Have set in again. Last week was our break and I should have a post all about it up tomorrow. I’ll also try to fill in basically what has happened this month. Unlike with regular procrastinating, the clock keeps ticking and things keep accumulating so it helps even less. But I just wanted to share what may be the worst part about China.
There is no good food.
The food gets really repetitive at about the 2-month mark. This is even after eating imported Goldfish, McDonald’s, and sort-of Westernized tourist food. If I were on a straight Chinese diet I’d probably get sick of it within weeks.
So in class I composed a list of things I am going to eat when I get back.
Nikki special (Ultra-greasy cheeseburger with gyros meat as well)
Italian sausage/beef combo with peppers
Skillet with peppers, onions, bacon, cheese
Five Guys double cheeseburger with mushrooms grilled onions and BBQ sauce
Steak at Pete Miller’s
Panera Bread French Onion soup and Italian Combo sandwich
Pizza di Roma
Lucky Charms
Brats
Chipotle Barbacoa Burrito with Chips and salsa/guacamole
McDonald’s Chicken Selects
Taco Bell Grilled Stuft Burrito with steak and a Baja Chalupa both with Taco Bell hot sauce
A massive salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and cold fresh carrots, cucumbers, olives, sprouts
Caprese salad
Mountain Dew
New Glarus
I miss them, very dearly.
Showing posts with label the itis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the itis. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Are you experienced?
Lets make up for some lost time shall we? I feel like I've already done an entry on Pizza Hut and the salad, but I can't find it anywhere so maybe I'm going crazy or something. There will be a much longer post still yet to come truly concluding my travels in China. I had this one mostly written from a while ago.
Pizza Hut in America is not exactly what I picture when I hear "classy dining experience." (I'm sorry if you do.) And outside of stuffed crust pizza, it tastes pretty bad too. Well my friends, the Chinese know how to run a restaurant. I believe I have stated here previously that every pizza place in this country is expensive. Pizza Hut is no exception, and for my two cents was probably the trendsetter. On the outside, it doesn't look particularly special; it has the same Pizza Hut logo and then Chinese characters underneath proclaiming as much. When you walk inside though, the restaurant really starts to separate itself from the crowd.
Most Chinese restaurants have the look and feel of any hole-in-the wall establishment, with interior decorating that usually includes newspaper on the floors to catch and cover any massive stains, as well as faded advertising on the walls which hasn't been changed in the last 10 years. Naturally there are more upscale restaurants, and this is precisely where Pizza Hut fits in. The lighting is slightly dimmed by design, unlike in their American counterparts where the luminosity and wall coloring makes you feel like you're in the devil's antechamber. The clientele is also markedly different. We ate at a non-peak hour that was around 3pm or so and at least 50% of the tables were still full. Most all of the tables were filled by groups of people approximately my age or a little older, and at least 2/3 of the patrons were women. Shino informed me that at dinner time the place would be completely swamped. The actual menu was pretty classy, and had some interesting menu items, including "Rise of the Oriental Hero." They also had a positively delicious supreme pizza on the menu. Shino's aunt (this one lives in Beijing, the Tianjin one is different) treated us, and made me eat 5 of the 8 pieces. Not that I was complaining; it was incredible. We also ordered chicken wings, and they tasted as great as they do in America. They had real American soups too, including clam chowder which I hate, and other thick soups. In China, a soup is basically hot water with salt, oil, and either dough, tomato & egg, or one other relatively tasteless and unfilling thing. The idea of a soup that is almost a meal by itself is extremely foreign here.
So the food there was delicious; it was truly among the best I had in China, which is probably a rather pathetic thing for the Chinese. It might have tasted better just because it tasted like home though, I'm not too sure. Here are some pictures; the 1st is a slice of the seating area, the 2nd is the salad bar and some seating, and the last is the salad we ordered. It was incredible, but only in its architectural beauty; it tasted like crap.
Pizza Hut in America is not exactly what I picture when I hear "classy dining experience." (I'm sorry if you do.) And outside of stuffed crust pizza, it tastes pretty bad too. Well my friends, the Chinese know how to run a restaurant. I believe I have stated here previously that every pizza place in this country is expensive. Pizza Hut is no exception, and for my two cents was probably the trendsetter. On the outside, it doesn't look particularly special; it has the same Pizza Hut logo and then Chinese characters underneath proclaiming as much. When you walk inside though, the restaurant really starts to separate itself from the crowd.
Most Chinese restaurants have the look and feel of any hole-in-the wall establishment, with interior decorating that usually includes newspaper on the floors to catch and cover any massive stains, as well as faded advertising on the walls which hasn't been changed in the last 10 years. Naturally there are more upscale restaurants, and this is precisely where Pizza Hut fits in. The lighting is slightly dimmed by design, unlike in their American counterparts where the luminosity and wall coloring makes you feel like you're in the devil's antechamber. The clientele is also markedly different. We ate at a non-peak hour that was around 3pm or so and at least 50% of the tables were still full. Most all of the tables were filled by groups of people approximately my age or a little older, and at least 2/3 of the patrons were women. Shino informed me that at dinner time the place would be completely swamped. The actual menu was pretty classy, and had some interesting menu items, including "Rise of the Oriental Hero." They also had a positively delicious supreme pizza on the menu. Shino's aunt (this one lives in Beijing, the Tianjin one is different) treated us, and made me eat 5 of the 8 pieces. Not that I was complaining; it was incredible. We also ordered chicken wings, and they tasted as great as they do in America. They had real American soups too, including clam chowder which I hate, and other thick soups. In China, a soup is basically hot water with salt, oil, and either dough, tomato & egg, or one other relatively tasteless and unfilling thing. The idea of a soup that is almost a meal by itself is extremely foreign here.So the food there was delicious; it was truly among the best I had in China, which is probably a rather pathetic thing for the Chinese. It might have tasted better just because it tasted like home though, I'm not too sure. Here are some pictures; the 1st is a slice of the seating area, the 2nd is the salad bar and some seating, and the last is the salad we ordered. It was incredible, but only in its architectural beauty; it tasted like crap.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
6 meals. 24 hours. 15000 calories.
