Beijing Eats, Part One

Airplane food (IAD to PEK)
Surprisingly, not bad. Helps if you're flying business class I guess. :) There was smoked salmon and salami, mustard chicken and potatoes with a Kabinett riesling for dinner. Before we landed I had the fruit plate with croissant, yogurt and tea. Max had the sandwich and potatoes instead.




Frank's Place
The location has changed and the atmosphere is much nicer now. Bruce ordered the half. Turned out to be half a liter, not half a pint. I had the schnitzel and mashed potatoes. Kristina had the spaghetti bolognese.




The Noodle Loft
The best! We ate here twice... great food and you get to watch them make it. My favorite was the noodle made by one chopstick with vegetables. Max's favorite is the one long noodle (green because of spinach) with pork sauce. Kristina's favorite was the hand plucked noodle pieces with spicy sauce. We all like the potato cake, the oil ball (red bean paste donuts), and the candied yams.





Pastries from the Wangfujing Mall



We also went to Starbucks twice but there's no pictures of that. Same for the awesome dim sum that we had with Max's family. To be continued...

I'm back!

You may have noticed that I've been gone for two weeks... or maybe not. :) I was on vacation! Max and I went to Beijing for the Olympics along with my bestfriend Kristina, her boyfriend Bruce, and our friend Missy. We stayed with Max's parents and his brother who has been there since June. It will take awhile to catch up on everything but let's start with the Olympics.

Our first event was at the Bird's Nest on August 16. Max and I got to sit together, Bruce and Kristina were in different sections.


Our next events were on August 18. Max and his Dad went to Beach Volleyball. Marvin, Kristina, Bruce, and I went back to the Bird's Nest for more Athletics (aka Track and Field).



On August 20, it rained all day. Max and Marvin went to Beach Volleyball and got drenched but were done by midday. Kristina, Bruce, and I went to the Men's Modern Pentathalon, which is shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding, and running events all in one day. We followed them from venue to venue across town in the rain. We missed the shooting because of the weather (traffic was terrible) and the last one because it was time to leave to meet the driver who was taking us home.



Everyone went to the Men's beach volleyball finals on the morning of August 21. The bronze medal match was between Georgia and Brazil (and we cheered for Georgia because Kristina and Bruce live in the state of Georgia). I met some Canadians during the intermission. Kristina and I were interviewed for Australian TV (a fluff story on if the women watch the men's beach volleyball for the sport or the eye candy). And my friend Missy caught the second volleyball that was thrown out into the crowd.





My last event was at the Bird's Nest with Max, Missy and Marvin on the evening of August 21. We walked by the set of the Today Show on the way there and saw Al Roker from a distance.

Acquisitions

It's been awhile since I bought any new yarn, but I've just added a whole bunch to my stash. This blue wool will become a seed stitch scarf, just something easy and mindless.



No plans for this one yet, I just liked it.



This is my favorite, though the colour was impossible to capture so this is not right at all. It's more red and bound together with black.



In other news, go Canada! Two golds, two silvers, and four bronze medals. Woo hoo! I love the Olympics.

Belated birthday gift

Perfect timing... It has been a rough week. Thanks Amanda!

Multi-coloured baby hat

The pattern is Turn A Square by Jared Flood. The yarn I used is Plymouth Dreambaby DK. No recipient in mind yet... fun to knit though.

CSA week 12

This week: eggplants, corn, onions, fennel, cucumber, garlic, carrots, tomatoes and eggs.

On Friday I made some icecream using 8 egg yolks. Decadent and delicious! Froze the egg whites for a future used and hard boiled a dozen eggs. This morning I had French toast for breakfast. Max made himself an omelet and discovered that rainbow chard is too bitter for him. Live and learn. We had corn on the cob last night with our dinner... so good and sweet. I could have eaten all three.

Using up my eggs

I made some French toast for dinner on Monday night.

CSA week 11

This week we have eggplant, tomatoes, cantaloupe, carrots, onions, fresh garlic, green pepers, and, of course, eggs. Slav and Hannah are coming over for dinner on Wednesday so maybe some grilled vegetables are in order. Need to figure out what to do with all the eggs... we have three dozen in the fridge right now! And that's after this morning's breakfast of shirred eggs a la Julia Child.

Baby Shower

My friend who is having twins had her baby shower today. Here's the full set from me:



Of course there was food:

And only two games. One involved guessing her waist size (only 42.2") and the other was for us to write fun stuff on the diapers to make changing them more fun for the parents when the time comes. Mine included things like "Chocolate or apple juice?" and "Enough with the milk! Where's the beef?!?"