A Whole Wheel of Cheese

Yes, that's right! Someone overheard my incessant complaining about a lack of cheese in my town of Hanzhong and suggested I visit cheeseinchina.com, a site about cheese in...tun tun TUN...China. It's a small operation that makes Gouda from old Dutch recipes (hopefully drug-free) and using only organic blah blah blah milk from happy not-from-California Chinese cows

They don't have a distributor in my town so I will make the 4-hour trip north to Xi'an next Monday to meet with the distributor up there and buy a small wheel of plain Gouda and a small wheel of some other type. I'm also going to take advantage and buy some mustard and olives, which I've been unable to find here (It's terrible when you find yourself making a delicious pasta salad but are missing cheese, olives, and mustard! No emulsifier= bad vinaigrette!!)

On another exciting food note: after 4 weeks I was finally able to find non-sweet bread!!! It's been so disappointing going out and buying a loaf of sliced bread, getting the cheese (okay, we have cheese here but it's like a crappy version of American cheese) and ham out, making a sandwich and gagging at the first bite when I realize the bread is SWEET. Well, I finally found a store that sells baguettes and they're actually pretty good.

Next week I feast on real cheese and real bread!

Best Plane Ride...Ever?

Since my flight from Peru, every flight has had an increasing number of Asians. Lima-Miami had none. Miami-San Francisco had a couple. San Francisco-Chicago had a few. Chicago-London had a handful. London-Hong Kong had a solid majority. Hong Kong-Beijing had a super-majority. On Beijing-Xian I was one of two non-Chinese. And, finally, on the Xian-Hanzhong flight I was the only non-Chinese. This final plane ride was something!

First of all, the plane was of a brand I'd never heard of, which is not great when you're talking about planes--you want a trusted brand: a Boeing; an Embraer; an Airbus. Sencondly, the plane reminded me of the one Indiana Jones jumps out of near the beginning of Temple of Doom. No animals, but everything else was too reminiscent. There were only 16 passengers total, if that helps you picture my scenario. I didn't feel as unsafe as the time AA put me on a turboprop from San Diego to Los Angeles, but it was close (I think the Goose and The Stranger were on this flight...maybe The Rock as well).

By far the most entertaining part was that there was only one flight attendant and because I was there she had to translate everything into English. I swear to you the only things I could make out during a total of two minutes of English speaking were "Ladies and" and "Thank you." I badly wanted to tell her I didn't need let alone want a translation but my Chinese was worse than her English.

And, unlike most other airlines, on Chinese ones I can check in 2 bags and maybe more if I ask. Plus, they aren't stingy on giving you food: a meal and three drink services on the 1.5h Beijing-Xian flight! Now that's what I call service! SL

The Peking Hustle, Parts I & II

Two full days spent in Beijing and I feel as if I saw nothing. Probably because I didn't. I arrived on Wednesday night 11ish, peeved at my crappy luck with flights and cabbies. After registering at the hostel I walked into the bar, sat by myself in a corner table and ordered a Tsing Tao.

Before taking my first sip I noticed some local beer on tap and immediately ordered a half-liter of it. After drinking those two beers I was calm enough to strike up a conversation with some people a few tables away. We drank the night away until five or so and then I went to sleep, dead tired. I deserved the drinks and needed the rest.

I awoke on Thursday at about three or four and after going to the ATM, eating some unknown meat in unfamilar broth I felt I needed to "see" Beijing so walked to Tianamen Square.

Beijing: Initial Impressions

This is totally serious: the first thing I thought upon deplaning was "Wow, there sure are a lot of Chinese people here." Mind you I was dead tired.

I've decided I'm not quite in love with this city, though. Maybe having come from London and Paris affected my standards but Beijing is just too overwhelming in a bad sense: the streets are too wide; the pollution is so bad that the city lies in a permanent haze; the old and unique is being replaced by the new and soulless.

I saw vestiges of that old Beijing but they were mere shadows cowering beneath Soviet-era apartment blocks and pre-Olympic building-frenzy office towers. Plus, this is a city where the Sun has decided it can no longer shine. SL