My first dinner will be Pete Miller's, you see. A medium-rare 16oz filet buttered with some cracked garlic. Fluffy but chunky mashed potatoes on the side. I will personally apply A1 steak sauce in just the right amount. The juice from the steak will seep into the bottom of the potatoes to add a little more substance to it.
The next morning I will have two breakfasts. I will wake up when I damn well please. Then I will have a bowl of Lucky Charms (buy it now mom) and then will go to Egg Harbor and get a skillet, eggs scrambled with bacon, shredded cheddar, and onions. I will have a large glass of skim milk.
From there, I move on to lunch. A double Nikki from Chuckwagon, pickles ketchup and onion. Secondsies on lunch will be a footlong Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Make it a meal deal with real Lay's and an orange soda.
Back to dinner. Chili's. I walk in and am immediately seated because it is a weeknight. I grab a toothpick to munch on while waiting for the food. I immediately order a drink - a Minute-Maid lemonade - and it comes almost immediately in the Chili's mug notable only in that it is devoid of any logo or marketing. I chug it down before the waitress takes orders, and by the time orders are completed it is replaced. My order is a bowl of chili with cheese. I crush in a packet of oyster crackers and save the others to nibble on plain. It's real restaurant-grade chili; not a weak vegetarian excuse, and nothing too high-falutin' or 'authentic,' and it's just what I'm looking for. The chili, unlike some soups, is never too hot when it comes out, and you can dig in right away. And through some magical chemicals, it retains right until your entree arrives. Mine is a Smoked Applewood Bacon BBQ Burger. I can barely fit a single bite in my mouth, which is incredible given I can fit my entire fist in my mouth. The bacon strips are 10 inches long, 1 inch wide, and several milimeters thick. Between the butter, mayo, and BBQ sauce, they have trouble staying on the patty. The patty itself by the way weighsed a pound after cooking. To round out the burger and perhaps provide the bacon with a little friction, I create a layer of fries. It's almost a shame to put fries spiced so ingeniously and cut so well onto a burger, but it must be done. The fries are finished after the burger. I waddle over to the exit, help myself to two more toothpicks (they have the minty taste literally imbued in them) and thank the hostess in a sincere manner as never before. I waddle across the street to the parking garage and collapse into the Avalon. Before I'm able to even exit however, I suffer a massive heart attack, my body's final rejection of the binging. It's a quick onset and I convulse slightly, then pass out. My body slumps forward, and foot hits the gas. I rocket out of the garage, break the concrete miniwall, and land in a spectacular fireball right in front of the Chili's entrance.
I love America.
(I'm gonna try to post a real update tomorrow. I'm also having my Chinese reading tendencies examined with how I parse their language that refused to invent the space.)
The next morning I will have two breakfasts. I will wake up when I damn well please. Then I will have a bowl of Lucky Charms (buy it now mom) and then will go to Egg Harbor and get a skillet, eggs scrambled with bacon, shredded cheddar, and onions. I will have a large glass of skim milk.
From there, I move on to lunch. A double Nikki from Chuckwagon, pickles ketchup and onion. Secondsies on lunch will be a footlong Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki. Make it a meal deal with real Lay's and an orange soda.
Back to dinner. Chili's. I walk in and am immediately seated because it is a weeknight. I grab a toothpick to munch on while waiting for the food. I immediately order a drink - a Minute-Maid lemonade - and it comes almost immediately in the Chili's mug notable only in that it is devoid of any logo or marketing. I chug it down before the waitress takes orders, and by the time orders are completed it is replaced. My order is a bowl of chili with cheese. I crush in a packet of oyster crackers and save the others to nibble on plain. It's real restaurant-grade chili; not a weak vegetarian excuse, and nothing too high-falutin' or 'authentic,' and it's just what I'm looking for. The chili, unlike some soups, is never too hot when it comes out, and you can dig in right away. And through some magical chemicals, it retains right until your entree arrives. Mine is a Smoked Applewood Bacon BBQ Burger. I can barely fit a single bite in my mouth, which is incredible given I can fit my entire fist in my mouth. The bacon strips are 10 inches long, 1 inch wide, and several milimeters thick. Between the butter, mayo, and BBQ sauce, they have trouble staying on the patty. The patty itself by the way weighsed a pound after cooking. To round out the burger and perhaps provide the bacon with a little friction, I create a layer of fries. It's almost a shame to put fries spiced so ingeniously and cut so well onto a burger, but it must be done. The fries are finished after the burger. I waddle over to the exit, help myself to two more toothpicks (they have the minty taste literally imbued in them) and thank the hostess in a sincere manner as never before. I waddle across the street to the parking garage and collapse into the Avalon. Before I'm able to even exit however, I suffer a massive heart attack, my body's final rejection of the binging. It's a quick onset and I convulse slightly, then pass out. My body slumps forward, and foot hits the gas. I rocket out of the garage, break the concrete miniwall, and land in a spectacular fireball right in front of the Chili's entrance.
I love America.
(I'm gonna try to post a real update tomorrow. I'm also having my Chinese reading tendencies examined with how I parse their language that refused to invent the space.)
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