found the bus stop...... which turned out to be two blocks from our hotel! Oh well........ it's kind of funny now.

We finally made it to our destination. The bus was fairly empty, and I was able to elevate my foot, which brought some relief.

 

We first visted the Linggu Temple area.

 

 

 
The most fascinating place here was Wúliáng Diàn, the Beamless Hall, built in 1381.

 
The building is made entirely of stone and brick without any beams for support.

 
It is the only building in the Linggu Temple area that survives from the Ming Dynasty.

All that was interesting for me, but I really wanted to visit the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. Growing up in Hawaii, one could not help but learn of Dr Sun Yat Sen's time in Hawaii. If you ever go to the Chinese Cultural Plaza in Honolulu's Chinatown, you'll see a statue of Sun Yat-Sen. There's so much about Sun Yet-Sen's time in Hawaii, and you can read about his time in Hawaii here. Man, he went to both Iolani and what is now known as Punahou School (then known as O'ahu College). What really makes Sun Yat-Sen unique in my mind is that he is revered by both China and Taiwan as both a founding father of the PRC and the Republic of China.

 
The Missus and I had not seen any photos of the mausoleum, and I was a bit worried that it would be some gaudy, over-the-top monument. But I was pleased at the tasteful design.

 
Passing through the front gateway, you climb 392 steps to the vault........

 

 

 

It is indeed quite a monument.......

 

Though having been taught that he was a very humble man, I could not help but wonder what he would have thought about this......

After spending a bit of time here, we caught the bus back to the main shopping area where a couple of T-shirts caught our eye. We don't usually buy much for us, but we saw these t-shirts and just had to get them.

 

Those who can read this will probably get a kick out of it. We even found one for my MIL which was very appropriate!

On the way back to the hotel, the Missus noticed.......

 

And after hitting up 85 C in Suzhou the Missus just had to stop here.

 

For some strong unsweetened tea and milk bread....... which seemed to be just the thing we needed.

More to come, thanks for reading!

Nanjing: Dinner

We strolled (well, I limped) back to our room. After a pretty, well, I guess you could say eventful day, we decided to stick close to the hotel. I really needed to rest my foot. Across the street from the hotel was a bunch of smaller hotels and restaurants, and we finally chose this one (photo taken the next morning):

 

I gotta say we kinda lucked out on this one. In spite of the busy dining area, full of cigarette smoke and demanding customers, the service here was just righ for us. Friendly, without being overbearing. The woman running the dining room seemed to have great control over the employees...... we felt very comfortable here. Our server was quick with a smile, and seemed to enjoy explaining the specials to the Missus.

The Missus translated the menu to me, and I selected a classic Nanjing dish I wanted to try; the Nanjing Salted Duck:

 
A dish with a long history, this was delicious; fragrant, not too salty, much more tender than I expected, with a mild "wild game" flavor. I really enjoyed this.

The other dish that caught our fancy was the Dry Cooked Wild Mushroom. Man these Cordycep mushrooms were outstanding.

 

These mushroom were obviously twice cooked, first "passed through the oil", then stir fried with Chinese celery which added a nice palate cleansing flavor to the salty-sweetness of the soy and dark soy sauce and sugar. We ended up ordering this dish when we saw it again later. I've made this dish several times at home, perhaps I'll post a recipe one of these days. This was a very nice dish.

The Missus also enjoyed the simple stir-fried vegetable.

 

I didn't care much for the soup, which I thought was really bland, but the Missus loved it.

 

She thought it was light and rejuvenating.

Overall, this was a very nice meal, it was just what we wanted and needed. We simply crossed the street and headed back to our room for a good night's sleep.

Nanjing: Zhonghua Gate, Snacks, and brush with Healthcare in China

After the snack banquet, we walked (well, I limped) around the Fuzi Miao (Confucian Temple),  a major shopping area in Nanjing.

That's when the Missus saw the Tanghulu (冰糖葫芦), candied Haw. This was a childhood favorite of the Missus, so She just had to get it; even though it wasn't the right season for this (it's a winter snack). Unfortunately, this didn't live up to Her memories.

From this stand.

 

The Missus got this:

 
Looked delicious, but the Missus said it was terrible.

We slowly walked back to the hotel. My foot looked terrible when I removed my shoe. The Missus and I knew what it was. The joint before my big toe was three times it's normal size, an angry red and purple and hot to the touch. I felt a stabbing pain with every step. Gout runs in my family, and though I've never had an attack, I'd seen it before. The Missus also knew exactly what it was, and knew exactly what would resolve this; the drug Colchicine. I'm thinking all that seafood and meat I ate in QingDao and Jinan pretty much put me on the gout fast track. I did later learn that diet is only the cause of about 10% of gout cases, with genetics causing about 65%.... of course statistics, diagnosis, etc, really don't matter when you're in pain. You just want to get past it.... We did find out that there was a community hospital two blocks over with a small ER/Urgent Care. So headed off.....

So here's my experience with Chinese Healthcare in a nutshell. It's pay as you go. I was registered, I paid, then saw a physician. I paid, then got labs drawn. I paid then saw another physician. I paid, then got my meds. "In Mao we trust, all others pay cash......." Next, you're given your medical record. You are responsible for keeping track of your healthcare.

 

So after the blood tests, we saw a "foot specialist". He took a look at the foot, and told the Missus that it is possibly gout. The Missus asked for Cochicine, but the physician said that it's very "toxic" and he wouldn't prescribe it without a uric acid test. Now I had just had blood drawn, so the Missus asked why they didn't do a uric acid, we were told that "the technician who does the test is off on weekends." Okay, how about an NSAID like Indomethacin? The answer? "No, no it's very toxic to the liver, we can't do that unless we do a complete liver panel." And guess what, "the tech who does those tests is not working today. Look like I picked the wrong day to have a gout attack! Among the nuggets of wisdom imparted to the patient was, "stay away from bean curd" (yeah, right..... I'm in China), "don't eat spicy food" (we'd be in Chengdu in a couple of days, so mark that one as a no-go"), and "don't walk too much" (the Missus would sooner cut my leg off and replace it with a broomstick than cut down on our activities). As a consolation prize, I was prescribed three meds, a circulatory drug (??), Cefaclor, an antibiotic, I guess there was still a small chance this was cellulitis, and a mild NSAID, which, combined with my ibuprofen helped me to survive the trip. It was pretty painful going at times, but I survived. We walked back to the room, I took my meds, elevated my foot, got a couple of hours of rest and felt better.

Later on that afternoon I felt a bit better, and the swelling had descreased, so we headed off (on foot of course) down Zhonghua Road.....

 

 

During the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was the capital of China. Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang had the Ming City Walls built. The grandest gate is the South Gate, the Zhonghua Gate, which was formerly known as the Jùbăomén - "Gathering Treasure Gate".

 

It really didn't look all that impressive at first. But then I noticed that there wasn't just a single gate, but a total of four arched entrances.... making it quite formidable.

 

Between each gate is an open courtyard that the enemies would have to pass through.

When looking up at the arch in the gateway, you'll notice slots cut into the arch.

 

Apparently, these slots were used to lower and raise a "thousand kilogram" gate up and down.

From the top of the walls you see the other side of the slots, now covered with glass.

 

There are also 27 tunnels built into the walls of the gates. These tunnels were used to store supplies and shelter troops.

 

While walking up the stairs to the upper levels of the wall........

 

I noticed that there were inscriptions on many of the bricks.

 

I mentioned this to the Missus, and wondered what it was. The Missus said it looked like some names and locations. A few minutes later we had our answer. In one of the tunnels was a display of the various bricks and inscriptions.

 

 

We learned that the Emperor had the names of the builders and brick makers inscribed on the bricks as a way of ensuring quality and responsibility. I'm guessing that this system worked rather  well since the wall is still standing, and you can still read the inscriptions on many of the bricks.

Along with the stairs, large ramps line each end of the gates. I'm guessing so that soldiers on horse back could make their way up the gate quickly.

 

 

Making your way to the top you get a better idea of how imposing this wall was.

 

 

Taking a look from the top of the wall you see that the river flowing in front of the gate acts like a natural moat, making it even more formidable.

 

I'm guessing because it was later in the day, all the tour groups were gone and there was hardly any one around. You could really let your imagination go to work. I was really enjoying our time here, but it was starting to get a bit late in the day. It was time to leave.

Walking back toward Fuzi Temple was passed by one of those "food streets". On the taxi ride from the bus station the driver told the Missus that this was pretty much a tourist trap, and the food didn't reflect Nanjing food. Still, it was fun walking around and checking things out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Qinhua River looks quite nice during dusk.......

 
 

We decided to head back to our hotel and find something to eat near by........

Stay tuned!

Postscript:

The day after returning home I went to see my physician. Of course he took one look at my foot and prescribed Colchicine and Indomethacin without waiting for my lab results. Two doses of colchicine and I was good as new. Well, almost. Unfortunately, the Xrays revealed some permanent damage to my foot, probably due all the pounding it took. My PCP, who has a dry sense of humor told me, "well, look at it this way, there aren't any triathlons in your future. And you don't plan on climbing Mount Kilimanjaro." (Of course I didn't tell him that Kilimanjaro was on the Missus's "bucket list") As a parting shot, he chuckled when I displayed the boxes for the meds I was prescribed in Nanjing. Especially this one:

 
He told me, "you know we prescribe this for hemorrhoids". I wonder where they thought I'd stuck my foot?

Nanjing: The Snack Banquet

We arrived in Nanjing after a relatively short two hour bus ride from Suzhou. I'd been told that "100 kilometers or two hours away from anywhere in China, in any province, the food will be different." It had been a two hour bus ride from Hangzhou to Suzhou, and the cuisine was quite different. Now, in Nanjing the capital of China during six dynasties, and along with Beijing, Xi'an (our next destination), and Luoyang, one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, I was curious to see if the cuisine would differ so much. It would be interesting to see since we were still within Jiangsu Province. We caught a cab from the bus station to our hotel, during which time the Missus struck up a conversation with the cab driver. Finding out he was born and raised in Nanjing, the first business at hand would be questions about what to eat. I had a couple things in mind, but still really didn't know too much about Nanjing style food. The cab driver went through a couple of things, made a recommendation of a place to eat, and more importantly, where not to eat and why.

We arrived at the hotel, settled in, rested my foot which was starting to look pretty bad for about a half hour, then set out on foot to the major shopping area around the Confucian Temple and Qinhuai river..... bustling and busy.....

 

The Missus hit the brakes right alongside one of the snack stands......

 

Pointed at one of the mounds.......

 

And told me, "we gotta get this!"

It was my first experience with Gua Wei Can Dou (Strange Flavor Broad Beans - 怪味蚕豆).

 

One bite, and I was hooked! We stopped by here two more times during the trip. This version was the best I had.

Near the Qinhua River, we found the place the cab driver had recommended.

 
Walked through the doors and entered the restaurant upstairs.....

 

And was seated at one of the long tables in the dining area....

 

So what was this place?

Well, I heard that Nanjing was famous for its snacks; and this was a restaurant specializing in "Snack Banquets". There were several multi-course banquets available ranging in price from relatively inexpensive (by US standards) to very expensive (also by US standards). We just went with the most simple banquet.

And then it started....... plates started arriving at a pretty incredible speed.

 

And they just kept coming.....

 

And coming.....

 

Much of it was rather unremarkable......

 

For instance, on this plate, the only item I enjoyed was the Nanjing Salted Duck, one of a handful of Nanjing specialities I knew of.

 

 

On the other hand, I found that I didn't care for another Nanjing specialty, Duck Blood soup.

 
Man, this was pretty hardcore; next to the "Everything Soup" from Huguosi Snack Bar in Beijing, this was probably the most difficult item I'd had to date. Strong offal flavor; very metallic, not my cup of tea.

Most of the other soups were pretty routine in flavor.

 

 

 

More dishes.....

 

 

 

 

It was fairly apparent that everything has to be prepared ahead of time.......

 

And some of it rather haphazardly, check out the stray rice on the wrapper of the zongzi.....

 

 

 

All the dumplings, bao, and like were served cold......

 

 

 

My favorite item, was this.......

 

Though I'm not a big fan of pork sung, I loved the texture of this..... that's when the Missus told me, "oh, it says they make this with duck lard".... duh.....

The rest of the meal.

 

 

 

In the end, this was more about the experience then the food. We'd find the same thing again a bit later on during or trip.

We left the restaurant, with almost a half day ahead of us. But by that time; my foot was really killing, and as I hobbled back to the hotel, I knew it had to be addressed......

Stay tuned!